 NB's
comments:
"This ain't my sport. It could be,
but it ain't at this particular moment in time..."
This was my second duathlon. Last year I did
the Protest
Duathlon in Leander, TX. This sure as hell was
a much shorter drive, though the race did start at 0645,
so I still had to get up too early... no fireworks for
me last night!
I talked Cedric and Austin (who work with me at the
Houston Gym--my side gig) into doing the race,
and sho'nuf,
they both made it.
Even though the race started at 0645, I was dripping
sweat at 0600 after setting up all my gear in the TA
(Transition Area). It was an extremely humid
morning.
After a version of the National Anthem played by a
lone trumpet player, the gun went off, and the race was
underway!
I kept an eye on my pace and tried to stay around
a 7:00/mile. Of course, seeing Cedric 100 or so
yards ahead of me about a mile into the first two-mile
run didn't do a lot for my ego, but I stayed with my plan.
The first run ended up like the following:
Not much to it... up goes the heart rate as usual...
My first TA took about a minute and a half to change
my shoes (running shoes to bike shoes), put on my
helmet, grab my bike and run out to begin the biking
section.
I was about a mile into it when I passed Cedric...
though I did offer words of encouragement as I went by.
I stayed low on the bars and maintained a pretty good
pace on the first half. You can see in the graph
below... the dark blue line is my speed... and I was
able to keep my speed over 20 mph for nearly all of the
first half. The spike in the middle is the turn
around, and you can see it was at the top of a short,
steep hill. My heart rate spiked (red line in the
graph below) as I attacked the hill. Once I turned
around, I tried to get back on top of the 20 mph pace,
but I quickly figured out why it wasn't a problem on the
first half--head wind! CRAP. It wasn't much
of a head wind, but it was enough to get inside my head.
I didn't want to blow up on the run, so I throttled back
a tad on the second half of the ride, but with a mile
left, I said @$%& it and got back over 20 mph.
Into the TA, I racked my bike, whipped off my bike
shoes and helmet, and slid my running shoes on... all in
about 12 seconds and was off to the last run.
As evidenced by my heart rate in the graph below, I
could have picked up the pace on the entire run, but I
wasn't sure at the time. Hind sight is 20/20...
Anyway. About a mile and a half in, no one was
behind me, so I plotted a strategy to overtake three
people in front of me. I backed out of it just a
little to get my heart rate down and kept the "victims"
in my sights. I crept up on them little by little
until, right at the very end, I exploded and took down
not only those three, but one other dood who fell prey
to my strategy! You can see my pace dropped to 5
min/mile right at the very end... you can also see my
heart rate shoot up as well! (The inflection
point where the light blue line climbs is right after
the finish line... I forgot to press stop on my GPS).
In the end, my time was 59 minutes and 6 seconds.
Cedric's time was 1 hour, 2 minutes and 7 seconds.
And the big man, Austin's (TWENTY TWO!!!) time was 1
hour, 13 minutes and 30 seconds.
It must be nice to find your name in the Male 25 to
29 group! My name appears much further down
the
results page...
Me crossing the finish line
The BIG man rumbling across the finish line!
At my last
duathlon I ran a 7:51 pace for the first leg and a
7:34 for the second, so I did get faster with a 7:03
pace and a 7:14 pace this time. But last time I
averaged 19.8 mph and this time only 19.6. I
should have picked up the pace after the halfway point,
'cause at the end of the race, I really felt like I left
something on the course. Oh well, this was only my
second duathlon. The next one will be better.
Until next weekend...
Peace.
NB
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