Kickin' Leaves Duathlon (2.5 mile run, 10 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run)

October 6, 2007
Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Pre-race
I had been sitting on the fence about this race for the past week or so. At this time of the year in Minnesota, the weather can make a race a wonderful experience or a true test of character. As this race was more than a 3 hour drive, I was not sure I wanted to do go through the trouble of getting there just to be miserable. I watched the weather and when the chance of rain dropped, I decided it was the thing to do. I was not so sure the next morning at 3:15am when my alarm went off, but why not, the multisport season only had a week or so left and I really wanted to try out some new to me wheels I'd just gotten.

After a 3 hour drive, I arrived in Grand Rapids and was immediately surprised by how much cooler it was than at my house. When I left my house it was over 70 and when I got to Grand Rapids, it was 50. As I had been unsure what I'd wear at the race, I had packed way to many things and had lots of choices. After registering and chatting a bit with the nice volunteers I got set up and started my warm up. I felt okay, not great but I really wasn't sure how I should feel after being up for so long even though it was not yet 9am.

This is a new race and had a really small field. Everyone was real nice and we had a good time chatting before the race. Below is some of the field at the post race lunch and awards ceremony.

Back to our story . . . After a short pre race meeting, we get started. I am near the front and feel like I'm working pretty hard but not too hard. Just the feeling I was looking for. I am near the front and am joined there by a couple of other guys. We immediately gap the rest of the field and are moving along pretty well. I don't know exactly how fast we are going but it seems about right. The course runs on pavement and trails around the Forest History Center in Grand Rapids on some awesome trails with some hills and a bit of turning through the forest. As far as I'm concerned, it was a perfect course. After about a mile, one of the guys in our group decides to speed up. He says something about making up time he'll lose on the bike. I react a bit, though I don't try to stay with him. I speed up to keep him in sight but don't run with him as his new pace is more effort than I wanted to put forth at the start of the run. For the last 1.5 miles or so I keep him in sight. The other guy drops back a bit but keeps me in sight as we finish the run.

I run into transition and immediately see that the guy who has been leading is taking a bit of time. I'd kept things simple so all I had to do was pull on a long sleeved shirt and then put on my helmet. I do this real fast and am out of transition first.

I was not really surprised to be leading the race but it was fun for sure. I focused on the task at hand, going fast! I've never been leading a race on the bike before and I should really have paid more attention to the race course map as I almost missed the first turn. After a quick recovery, I continued on. After a few minutes there was a turn around and I got to check on my lead. I had 40 seconds on the guy in second a couple of minutes on the guy in third. I knew there was another turn around about half way through the race so I just tried to work hard and get my lead to be as big as possible. It was a chilly, damp day and the bike didn't feel super. My legs were okay, but in an ideal world, I would have felt smoother and stronger. Oh well, multisport races rarely offer the chance to ride in an ideal state, so I tried to keep myself focused on staying aero and working hard. As I hit the second turn around, I clocked my lead at over 2 minutes. I was now pretty confident that I could win the race. I motivated myself for the rest of the ride with the idea that the harder I rode the easier I could run. Nothing too noteworthy happened. I approached transition feeling pretty good and ready to run my rear end off.

I did a great transition, with feet out of the shoes while moving, a running dismount and a quick change into my running shoes. And off I went for a repeat of the earlier run course.

After exiting transition, I did not have any idea on how much of a lead I had. I didn't hear anyone else come when I was starting the run but that didn't really mean a whole lot as we headed into the forest pretty quickly. The first hill was quite a shock. I've said it many times before, and this race didn't change my mind, there is nothing more painful than the second run in a duathlon. For a few seconds, I had thoughts of having to walk but I focused on keeping my feet turning over quickly and before too long I was at the top and was feeling okay. I kept running and was working pretty hard. I kept pushing myself and before too long I was in the second half of the run. I looked back a few times and didn't see anyone coming which was encouraging. Early in the run I told myself that I could slow down a little and save something in case someone came up on me. I never took the option and just kept going as hard as I could. It turns out I did a great job of pushing myself as I went faster on the second run than I did in the first. Anyway, with the finish line in sight I kept it going and enjoyed the feeling of crossing the line the winner of a race. I knew I'd given a good effort, as can be seen from this finish photo of me, looking less than my best. Yikes!

Post Race Review

I am really pleased with my effort on this day. I marshaled what I had to offer and used it effectively. This was a small race and I should have done real well, likely should have won. But that didn't mean I would have won if I had raced poorly. I did not run the first run too hard and I used my strengths to my advantage.

I was so excited to be using the Zipp 606 set with a PT SL in the rear wheel that I make a silly mistake. During warm up, I'd noticed that the power seemed really high for how hard I was working. And that continued on during the race as well. Turns out that the nearly 400 watt average for the race was not accurate, who would have thought? I might have turned into a Tour de France winner overnight, right? Oops, I had forgotten to zero the torque. After correcting the file, I averaged about what I estimated was my threshold watts for the 26 minutes of this effort. Given that I'd run for almost 20 minutes before hand, and that I didn't feel like I was really good on the day, that is right where it should be. There is nothing too exciting in the file, but it can be downloaded here if you'd like to look at it.

This was a really nice race on a great course. I hope to be back next year to defend my title and improve on my course record, joking here as the splits are not that great. See you at the races!