Falls Duathlon - DuathlonStandard

Started out pretty decent and ran along side Palmer for about the first 1/3 mile, then a few others passed me. By 1 mile I was in 8th position and held it.

Different shoes. I work Saucony A4's which I could feel slipping a little on the wet bike path.

It was pretty wet, but I had my shoes, helmet and eyewear under a plastic bag so at least that was dry. Dry shoes don't stay that way too long with wet socks going into them.

Not much I could do.

I was about 9th out on the bike and somewhere around mile 2, I passed a string of 4 riders that were drafting. I got on their tail to see if they were just coincidentally together due to the start, or really drafting. They were really drafting so I passed them. A couple minutes later I looked back and found that I had been giving one of them a free ride. I gave him the "come on, what are you doing?!" wave and he backed off a bit. Before the turn around I was in 4th overall. 1 & 2 (Millner and Palmer) had a good gap, but I know #3 was Chap Achen--in my AG. I worked to catch him, but then I kept my distance at about 10 bike lengths and matched his pace. I figured if I passed him, he would work hard to stay close and if I didn't, maybe I could conserve a little energy and beat him in the run. He didn't come out of aero position at all, while I was fighting the wind alternating positions to remain on the road. Within 3 miles to go, we were almost side by side, neither one of us knowing to go ahead or fall back. I let up and stayed about 30 feet back as we took navigated thru corners back into town.

I should have worked catch and pass Chap then try to put as much distance between us going into run 2. Read on...

My feet, along with everyone else's I assume, were numb. I did have a fresh dry pair of shoes under a bag for run 2. This was good, but again, putting wet feet/socks into dry shoes doesn't help much. I got into T2 within seconds of Chap and left T2 right behind him--we were 3rd, 4th overall.

I left T2 right behind Chap. We ran together for about 3/4 of a mile. Pace was ok, but then I started to feel it at mile 1. I started to drift back and he got a gap on me. During mile 2 there was still no sign of the leader, but around a curve the were coming at us from the turn around. At the turn around it was a few seconds before I could see anyone coming. I had about 200 yards on the next guy, but that scared me enough to run hard. With 1/2 mile to go I knew I wasn't going to catch 3rd place, but 5th would have to run a 5 min mile to catch me. I eased up a bit--no sense killing myself to finish in the same position I was already in. Chap finished less than a minute up on me. Also, I probably gave him 10-15 seconds of that gap.

Should have worked harder to get to and leave T2 with a 30 to 60 second gap on the next guy going into run 2.

Talked to a few guys, got some coffee, froze, jogged to car and sat in it with the heater going for about 20 minutes.


Myself.


Cheezy awards. Just get medal and AG stickers for the back.