5k and Duathlon Race Wrap - October 11th ,12th 2008
Friday I decided that I could not pass up my hometown race (Girard Fall Festival 5K) even though I was really focusing on the Maple Leaf Duathlon in Carthage on Sunday the 12th. The Girard 5K was Saturday morning 7:30. I rode my bicycle up to the square about 7:15, got registered and stretched out. I thought I would just take it easy and use this race just to stay loose for the duathlon. Of course, when the gun went off, so did I. I could not help myself... I shot out to the front of the pack, and led the entire pack (first time for that) for the first 2 miles or so. There was a young lady on just behind me on my left shoulder the entire time, and she made her move at the turn around and hit a new gear. I tried to keep up with her, but that was not gonna happen. She finished maybe 30-45 seconds ahead of me, my time was 21:24. I didn't beat my PR, but still a good time for me. So much for taking it easy. I finished 2nd overall and 1st in the mens division. I got a cool little trophy of a guy running...probably my first trophy since I was a kid playing baseball, so I'm proud.
I woke up Sunday kinda sore and my legs felt pretty tired... not exactly what you shoot for before a duathlon ( 5K run, 15 Mile Bike, 1 mile run) but whatever. I got to Eric's house about 11:45 and his friend Jim showed up at 12. We hit the road and made it to Carthage about 1:15pm. We got all signed in, stretched out and waited to take off. They started EVERYONE duathlon, 5k, 1mile all at the same time and it was a cluster. I got frustrated and shot to the left of the pack and sprinted to the front of the pack. It was kind of hard to recover from that sprint, but it was worth it to get out of the bulk of the traffic. The transition to the bike went pretty good, except I almost started riding in the transition area ( a big no-no). The bike went south into a 15 mph wind...that sucked. It seemed like I pushed my butt off but could barely muster 15 mph. There was a few mile stretch that got really hilly, creating some further suck. I finally started to get my stride, breathing, heart rate all settled down and then at the turn around (it was an out and back) I really started flying. I think I ended up averaging 18.1 mph . I got my bike back on the rack and headed out the small gate for the 1 mile run, and since I consider myself more of a runner than a cyclist, I figured I could make up some time on some of the others. I ended up following this red-headed kid (15 I think) and followed him all the way to the finish. I think we passed 5 or 6 people. I finished 3rd fastest in the mile, and I barely remember it. I was kinda in survival mode at that point...especially since I lost my water bottle on the first turn of the bike course. Anyway, I finished 1st in my age group, and 11th overall out of 60 some who finished in the required 2 hour mark. There was also a pretty good size group who finished after the 2 hour limit. Here is my stat line and breakdown of individual component times:
Run 1: 22:11 , T1 -00:39, Bike: 49:41:00 , T2: 00:26 , Run 2: 07:28
Total: 1:20:25
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