Wendy's International Duathlon - Duathlon

Didn't try to keep up with the pack. Ran my own pace and felt good. I even managed to pass someone on the first run.

Train more to become faster

Merged in with the triathlon folks in T1. Put on my biking gloves while running, so I just had my helmet to put on.

Nothing

Had quite a bit of traffic starting the bike - usually I'm so far behind that isn't an issue, but there were ~800 participants in the race, so there were more slower people I guess. Bike started well. I wasn't totally wiped out from my first run, and I started taking water and Gatorade Endurance early on the bike and sipped from my bottles throughout the 17 miles. Around mile 9, my left calf began cramping - not bad - just a minor annoyance at this point. I've never had cramping on the bike and wasn't sure what to do, so I would stop pedalling and extend my heel straight down to stretch my calf. This would help for awhile, then it would start over again. There was one point on the bike when I thought I would have to stop because the cramp was starting to get worse, but I held on and made it through. I took corners pretty slowly because I'm still not as comfortable as I should be with my skinny tires as opposed to my "fat" mountain bike tires. I saw half dozen people go down on the corners, so I was happy to take it easy. I took in two gels -one early on the bike and one ~ 14 miles into the ride. I drank ~12 oz of Gatorade and ~20 oz of water. I'm getting more comfortable on the bike. Each time out seems to feel a little better. I made a conscience effort not to go too hard and save a little for the final run.

Don't know - find out why my calves started cramping and do what I can to prevent it in the future

Walked the bike into T2. Found my rack and push someone else's bike over to make room at my spot. Took a minute to get my breath and wits. My feet were numb and my calves were sore, so I just took my time going into the 2nd run.

Nothing

Drinking station right out of T2, so I walked through that - Tried to get a jog going, by my left calf was hurting so much that I had to stop and massage it. I alternated walking/running for the first couple of minutes, then the cramps stopped and I felt good! WTF? Kept an eye on my Garmin because I wanted to stay around 12 m/m, and except for the first little bit, stayed pretty close to my goal. Got passed quite a few times, but also passed several people on my way to the finish! The last 400 meters, I got a surge of adrenaline and started sprinting. I crossed the finish line doing a 9.5 m/m pace. It felt so good running hard over the finish.

Nothing

Walked around a bit - stretched - waited at the finish line to take some pictures of pbeck & dr.evil.


Lack of training & an old, tired body!


Good race, lots of people - fun to meet other BT members!