National Duathlon Festival - DuathlonOther

Started out strong, nice downhills for the first mile and I used that to my advantage. I noticed there was still a BIG group in front of me though, so I already knew my chances were not good to qualify.

At about mile 3, I see a long line of people walking in a line along the train tracks, with a train sitting directly in my path...hmmm. I get up to the train and realize we have to walk down the tracks until the end of the train, then cross to the other side. You pretty much have to walk with the angle of the rocks, there's not much room (hence the line of people walking). Interesting.

Not much after that I feel my pace really slipping, but my effort level is steadily rising. I adjust my goal to at least finish this section running, I rather slow down and keep running - I know that's the faster option.

By mile 4, that's not going to happen. I can feel the full effects of the heat and sun beating down on me and my effort is pretty high at this point. I break down and take a quick walk break and try to make it my only break. That didn't happen, so I just tried to walk as little as possible. The trail climb up to transition was not very nice - but I was so happy to finally make it to transition.

I honestly don't know. I don't acclimate well to heat and I hydrated as well as I could.

I tried to hurry in transition, but things just weren't going very smoothly. I made myself start running with the bike, but I was having trouble steering the bike on the bumpy grass area. Not as fast as I should have gone, though.

Focus better

I find it hilarious that I actually gained a spot on this ridiculous bike. I decided the night before to only take my aerobottle on the ride (with Infinit in it) - that was a HUGE mistake. The Infinit was fine, but it was not quenching my thirst and I spent the ride miserable and SOOOOO thirsty. All I wanted to do was get water - I was scanning the crowds, the streets, anything for water. I couldn't focus on trying to go faster, I just wanted to get something to drink. Looking at my pace, I can see my splits dropping off each lap, as I got more and more thirsty.

My pace was pathetic, I was embarrassed to have my aerohelmet and race wheels on, I wanted to switch out to something else. The course was not flat at all, there were lots of small inclines and several long inclines - doing it three times made it worse, knowing what was coming. There were several sections I was riding 6-9mph, yikes! I could feel my skin baking in the sun and I just wanted WATER!!!

I really considered stopping every time I passed transition, but I knew Rebecca would kill me if I made her do this race and then I quit - that's pretty much the main reason I kept going.

Did I mention this sucked?! :)

Carry water - I don't care about extra weight, aero advantage (these things certainly don't matter at this pace anyway!), or whatever else - I need water!!

I didn't do a flying dismount, I just stopped the bike and walked into transition. I did yell at Rebecca as I saw her standing there with her bike - I got irrationally mad for a second because I kept riding (no water!) so she wouldn't be angry with me for quitting when I helped convince her to race. :) (BTW - she absolutlely made the right decision to stop)

I didn't even consider running into transition at this point, I just kept moving forward as best I could.

Got to my rack put things away deliberately, switched shoes, and downed 3/4 of a bottle of water I had at transition. Felt a little better, jogged/walked out of transition. Grabbed more water/ice from the table and tried to cool off.

Hmm....

This was almost comical. I had tried to set up my Garmin for multisport, but obviously did something wrong because it was done when I left transition. I couldn't get it to turn back on, so no pace or time info at this point. I didn't really care that much, I just wanted to be done with this race.

My mouth still seemed so dry and I was still thirsty, but my stomach was feeling very full of water. I tried to just rinse my mouth out with water at the stops and from my fuelbelt, but it was hard when I felt so thirsty. Unfortunately, running with a sloshing belly of water and this heat (and no shade) was tough. I did what I could and walked when I started to feel sick. I'm actually surprised that my pace was faster than I expected, although that's not saying much.

Run

Sat down with the cold rag, wiped myself down with the cold water, and rested.


The heat! I knew going into the race all bets were off, I don't do well in heat, especially starting so late in the day. This was the main reason I didn't do Gulf Coast this year, but somehow the heat found me anyway. The average high in Richmond is 72* this time of year - the race was about 20* above that!

The race turned into damage control, not really a race way too early. I don't know what I should have done differently based on what happened. I do wish I had known the bike course profile better, I would have mixed more Bud Plant rides in, instead of preparing for a flatter profile.


The organization of the race was great, racks were even marked with letters making it very easy in transition. Volunteers were great. I wish they would have adjusted the wave time schedule when the temps were predicted so high - with 30 minutes between waves there was plenty of adjustment time. More water on the course, at least adding one station on the bike, would have been smart based on the temperature.

The schwag included with our entry fee was unbeatable - tri bag, shirt, hat, pint glass - all for $65!

I would do this race again - I probably will next year - but I will be praying for average temps, instead of near-record breaking temps.