Cape Henlopen Triathlon - Duathlon

Chatted it up with CJ (a friend of the shop) and joked about what pace to go. Started on the front line and when they said go I tried to mark the fasties. Stayed with a few through the first 1/2 mile or so and a couple started to pull away. Could not tell what AG they were in since my wave was all men 39 and under. We soon caught up with the slower people that were in the real Du wave that started 5 minutes ahead, but I also knew that if anyone was passing me they were from our wave.

Kept most of the main guys in sight and paced with one pretty well. But I also didn't want to push it as I didn't want to be tired out for the run. Pace felt like right around 6 flat. But as we neared the transition I'm looking at my watch and seeing it almost at 10 minutes. WTF? I didn't run that slow! Oh well, it was long ......

Stay with the rest of the guys ahead of me. I could have done it, but held back a little so as not to start cooked on the bike. Everyone had to run the same amount, so no biggie that it was definitely longer than 1.5.

Got in, right to my rack, shoes off, turn number belt around, helmet on, glasses back on and go! Short, sweet, fast. But after going through the timing mat and running to the mount line (about 150 feet or so through grass) I took way too damn long to get on the bike and get my feet into my shoes, just like last weekend!! Probably 5 or 6 people from my wave passed me (including the two guys who finished ahead of me in my AG ... one was the overall winner).

Get into my damn shoes faster!! Yeah, it counts in the bike portion, but I got passed by too many people from my wave futzing around with my shoes!!

Great transition - fastest ever for me to this point, bad mount .......

After FINALLY getting into my shoes I worked on getting up to speed and catching those guys that passed me while I was screwing around. The road was slick, but it wasn't raining so I knew I needed to be a little more careful in the turns. For some reason my cyclometer wasn't working for speed, so I was going off of cadence and perceived effort only for the first portion.

Picked off a few people but since we were mixed in with the Du wave now, it was a little harder to tell who was who. But when it tool longer to catch people I knew they started in my wave. A lot of people had their numbers worn off from sweat and such, so it was also hard to gauge age groups! Oh well, this ride was all about dropping the hammer and seeing what I could put out.

Fairly uneventful ride overall. Really put the hammer down and when my cyclometer finally started working (erratically) it was showing between 25 - 30 the whole time. Towards the end I was within eyesight of about 4 guys who were similar paced to me and I wanted to kep them within sight hoping to have the opportunity to run them down later. But I backed it off in some corners and got stuck behind some Du people so I lost contact a little.

Good ride. Maybe push it a little more and stay in contact with the leaders. I backed it off a little in a few sections too much because of the slick roads. A little too cautious. Oh ...... and get in my damn shoes faster!!!! That easily cost me 30 seconds, and probably beating the guy who finished right ahead of me in the AG. It was still one of my fastest bike splits ever though, which was my goal.

Another fast transition. Helmet off as soon as at the rack, dumped my glasses as they would just get foggy in the mist, shoes on, grabbed my visor and go!

Nothing, textbook result. And my new fastest transition (by one second!).

The bikes in transition were all over the place and there was no rhyme or reason to where we were racked (as far as AG goes) so I had no idea who was ahead of me. I figured there were at least 5 or 6 from my wave, so I just put the visor on, picked my pace and took off.

I caught one guy soon into the run and was passed by another. his number was rubbed off, so I had no idea how old he was, but he looked my age. I couldn't hang with him though and he moved on. Mile one came at ......... 8:XX????? Another WTF moment! Great, mismarked miles. no idea what my pacing was at that point. I just kept going.

I was not moving as well as I would have liked and was just hoping that there were not any speed demons in my AG coming up. We finally hit a short out and back turn around where I was able to see who was ahead of me and who was coming from behind. There were two behind me that were coming hard, and both started in my wave, but I thought they were younger. One guy came up pretty quick by mile 2 (7:03 or something like that ... still felt wrong) but the other guy wasn't up to me yet and I made it a point not to let him pass. I was able to hold him off to the finish but had to really pick it up the last 1/8th or so. Final split was 5:54 ..... yeah, definitely mismarked!!

Not much. Didn't have a lot left in me to go faster. I pushed the bike like I wanted, so that sapped my run a bit. Course felt long (others said that as well), but again, we all had to run the same course.

Got a water and a Gatorade Endurance and sat in the grass watching everyone finish.


Ummmmm, training??? Since LP I haven't done much at all. I still have barely 1,600 miles on the bike for the year. The people who are beating me are up in teh 3,000+ range mostly. The fact that I can hang with limited training makes me really wonder what my real potential is .....

Oh well, shoulda coulda woulda.


They ran a good race. It was a bummer about the swim cancellation as I really wanted to see how I would fare. But making it a Du suits my strengths and makes me a podium threat outright. This was my last tri for the year and gave me a sense of what I'll be doing next year as it is almost all short/fast stuff. 7th overall, really finished 3rd in my AG, but awarded 2nd because the guy who was overall winner was also in my AG. Oh well, hardware either way!