Minneapolis Duathlon - Duathlon

Pretty good for me, I felt good the whole way. There was a steep bridge right at mile 2 that I walked up, but other than that I was cruising.

HUGE T area. Will be curious to compare my results to everyone else. I was pretty much the only bike left on the rack :) Not a surprise, since I was racked with my wave as well as the wave before.

I thought this would go a lot faster, but there was a headwind pretty much the whole return 9 miles. I guess I passed a few people! All of whom would surely pass me on the run :( Oh well, this was strong bike for me. There was a girl who told me she was following me and sure enough she sat back there almost half the ride. To me it looked a little close... It would be funny if she was penalized since she also followed me on the run only to pass me in the last few seconds!

So, I get back to my rack and I have been demoted 3 spots from where I was. I like to set up on the end opposite of the aisle (so I can use the curb or other open area), but another bike showed up a few minutes before the race. Well I return to T2 and there are now FOUR bikes at the end. I squeezed in where I could, located my shoes (of course, under the other bikes) and headed out with a few choice words for anyone in the area. Pretty pooped by now, hard to really run through T area. But I did at least jog.

I went into this not caring so much about the run, and I almost allowed myself to talk myself into walking more. The first mile SUCKed because my foot felt out of sorts, I think from wearing a sock with my bike shoes. However, as I warmed up, I actually felt "ok." Not very peppy and I wasn't setting any records, but I managed to keep going. I allowed myself to walk again at mile 2 on the hill, and then relented one more time on the last hill toward the finish. But I got yelled at so much by the other runners, I had to run before I reached the top. Was glad to be done. I have definitely had worse runs in this situation, so I am happy. And the weather couldn't have been nicer for me.

Walked alllll of the way down to food, which required a scramble up a steep embankment - wtf??? Cheered folks finishing and waiting for my friend to finish. Had a nice little 10 mile bike road home, going as slow as I felt going.


I as STUNNED by how well this race went. For 1000+ competitors, I expected a complete cluster. But it was great and I look forward to doing it again next year. I really lucked out with the weather and things went about as perfectly as I could hope for.