Cape Henlopen Tri/Du - DuathlonOther

I'm not entirely sure that the distance is correct here. My watch showed 1.65, which seems to reflect that there was a relatively long run into the transition area, and I'm not sure that was factored in completely. I felt at the start as if I was running pretty fast, and my watch shows a first mile of 6.52. I know I felt as if I was running a little too fast, and I slowed down a tad, but I really don't think I slowed down to the equivalent of an overall 8 minute pace. Still, you play the official clock and it put everyone in the same boat.

I ran the hill very well and passed several people on the way up and down.

From my track work I know I'm fast over short distances, and I need to start acting on that knowledge.
1) Place myself closer to the front
2) Push harder (I can recover pretty effectively on the bike).

Learned from my last race and began visualizing my transition as I approached the area.

It was a difficult run out, through a ditch and onto the road. Still, I mounted clean and at a run, and was clipped in, into my big ring and up to speed within about 150 metres.

Wearing a race belt for the first time threw me a little. I'm not sure now why I bothered to take it off. It was fitting snugly and I could easily have kept it on for the bike. I also didn't put the helmet on simultaneously with taking my shoes off. I was probably 5-10 seconds slower on this transition than I should have been.

This bike felt really strange. It was a great course, and for the first time in an event I was actually racing people (duking it out with a couple of guys from my age group, taking turns at passing one another for most of the way). But I felt as if there was something holding me back, and I don't think it was physical. I could feel the first run as I got on my bike, but I pushed myself to get up to speed, and concentrated on breathing hard to re-oxygenate my system and get my HR down (not that I was monitoring it, I'd deliberately turned my watch away so it wouldn't be a distraction). And after about three miles or so I felt as if I was hitting my stride, and after 5-6 miles I felt as if I was beginning to ride faster. But I was riding in a gear that was comfortable. Every time I had to pass someone, I would notch up to the next gear, and my pace would jump dramatically, but there was something in my head telling me that I couldn't sustain that higher gear for the whole race. I don't know if that was reality or a mental block. So I felt as if I only pushed hard a couple of times.

For me this was the big unknown of the race. I felt as if I should have been able to go a bit faster than this. But given what happened on the second run, I don't know what effect that would have had.

Next time, I would push harder and see what happened. I think, on balance, that I could probably pick up enough time on the bike to more than compensate for my run time falling off a bit.

I didn't finish all the accelerade on my bike. Not sure how much of a difference that made.

Very happy with this transition. Went about as well as it could, I think. Racked the bike smoothly, got into my shoes and scooped hat and belt and was off, putting them on as I went.

For some strange reason I took one bike shoe off and then put a shoe on, then took the other bike shoe off and then the other running shoe. I'm not sure it made a huge difference, but something to watch next time.

This run was surprising. I felt as if I got into my running form pretty quickly, but almost immediately I began to experience stitch in my left side. It wasn't really bad, just kinda threatening, but I had it pretty much the whole leg. Never really had that before. I felt as if the run was going OK, I was passed by a couple of people, and passed a couple of people in my turn, but I also felt as if I was speeding up with each mile (my watch lost the signal halfway through, so I only have a reliable first mile, and that was 8.08), but that seems not to have been the case. And given the fact that I sprinted at the end I must have really drifted in the second mile.

At the same time, I was closer to my first run time, and that consistency helped me pick up a few places against people who saw their second run be substantially slower.

I really miscalculated the finish. When we had had the orientation meeting the previous day, nothing had been set up. And when I arrived at the race site I was too busy with my warmup and stupidly forgot to notice where the finish line was. So it ended up being a lot further away than I thought, and I started to pick the pace up perhaps a little too early. Fortunately, a guy came up behind me and raced me for the line (he beat me) which pushed my game up.

Again, I'm not sure I pushed myself to the point of discomfort on this run, and I perhaps let that stitch bother me more than it should have, but the run seems to have gone better than I thought at the time.

Drank 12oz Endurox and 32 oz of water. Stretching, biking back to the campsite.


I hadn't really trained for the sprint distance, so next time I would definitely throw in a couple of purpose built bricks (hard run then on the bike, and vice versa). But the limitations seemed mostly to be mental.


This is an accessible, friendly race, and moving it away from the beach house to the parade field made for a really good atmosphere. Being in an open field rather than a parking lot made for a great place to hang out afterwards; it's more fun to throw yourself down on grass than asphalt! This race always attracts a lot of first-timers and I think they were only a couple of entries shy of selling out the whole event. The woman who was responsible for coordinating the transition area did a fantastic job. Plenty of body markers (there was a bit of a line to get in, but it's not the organizers fault if people don't arrive early!), and very tight security.

On the other hand, Piranha's overall organization leaves a little to be desired. The race director was late to the first-timers meeting, which is not great. The racks in the transition area were set up when people arrived for packet pickup (which was nice) but little else. There was also no bike support at the event (and also no bike inspections, which given some of the bikes I saw first-timers riding might have been questionable from a safety point of view). And the way they display their results is pretty bad. Seriously, it's computer data, how hard is it to separate it by gender and age group? Most other races do it. It's a pain having to do it yourself. Piranha runs a fun event, don't get me wrong, but the lack of attention to the details can make them seem a little low rent.