Papillion Days Duathlon - Duathlon

Okay first run. As I have done the past several years, I lined up in the front left and took off in a sprint to get ahead of the mess. There was only one really fast runner this year (part of a relay team, 5:37 pace for the first run) so I actually lead the race for the first minute even though I wasn't going too fast. Anyhow, I was really worried about how hot and humid it was and was going to get later on so I tried to take it somewhat easy. Every time I got passed, I told myself it was okay because I'd pass them in the transition zone or on the bike. That happened to 13 of the athletes/teams who finished before me during this run so that worked out fairly well. Splits were 6:25 and 6:54.

More run training, especially during difficult conditions.

Excellent T1- other than two relay teams, it was the fastest T1 of the day. I think I ran harder through transition than I did at the end of the run. Then having my shoes clipped in continues to save time in this part. I did have some time getting my feet into the shoes since the bike course immediately goes up hill with some curves but I think transitioning this way is better than not having the shoes clipped in.

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I was really glad that they changed the course back to the old course. I'm not sure how many people I passed in transition but I knew it would be quite a few. Then I passed about another 5 right out of transition as they were stopping to get mounted on their bikes and I did my flying mount. I did have trouble getting my feet into my shoes since the start of this course is going up hill around a lot of turns but once I did, I settled in and pushed nearly as hard as I could. This might have cost me a little on the run, but I figured that I was going to be going quite a bit slower on the second run anyhow because of the heat so I wanted to make up for that as much as I could on the bike. I finished with the 7th fastest bike split by 4 and 7 seconds over the 8th and 9th fastest splits, but only 35 seconds behind the 2nd fastest split which was a relay team so there wasn't a whole lot of seperation between the 2nd through about the 12th fastest bike split.

I've been focusing my bike training on building up my distance for the HIM so it would have been a good idea to do an occassional sprint workout hard so I could get used to having some shot legs after a short amount of time.

Another good transition. It wasn't the fastest T2 (that was 21 seconds) but it was pretty good. It would have actually been a few seconds faster if the guy I followed into from the bike (who was part of a relay team) didn't stop right in front of my rack to exchange his timing chip).

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This was when the wheels started to come off a little bit. I wasn't positive what place I was in at this point. I figured I was in at least 10th, maybe better (I was actually in 7th). One guy passed me about 1/4 mile in but his rack was right next to mine and so I knew I had passed him in T2 so I told myself that was a wash. At about the half mile point, my quads were starting to catch fire and my left calf was beginning to cramp so I was at a point mentally where I was going to just mail it in and run comfortably no matter if it meant I got passed by one or ten more athletes. Fortunately there weren't any runners who were super close to me and my legs started to loosen up so I managed to get to the halfway point in 7:46. It was here that I realized I was in 8th overall and I knew that at least two of the runners in front of me were members of a relay team so I decided that I needed to try to suck it up and hold onto my spot of being in 6th for individuals. I wasn't too sure if that was going to happen or not because the guy behind me seemed to be closing on me. Fortunately I started to kick with what little energy I had left with about a half mile to go and I managed to hold him off by 3 seconds. My second mile was a respectable 7:10.

Again, more run training, especially in the heat.

Drank lots of water, visited with my dad, wife, and kids who all came to cheer me on. My dad and I walked my wife and kids about halfway to where they parked, then we turned back around so we could be there for the awards presentation.


Run training not being where it should be at this point.


So, a very good first race of the season for me. 8th overall, 6th as far as individuals go when you take the relays teams out, and 1st in my age group. Of course, you always think you could have/should have done better, but for me that is because my training isn't where it should be, especially in regards to my running. So, I will try to step that up other the next two months to hopefully be that much stronger in those disciplines for the Papio Tri and the Pigman HIM.

An interesting note, the overall winner was 59 years old! Just crazy. He is the guy who beat me by something like 15 seconds two years ago when I finished second overall. That was when I had the Specialized road bike, but he had an inferior bike then. Now I have a really nice bike, but his was as nice with Zipp wheels. Plus he's obviously a very good runner.

I always enjoy this race and the other races the Papio Rec. Department puts on.