Gravenhurst Duathlon - Sprint Distance - DuathlonOther

I'm now used to these crazy fast duathletes / runners. Had to work hard just so I won't be last. According to the Garmin, the loop is actually longer than 5km, and my pace is actually 8:37. HR smack at Z4, avg 153.

Oh, this is bad. I probably ran too fast on the run, trying to keep up with these fast duathletes. I somehow couldn't clip in, lost my balance and almost fell. I stopped, put my feet on the ground, gathered myself and tried again. This time, I clipped in, but swerved, yelling "sorry, sorry" and probably gave other cyclists behind me some uneasy moments.

At the very beginning of the course, there were a series of uphill climbs. That and the mounting incident took me out of my rhythm. Not until I hit Muskoka Beach Rd did I start getting comfortable in the aero position, and then I started hammering and passing a lot of people. There were some steep hills that I had to use my smallest gear, but this is the first time I can remember passing people going uphill.
Turned out I have the third fastest bike split (of women). 2nd fastest split beat me by 12", which I probably lost because of the very poor bike mount.

I was wearing my new bike shoes and the cleats were not perfectly adjusted yet. Had to really twist my leg to unclip and got a little cramp in the leg afterwards. I came back to the transition and somebody had racked their bike at my spot! I had to carefully squeezed my bike in between other bikes so I don't knock all the bikes off the entire rack. Fortunately, cramp went away by that time.

Just ran as fast as I can. Nobody I passed on the bike passed me back. Very happy that my pace turned out to be very close to the first run.

Had planned to do some OWS practice after the race. Didn't pan out 'cos -
- was a bit tired afterwards,
- took off my contacts before I realize I forgot my prescription googles,
- a sign at the dock indicated that swimming is prohibited under the bylaw.


Typical duathon, ranking best in bike, worst in 1st run. My run, usually my strength, is not so much in a du. First place person in my AG ran sub 8, although I beat her bike my 1', she beat my run by 4'! Pretty happy I got 3rd fastest bike split of all women. OK, so there weren't a lot of women, ~30. That's still top 10%.
(PS - overall rank includes 43 men, wish they'd sort it properly to be women only)