Finished my first duathlon race!

Wow, I am so relieved and happy that I finished my first race. A duathlon. 3 mile run/14 mile bike/3 mile run. Did it in ~ 01:47:14. I am very proud of my time!

So here is how the morning broke down:
4:00 AM alarm goes off, hit snooze.
4:30 AM roll outa bed
5:00 AM finish a few bowls of cereal
5:15 AM out the door to drive down to Brooklyn
6:00 AM @ Prospect Park, Brooklyn
7:45 AM pre race meeting
8:00 AM WE RUN!
9:47 AM in a lot of pain, but done!

The first run I knew how it was gonna go. When the RD went "GO!" everybody booked it, and I got passed by nearly the entire pack of 140. Whatever, I didn't care! I went at my own race, cuz I knew if I didn't, I would basically be screwed for the rest of the race!

I didn't check out the course, so I had no idea how hilly it was. Yeah....gotta do more hills. BUT! I finished the run in 27:00 flat...a new personal record! 9 min mile isnt that bad...still gotta shave off 3.5 mins if I wanna be competitive....but that will come as time goes. Its a goal!

On the bike, transition went smoothly and I was off! I really made up some time on the bike. I was passing a lot of people. (I was ALSO being passed by people, but they were the guys who were out to win and looked like they have been doing this for awhile. No worries, its good to see what the top level guys are doing, cuz thats what I gotta do next.) Again, because I didn't check the course out, I didn't realize how not-flat it was. There is a pretty good sized hill @ the start of the lap. I was surprised at how well my body did up the hill. I think that that is a strong quality that I have that I can get into a gear and just go up a hill like that and not feel wasted @ the end.

So after 4 laps (14 miles) I was done and into the last transition. I *tried* to run through transition with the bike, but my butt and legs gave me the middle finger on that one. They also gave me another middle finger when I started running again. haha

So up the first hill on the run, I swore I coulda speed walked it faster. Fortunately when you go up, you gotta come back down. The downhill part saved me. I think ALL of the downhill parts saved me until finally I got into my groove and just went.

At the finished line, my competitive side finally kicked in when I heard someone trying to sprint past me to beat me to the line. That didn't happen. I hit the afterburners and went!

It was a good race and a great learning experience. I observed from the more seasoned folks little tricks that people would do with their number tag for the bike, for example. One guy used electrical tape and just taped a frame around it then taped it to the bike with the twisty ties they give you. I just used the twisty ties, which worked, but it was flapping around in the headwind along the last 3/4 portion of the bike. Others also used a race belt which they tagged their body number tag to it, instead of pinning it to your clothes (limits wierd stretching of your clothes).

The biggest thing that I need to work on is the running. I really need to bring some time off my mile pace. 9 mins is cool, but if I can shed 1 min off my time by the end of the season, that would be a really good thing. In today's case, 1 min per mile off is a full 6 min overall time difference. That would bring me down to a 01:41:14 finish time!

The other thing, which I just haven't had the opportunity to practice, is to get out onto my TT bike and get comfortable and to go faster. I prolly coula shed a couple mins off my time by being more aero. But really, more time on the bike will prolly shed even more time off. But again, thats a weather and length of day issue. Now that the days are getting longer, I can get out after work.

I am looking forward to my next race! I'm already signed up for another duathlon May 4th in Greenwich, CT. I have the option of doing another duathlon back in Prospect Part April 13th, but that is still up the air.

I have an opportunity right now to get a solid 5 weeks of training if I choose not to race until May 4th. We shall see.