Cary Duathlon Race Report: Part Two

This is Part 2 of 3 of my Cary Duathlon 2010 Race Report.  Part One is about how I split my head open on the way to the race. Part three is about my trip to the Urgent care to get stitches.

Overall I had a great race and was pleased with my result. My paces were not up to par with my former Ironman self, but I put out a good solid effort both mentally and physically.

Official Results:

Run 5 miles: 44:54.5, pace of 8:59
T1: 1:18
Bike 31 miles: 1:39:22.7, pace of 18.8 mph
T2: 1:01
Run 5 miles: 47:37.6, pace of 9:32
Overall: 3:14:12.9

I got first Age group. There was a 47 year old woman with a finish time of 2:39 and placed top three females. Wow! I hope she just races duathlons! I placed 17th overall female out of 25. That’s not so good.

My impression was that I had run the second run segment alot harder and faster.  I guess that’s the fatigue factor.

Run 1

The run course consists of 1.25 miles out and back, repeat. That makes several opporunties to scope out the competition. I started out at a moderate pace on the first run. I was pretty much dead last. Ginger had told me not to go out too hard in the first run, so I listened.

At the first aid station, I saw the high school girls who had patched up my head.   I pulled up my visor and asked them if they saw any blood on the bandage.  They said I looked fine. I said “Thanks” and ran on.

As I approached the first turnaround, lots of super fast women were on their way back, several seemed to be my age. One chick in a purple shirt was way ahead of me, and running super fast. Everybody I saw was running super fast. Except me. That was a bit of a blow to my ego. But I stuck with my plan: keep it moderate. I finished the first run segment in 44 min and change. I was happy with a sub 9 pace.

Bike

I got on my bike and started going pretty hard. I had my Garmin on my bike, and occassinally looked at my heart rate. It stayed around 155ish. I passed alot of people. I imagined I was the redpill – not just that I took the redpill – but I WAS the redpill. I imagined all the people I passed were agent Smith. That was a fun game.

On one hill fairly early in the bike, I shifted down to my small chain ring and dropped the chain. That happens to me alot, and sometimes I can shift back up to fix it while riding. Not today. I had to dismount, fix the chain, then get back and start riding in the middle of a hill. Dang, that sucked. After that, I stayed in my big ring the rest of the ride. It forced me to stand on some hills. There weren’t too many climbs on this course, but a few hills made me wish to use my small ring.

About half way I passed three women who were around my age. I was clearly a much faster biker, so was not too worried about them passing me back. A little bit later, I passed the purple shirt girl. She had 47 on her leg. I dubbed her “purple pill”. She was a solid biker, and I recalled how fast and hard she was running. So kept up a hard pace on the bike after that, to put as much distance as possible in front of her.

About 500 yards ahead of me was someone with a white shirt. I figured it was male because I could not catch them no matter how hard I tried. I later learned that it was $Bill.

The last ten miles were tough. I watched my average speed. It stayed around 18.6. I tried to make it bump up toward 19, but it stayed put at 18.6. I got off bike and had moved up to the middle of the pack. I felt good.

Run 2

I started out first lap moderately hard. I tried to keep up good form. I thought of my Red pill mantra. I knew I had to hold off purple pill.

I must have over-hydrated on the bike, because I had to pee really badly. I ducked into the woods at the first opportunity and peed. As I squatted in the woods doing my business, I watched people run by. Luckily, I did not see purple shirt girl. I probably lost about a minute there.

I continued on my way, trying to keep up a solid pace. A few minutes after the turn around at mile 1.25, I saw purple shirt girl. She didn’t look quite so fast this time, but I was still worried she might catch me. There were still plenty of miles left.

During the second lap, I started pushing harder. “Don’t think you are fast, know it.” Purple pill was not gaining on me. I was no longer worried about her. And I was every so slowly gaining on a new target: yellow shirt girl. I kept a steady eye on her and tried very very hard to pass her. We were about the same pace. At one point, “I thought I can’t do it.” Then I thought “Yes I can do it. Know you can do it.”

Yellow shirt stopped to grab water at the aid station at mile 4.5. I breezed through that one quickly and gained a few yards on her. I decided to skip grabbing water at the very last station. It was then that I passed yellow shirt girl. Just 1/2 mile to go. “Fast fast fast redpill redpill redpill“. I almost puked at finish line.

Post Race

After the race I found my friend Tom and hung around chatting with him and his fast running buddy named Wayne.  Tom snapped my picture of me with my post race recovery drink: Slimfast.   I used to carry Boost in my car for recovery, because it is packaged in a spoil proof ready to drink container, and it tastes okay warm.  Ginger told me about Slimfast, which is basically the same thing, and it’s CHEAPER, so YAY!

Tom, Wayne and I were talking about heart rate monitors and garmins.   Wayne said he never uses anything for training or racing.  He pointed toward his chest and said “I listen to this”.  Hmmm, very interesting point, and it obviously works because Wayne is very fast.  Tom and Wayne both placed in their age groups.  Congrats!

Awards

Tom took a photo of me receiving my award from Debbie.  Debbie is the woman who had given me my packet and told me to go see Brent about the cut on my head.  She had cheered my name several times throughout the race.  It made me feel like she was keeping an eye on me to make sure I was okay.    Debbie congratulated me and said I did great despite my war wound!   I just wish I had a good war story to go with it!