US National Duathlon Festival Sport Race (5K mile run, 20K bike, and 2.5K run)

April 28, 2008
Richmond, Virginia

Pre-race
I was in Richmond for the US National Duathlon Championships primarily to support clients and to participate in the meetings associated with the USA Triathlon Duathlon Committee which I have recently joined. I knew that my role in Richmond was that of a coach and an advocate for the sport of duathlon. I was not there to be an athlete. That said, when the chance to participate in a race this weekend presented itself, I was all set to have some du fun in Richmond.

I ended up borrowing a bike from a client as I had not traveled with a bike. It was a nice ride, thanks Francois. I spent the days leading into the race doing all kinds of stuff that was not going to support a strong race. So when I arrived at the race site I hadn't much time to think much about the race aside from making sure I go there in time and with all the needed equipment. That I did.

Here is a picture of the lovely ride I got to use in the race. Part of why I rode the road bike was to get a sense for the ideal bike for the Richmond course which was pretty technical. At the end of the day, I still don't feel like I have a definitive answer on that question but that's the subject for another article.

Race
After watching the racing in the morning, I could see that I was not the only coach who had opted sit out the morning and come back in the afternoon for some racing of their own. A couple of the guys looked pretty quick and while the field was not huge, the quality of the athletes looked pretty solid. With that in mind, I lined up a bit back with the plan to keep the first run pretty calm. This course starts with a short stretch on the flat and then proceeds down a pretty quick downhill. I kept things relaxed but at the same time I let my legs turnover. I descend well running and moved up some places without doing too much.

A note on the run course here in Richmond. The sport run was on the same opening 5K loop that was used in the earlier race. I thought it was great, though it was far from a PR type course. It was a slow course that really favored someone who could run in a variety of settings. There were turns, several bridge crossings, trails, and pavement. In short, it had a bit of everything. The one thing that can be said was this was not a course that allowed you to get into a rhythm. You were always being forced to think about your effort and to pay attention to what you were doing. I liked this as it was surely not boring. Lots to see and think about - my favorite type of run course.

As the run proceeded, I could tell that I was pacing appropriately. I let people go early and while I was not pulling that many back, the early gaps that opened were staying pretty conistent. I started to feel pretty tired toward the end of the run, just like you should on a course like this. I knew that the bike would be technical and would include some rest periods so I hit the run reasonably hard. I kept telling myself that I could run the second run as easy as I wanted. This is a trick I pull with myself frequently in duathlons. In the first run when it starts to get hard, I give myself an out for the second run. In reality, I never take the out but having it really helps my mind at the time.

Back to the story of the race . . . I was reasonably placed as I headed into T1. I was not too worried about it as I thought I would ride pretty well. I grabbed my bike and realized I had made a notable error. When I packed for the trip I put in road cycling shoes. I got new road cycling shoes about a month ago and I really like them. I have not ridden my tri shoes since then and I thought it was best to stick with what I had been doing in training. That makes sense but I had not thought sufficiently about the closing mechanism of my shoes. They are made by Specialized and tighten via a knob that has to be turned. It is a great design and quite simple so it seemed fine for a multisport race in the abstract. It might be a bit slower than straps but not much. That was assuming I would be able to turn the knobs. While it was not hot for my race, it was in the mid 60s and humid and my hands were appropriately sweaty. They were so wet, in fact, I could barely get the buckle to turn as my hands were simply too slippery. I tried drying them and that helped but in reality, I did not get the shoes tight enough until the last quarter of the ride. Next time, straps for me!

So I have my shoes pretty much on and I head out for the ride. The morning course had been 4 laps on a 10K loop. It included a steep hill that included multiple sweeping and tight corners. This hill started the loop and we did the same thing. I hit the hill feeling pretty decent and tried to keep the effort fairly calm as I moved up. After the hill there were a few sharp corners on a downhill that required skill or for athletes to slow down a lot. I got through those okay and headed out onto the main segment of the loop. A big part of the route was crossing the James River on a high bridge. It was windy and I tried to stay low and to get to work. Things were going pretty well and I felt like I was riding well. I moved past a bunch of folks. Like the run course, this was a bike that did not allow for any sort of rhythm. You were uphill, down, against the wind, taking a corner, etc. All this kept coming at short intervals. I enjoyed it all the same but it was not a typical multisport course.

Through the ride I kept moving up and was reasonably pleased with my effort. I rolled into transition not sure where I stood in the race as since the course was a multiple loop affair, you kept seeing people but it was never totally clear what lap they were on. As I hit transition, I realized there were not that many bikes there at all. That was encouraging. I did a quick transition and was off on the run. I entered T2 with another guy but he seemed to take a bit of time there while I was in and out so I left by myself. I had not forgotten my earlier promise to allow myself to run as hard, or as easy as I wanted. I started out pretty quick as the 2nd run was only 2.5K and how bad could 10 minutes or so be? Well, plenty bad but I was not allowing myself to think too much about that. The second run in a duathlon is always hard and this was one of the tougher I remember as we immediately set out of the transition area onto a steep trail downhill. Ouch! The quads were not happy but I kept at it.

I knew the course came back on itself and I realized that I was not seeing anyone coming back at me that fast. At one point one of the quick looking coaches comes past and hi fives me. He was winning and didn't seem to be that far in front of me. I had mostly been observing my placing in the event, not really caring that much. At this point, I started to care and to count. Fast guy, goes by there's 1. Couple of other guys as we cross the bridge, there are numbers 2,3 and 4. As I run across the bridge a teenager yells to me, "I bet you're going to be 7th." I keep counting as I cross the bridge. I am actually in 6th, sweet! I noticed a guy a bit behind me for a while and as I turn around I want to make sure the gap stays there or maybe even grows. I work the uphill ascent back onto the bridge pretty hard to make sure he knows that that he's going to have to hurt pretty bad to get me. As I run back by the teenager I jokingly try to get her to put 10 bucks on me being 7th as I am pretty sure I've got 6th wrapped up. No luck, oh well.

Not a whole lot happened over the last bit of the race aside from a good amount of pain. I was really glad the guy in 7th did not come up on me as I am pretty gassed coming up the steep hill to the end of the race. I was not going fast and I really don't think I could have done much more. I make the turn towards the finish line and give it a good effort. After a couple of arm pumps in the finishing shoot, I am done and very happy to be done. I have given it my all and that was what the day was about. My race was not fast, nor were any of the others as it was not a fast day.

After a bit of chatting at the finish line, I swing by the results table and pick up the details. I really like that they have their system synched so that pretty much right after your finish you can get a print out of your place, both overall and in your age group. I was psyched to see that I was 2nd in my age group, cool. A day well done.

I came to Richmond for several reasons. More info on my weekend can be found by clicking here. While I came to Richmond as a coach, I really enjoyed the chance to be an athlete as well. Thanks again to the folks who put on the race and to Francois for the use of his bike. Also you can see my power file from the ride, courtesy of Francois' SRM, here. While the file is from a SRM, I have saved it in the PowerTap format, it is a .csv file, so it can be opened in most power analysis software packages. Any trouble with the file, let me know.

See you at the races!