Duluth Duathlon (3 Mile Run, 20 Mile Bike and 3 Mile Run)

July 6, 2008
Duluth, Minnesota

Pre-race
A few months earlier I had decided to become a sponsor of this race. Not only do I want to help duathlon grow, I felt the need to support any race with a trail run and a road bike ride as those are my personal favorites. So, with that in mind, the holiday weekend was going to be a road trip for the family. Not only did Dig It sponsor the race, we were in charge of a water station. This proved to be a bit of a logistical challenge as I was interested in racing while also making sure that the water station was staffed appropriately. With the help of Todd, a Dig It athlete, whose family offered some volunteers, we were all set for the race.

My warm up largely consisted of moving water jugs around and the other tasks associated with setting up a water station. It all went fine and with only a few minutes to the start, I hit the transition area to make sure the bike was there and get myself over to the start line. After a brief chat with Todd, who was also racing, the horn sounded and off we all went.

Race
I started a good bit back. With no warm up and very modest goals, this seemed like the best strategy. I immediately started moving my way through the field on the run while trying to keep from blowing myself up. This race course is hard. Not only is the course on a legitimate trail, no messing around with that. Not only was this a trail, it was a trail going up a hill for a good bit of time. The run was progressing though it did not feel great. Oh well, on I went. I wish I could say that I enjoyed the views, which are great in Lester Park in Duluth, but I have never been able to do that in races that last less than 3 hours. The second half of the run is largely downhill and I felt like I picked up the pace a bit here, though it was not great.

As I ran into the transition area, I knew I had run okay but far from great. I got to my bike, on with the helmet and away I went. It was a good transition, under 40 seconds I believe. I took a bit of a chance in that I left my shoes on the pedals even though the ride started with a climb that lasted a few miles. I figured even if I was riding at under 10 miles per hour, that was still faster than what I would have done in transition. That said, it was not the easiest thing to put my feet into my shoes while riding so slowly. Having checked out the course beforehand, I knew what I was in for - a hard and likely slow ride.

It took my legs quite a while to start to feel decent. It finally happened about half way through the ride. What was interesting to me was to watch athletes around me ride less than optimally. I had an issue with my PowerTap, likely due to having to move the bike around a good bit in the days leading into the race and the lack of time to check it out beforehand. Anyway, I knew I was holding my power pretty consistent, though it was going up on the climbs. What was interesting was watching the people sprint up the hills only to coast down the backside. One guy in particular would sprint past me uphill only to slow drastically at the top. I watched him do this a few times with me passing on the way back down until he never came back by obviously paying for his extra efforts on the uphills. Keep it steady out there if you want to go your fastest. Anyway, back to our story, the end of the ride was pretty uneventful as I rolled through the downhill sections at a nice clip.

As I rolled into transition, I felt like I had ridden pretty well, though not great. I did another good transition and away I went for the second run.

It did not take long for me to realize that I was in for some serious pain. The second run in a duathlon is always hard but on trails and uphill, this was a serious test of will. I would say I passed the test but not with flying colors. I kept running, which was more than a lot of folks around me. I saw several athletes walking, which is genuine sign of the difficulty of this run course. It was hard out there. I kept going and was doing okay as I rolled through the Dig It water stop. The Dig It family, and Todd's for that matter, were doing a stand up job. They yelled that I should pick it up for a good placing. I sped up trying to get the guy in front of me. While I was gaining, the finish came up pretty quick. As I settled into my place, I could hear someone gaining on me. I immediately knew that I did not want to have this guy go around me so I sped up.

Here you can see the gap coming into the finishing chute.

Here I realize that someone is there.

I picked it up and held him off.

I learned that while I might not have felt real good, I still had something left as I had a decent amount of pick up left for the sprint. In the end, I should have used that kick a few miles back up on the trail but I was not ready to give it all on the day. I will have to give some thought as to why that was the case as I don't like to finish a race with the realization that I had a lot left in the tank. In the end, however, I was only willing to go so far into the pain cave on the day. It was certainly dark in there but I did not come as close to the back of the cave as I imagined going in. With my PowerTap erros, I don' have any data to share or discuss. Until next time, see you at the races.