NB's Comments:

"The thing that's the most obvious to me is that I need to run faster!"

I've never done a duathlon before... so I figured... why not?  Besides, I needed something to keep me entertained while we wait for the next adventure race...

brewer let me crash at his crib since the race was only about 15 miles from his house.  I can only assume all of the Chinese food we ate the night before the race affected my performance positively.  I didn't sleep very well though... new job... first duathlon... old age... getting up to pee every couple of hours (I should probably have that looked at one day)...

I got up at 4:30, ate a couple of Power Bars, and a banana before loading my gear into my rig and heading out to the race location. 

I set up my bike in the TA about 06:00 and just sorta hung out waiting for the start of the race.  I hung my bike on the rack and placed my shoes and helmet in the "ready" position so when I came in from the run I could easily slip them on.  I also readied the Endurolites and Shotbloks for consumption.  Of course, I had to pee a gazillion times... must be that old-age thing again.  UGH!  But aside from that...

The race began at 07:30... they sent the men out first.  About 0.3 miles into it, everyone is yelling for us to stop and turn around.  Seems like we took a wrong turn... Nice!  So my little two minute 14 second run was worthless... back to the starting line.  And of course, I had to pee yet again.  Fortunately they sent the women out and allowed the men a five-minute break after the false start.  I found a large bush and gave it a little water...

The next start went off without a hitch, and for the next three miles I kept a 7:51/mile pace... saving some for the rest of the race.  Looking back, I should have just ran in the high 6s... but who knew?  Like I said, I've never done one of these before.

Here's a graph of the first run:

First 3-mile run

Into the TA after the run and I plopped down, changed my shoes, donned my helmet, woofed down some Shotbloks and Endurolites, and took off on the bike leg.  Twas hard not to notice the $6,000 bikes were already gone... oh well...

I got a full four revolutions into the cranks when I shifted into the big ring up front.  Nothing.  WTF?  Again... still nothing.  SOB! 

Turns out I broke the cable somehow... either that or the guys with the $6000 bikes sensed the pure speed in my eight-year-old Lemond and cut my cable!  (I'm thinking the cable broke somehow...).  Since there was nothing I could do about it, I just went with what I had and went to the smallest ring in back and pedaled.  There was quite a bit of elevation change... relative to Houston, of course.  And even in the little ring up front, I still managed to get up to 30 mph at one point.  The bad thing about downhills is that there are uphills as well.  I kept on spinning... and managed to keep a 19.8-mph pace. 

Here's a plot of the elevation changes:

Elevation change of the bike route

Back into the TA and off with the helmet, bike shoes etc.  I slipped on my running shoes and took off on the second run.  Of course it didn't take long for my calves to talk to me... ugh.  I stopped and stretched them for about 10 - 15 seconds... that did it, and I was off running again. 

I sped up a bit on the second run, but still pretty slow: 7:34/mile pace.  I really need to speed up! 

Here's a plot of the second run:

Second 3-mile run

I came across the finish line and saw 1:27:something on the timer... but that's because they started it when the women took off.  My finish time was: 01:21:56.  I finished second in my age group... which pretty much stunk since there were only 3 of us in my age group, but I finished 15th overall out of 53 competitors.  That makes me feel better since this was my first one after all.

Here's a plot of the entire race.  You can see the two spikes in the pace (blue line) for the TAs.  The spike right after the second TA is where I stopped to stretch my calves. 

Click to enlarge graph.

So that's that.  My first duathlon. 

I still like the dirt and adventure racing a lot more.  OK... a WHOLE lot more, but I could grow to like this.  I think I want to tri a triathlon next, but I'm clueless if I can swim or not.  I mean, I can swim... but I am not sure if I can swim as in swim during a race... just never done it before. 

Next race... 100 miles of road biking in 100-plus degree temperature in Wichita Falls, TX. 

Stay tuned...

NB

hmm... I wonder if I'd be faster if'n I got myself one of these?  Probably so, 'cause my pockets would be a whole lot lighter...