Heel Crank Duathlon - Duathlon

There was a group of 12-14 of us standing right on the starting line. Everyone else was about 4-5 feet behind us. The gun goes off and the pace is fast. It feels hard, but not blow up hard.

Around the one mile mark the group starts to really splilt up. I picked out a guy and just paced off him. No reason to think about pacing when someone else can do it. So I just sat on his heels and let my mind wonder.

Made it to the short out and back and realized I was in 9th place. Wow, I didn't expect to be here. Coming out of the short out and back I could see 10th place was a good bit behind.

As we close in on transition I start going through my transition routine in my head. They can make or brake you in these short races.

Nothing.

Run to rack, kick off shoes while taking glasses off and putting helmet on. Grab bike run.

Notta!

I get up to speed and check HR and Power. Power is good, but HR is 180 bpm. I pull up just a bit to let the HR drop into the low 170s. Around the 2 mile mark a rider passes me. He's smoking it, so I let him go and focus on pacing.

The race was kinda boring between miles 2 and 7. I was by myself, pushing low tempo wattage. Around mile 7 we come up on a Uturn and I'm counting 1,2,3,4,5,6, I was in 7th place. As I make the Uturn I could see to bikers coming on fast.

I know these two guys. One's a great biker, but has slow foot speed. The other tends to go out too hard on the bike and fades late into the run. They pass me, but I keep contact with them.

We hit a steep downhill, make a uturn at the bottom and climb up. At this point I had lost contact with the good biker, but the second guy was 200 yards away.

At this point, I've got a little over mile until T2. It's mostly downhill with a tailwind. My HR had settled into the mid 160's and power is bang on. I decided it was time to pull back the second guy.

I catch him at the turn into the parking lot in which T2 is located.

Nothing.

I'm in the process of a flying dismount, I notice the other guy unclips. I kinda smile knowing, I've got him. I jump off bike, helmet off as I run to my rack. Rack bike, slip shoes on, grab sun glasses and run. As I'm turning to run the guy is just taking off his bike shoes.

Heading out of transition, you make a u-turn and head back out the praking lot entrance. As I make the turn I hear one of the volunteers say, dang that was fast. I just smiled, but I really smiled when I saw the other biker who passed me tying his shoes in transition.

Nothing!

Headed out onto the course and you could feel the heat off the pavement. I was hurting, it hard to breath. Made it to the mile one aid station, took a cup of water but just poured it on my head. I didn't want to interrupt my breathing.

At this point I could see a racer up in the distance. Another half mile goes by and I can tell I'm gaining on him. Make it to the out and back and I get a good look at him. He's hurting worse than I, but I'm running out of real estate.

Make the uturn and I get a good look at 8th place. He's not going to catch me. I make the turn out of the out and back and decide to go for it. I try to put in a kick, but the engine room room doesn't hear me.

At this point I'm less than a quarter of a mile from finishing. I take a quick look behind me and 8th is about 200 yards behind me. So I just pace it to the finish.

Nothing.

I walked over to the refreshment tent, where they had tubs of water bottles sitting in ice water. I ask the lady if I could stick my head in it. She laughs and says, "sure honey." I guess she thought I was joking. I grabbed a water and a cookie after my dip and walked over to talk to the other finishers.


The heat. My training is no where near what it needs to be.


This race in the past has taken place in October. If the RD decide to keep it in June, they really need to look at an earlier start time. Like 0700 or 0730.