I’ll confess that this isn’t my first version
of this blog post, which is why it’s now a week overdue. I originally started this with a long,
somewhat angry rant about how a deer ran out in front of me early one morning and
caused me to crash. I was mad – at the
deer, at the condition of my now crashed bike…and maybe a little bit ticked at my wife for not answering the phone when I
called for a ride home while bruised and bloody on the side of the road – but mostly
at the deer. Of course everyone I told
thought it was the funniest thing in the world…have you ever hit a deer at 25
mph while riding your bike? “Funny” is not how I would describe it. “I guess you’re having venison for dinner?”
they would joke. No, the deer ran off
into the woods probably laughing at me crumpled on the ground. Oh well, on to better things…
I had
another race this past week, the 2nd event in the Scheel’s Duathlon
Series. In the first duathlon of the series I finished third overall, coming
in behind two professionals. I knew the winner of that first race
wouldn’t be participating in this time, leaving just one professional (Jeff
Paul) to focus
on.
I never realistically thought I would beat him, but it was more realistic to
beat one pro instead of two, right? I arrived at the race site earlier
than normal – thank you kids for not complaining about waking up at 5:30 am on
a Sunday (during summer break too!). I set up my transition area and then
moved off to the side. Again, I’m not a big talker before the race.
I like to warm up briefly and then try to focus on the race and work up my
confidence. My wife and kids are great cheerleaders for me, but I’m not
yet to the point where I expect to do well when I arrive at a race. After a few last
minute instructions, we all lined up and waited for the start.
Run 1: The
opening run was just over 2 miles and fairly flat. I started up front and
within a mile it was just me and Jeff Paul leading the pack. I don’t think either of us was going all out and he
seemed content just to run with me. We came into transition right with
each other, me 1 second ahead thanks to the inside track. Run time: 10:59; run pace 5:19 min/mile; run split
= 1st.
Bike: I was
taught a lesson here. Coming off the run, I had a smooth transition onto my bike and
had taken over the lead about 0.5 miles in. But then by the 1 mile mark,
the lead was mine no more. I hear, “Nice job!” as a Jeff Paul bicycle blur blew past me. Within
another mile, he was far enough ahead of me that I knew the only time I’d see
him again was at the turnaround points. The way this 20 mile bike course was set up,
we had 3 separate 180° turns after a 5 mile segment. While I hate 180° turns on my bike (it kills
your average speed and can be dangerous if you’re in a crowd), I do like that
you can keep tabs on where the other racers are. At each turn, I fell
further and further back of first. Going into the final 5 miles on the
bike, I was a little over 2 minutes back. But on the bright side, I was
about a minute and a half up on the racer behind me. Bike time: 48:10; bike speed 24.9 mph; bike split = 3rd.
Run 2: This
was a repeat of the opening run, with a small increase in distance due to the
placement of the finish line. Coming off my bike and starting my run, my
wife told me I was about 2 – 3 minutes back of the leader. I pretty much
gave up hope of winning the race at that point – there was no way to make up
that much time with only 2+ miles of running. Oh well. Since I was
“comfortably” in 2nd place, my only goal was to get into a good
rhythm and run a steady pace. The run went by quickly and uneventfully; I
couldn’t see anyone in front of me or
behind. As I approached the finish line I charged hard and actually finished with something still left in the
tank. Run time: 11:39; run pace 5:38 min/mile; run split = 2nd.
Finish
line: This was a really fun race and
I was really excited to take 2nd place overall. My total time was 1:11:38; a link to the race results
can be found at Iowa City Duathlon Results. With this still
being just the start of my 2nd season of bike racing, I’m not discouraged at
all that Jeff Paul has twice this year destroyed me on the bike portion of
these duathlons. If anything, I guess it tells me where I need to
improve if I want to start hanging with talented competitors like these. I love competing with athletes like this
because it really motivates me to push harder.
However there is a line I won’t cross.
While others left the race to get in an additional workout, what did I do?
I
went to get ice cream!!
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