Brandywine Valley Duathlon - Duathlon

Took thing easy at the start. Let Johnny Kay take off since I didn't want to hold him up. Ran nice an easy the first segment, wanted to build up as race went on plus I haven't done anything ressembling speedwork this year. Felt good and controlled ready for the bike

Maybe do mywarm up closer to the start. After the prerace meeting, the national anthem and the walk over to the start, I had to warm up all over again.

Very good transition, fumbled with my helmet a bit but no complaints.

nothing

Well things started off pretty good, I was cruising along passing a bunch of folks and keeping pace with a quick lady in front of me (at least 4 bike lengths). Coming to the grated bridge there were police cars in the middle of the road and an ambulance was coming from behind me. Appartently one on the front runner had a trumatic expierence on the bridge. He was being tended to, but had a couple of large gashes on his forehead, face and legs. A very sobering sight. Needless to say we took that bridge slow. I dropped down one gear at the Reedy point Bridge and drove up the top passing a number of folks and feeling really good. On the way down I noticed something wasn't quite right. I was peddling fairly hard but not making any ground on the guy coasting in front of me. It felt like my rear brake was rubbing (which may have been true) I slowly started losing ground and it felt like it was getting harder. However with no bike computer and the wind kicking up I didn't think much of it. Just before half way someone passed me and yelled that me rear tire was flat. Sure enough that was what the problem was. It was a slow leak and i wasn't riding on the rims yet, but it wasn't good. Since I didn't have a spare tube and it was starting to rain, I pumped some more air in the tire and decided to finish. The second trip up the hill was interesting, me glasses were fogging up and the rain had me riding blind, the tire was low again, but I still made the trip up pretty well going back and forth with a couple other riders (I got them both at the top and they pasted me at the bottom. On the ride down I started hitting the rim, With the rain everyone was slowed to a crawl going over the graded bridge the second time. The race people took pictures of us biking in and I found a nice shot of me going by with a very soft rear tire. Oh well I made it (I am very, very slow at changing tires), and didn't beat up the rim. By the end the weather really sucked. Still think the acual distance was closer to the 17.4 miles they posted with the results last year. I don't think 19.4 MPH with a flat is all that reasonable, 18.2 is a ilittle more realistic

Well sometimes stuff happens. I should have had a spare in my pack but, I didn't replenish after my last two flats. Tire was good last night and just prior to the race, so the grated bridge probably is what got me.

My glasses were fogged and covered with rain drops so i couldn't see well. Went down the wrong row, them almost left with my bike helmet still on (fortunately didn't go to far before turning around). Didn't cost me much timewize but I was already frustrated with the bike issues and this didn't help.

Walk the route from bike in and well as the run it.

At that point, I was running pretty smoothly but the conditions were rotten. I picked up a few spots, but its hard to really get going when your cold and miserable. I did negative split the 2nd leg and finished under 1:50 however.

Other than do a full clothes change, I was stuck with what I had. Did a fairly good job of putting the early problems beind me. Ran well but could get going.

At this point it was time to load up the car and get out of dodge. The wind really picked up. Did a quick pass thru the post race food line, and left. Nice to get out of my wet shirt.


Tire issues, truely rotten weather which really coumpounded thing for us slower folks.


I really like this course. its a good ealy season opportunity to see where you are. But you don't get to chose the weather, and that just made the whole thing a rotten day. I'll be back next year.