Went out with the front leaders and after my first mile being a 5:50, I backed off a bit and let them get out in front. My goal was to stay within myself but not slack off too much. I've never raced a Duathlon OR a 10K before, so I had no idea what kind of time to shoot for. In the back of my head I was thinking 6:15's would be a great goal time.

At the first turnaround, I was with a group and decided that I would stay with them. They would put some distance on me on the uphill, but I would close it on the downhills. I had to convince myself that I would be able to catch these guys on the bike. Right off the bat, I was having negative thoughts about how I was going to do. I could see at least 30 - 40 people in front of me and I was really concerned. Even though this was my first Du and I had no idea what I was doing, I had the demons starting early.

The weather wasn't a huge help either. I had visions of IM MOO in the back of my head and I knew how that played out. This was my chance to get rid of my cold weather demons and just race.

Many Thanks to Artemis for letting me borrow a long sleeve running shirt and an extra pair of gloves!! Again, an awesome Sherpa that I'm staying with saves my Bacon.

Dress warmer. Have some windproof gloves and bring my cycling tights. Who would have known that 3 days after wearing shorts and sandals in April that it would snow? Also, I was not prepared for all the hills. I've done NO hill training all year.

I blame MichlMead for bringing it with her!! :P

T1 was great. I decided to not put on my long sleeve cycling top that I had set out. I was warm from the run so I figured that it would be ok. I had on my cycling leg warmers, and they seemed to be working for me.

I decided to put my shoes on in Transition because I didn't want to bike in wet socks in the cold weather.

Nothing. T1 went as well as could be expected.

Ok...I got out on the bike and was convinced that I had some time to make up. My hands were already starting to ache because of the cold and I was not looking forward to doing 8 laps with numb body parts. I decided to take the first lap a bit easy so that I could see if there were any points where I would potentially slide out if I got too aggressive. There were a couple of small front ring climbs that I didn't realize were small ring climbs until lap 2 or 3.

I settled in really well and felt strong on my bike. I didn't "go after" it on the bike because the last thing I needed was to wipe out and I was so cold that I think my muscles did not want to fire on all cylinders. I was passing people left and right. The only people to pass me were 2 of the pro's and that was on my first lap. And believe me when I say they were humming...

Now, after the first lap I realized that I had not taken my gel before the start. So I figured that I would take a gel every odd numbered loop. After the first one, I attempted to take a gel. My gel flask had practically frozen! I literally held the gel flask in my mouth at an angle for over a minute and got maybe two pulls from it. And what do you do when you take gel?? You take water with it right....

Well, I had never had this happen before, but I couldn't suck through my straw because my lips were too cold. I had to concentrate and finally I was able to create suction and wash down my gel. This became a process lap after lap. But it only happenned after I took gel. I think because I had to wait for the gel to ooze out that it caused my face to get colder and not allow me to create suction. I found out after the race that I didn't even get 2 oz of Gel!!

After the 4th lap, my hands were so numb that they were still hurting. I had hoped that they would become numb and then I just wouldn't be able to feel them. And to make things worse, the wind picked up. And on the most hilly section you were going into a headwind. It sucked!! Any time I hit a sun spot, I would try and absorb as much as I could...like a Turtle.

My left hamstring started to give me a bit of trouble, but I took some of the downhills as an opportunity to stretch it out. My traps didn't hurt me that much so I think my new position is good.

My hands were so numb that I was switching gears with my thumb pad. And this course was all about gear changes. Just like IM MOO, you were constantly changing gears. Makes it hard without fingers. (Numb fingers will make it's return in T2)

What was the hardest part about the ride you ask??? Hands down, counting the number of laps you had completed. Luckily, I had a lap counter going during the race. They had mats out to make sure you did the proper number of laps, but only the computer knew. I get confused when I'm swimming and I'm counting by 50's!! So I spent a good deal of time asking myself, "Was that the 5th lap...or am I on the 5th lap?" I thought I said I was halfway done before but was that I was about to be halfway done?? And as you know...race math is NEVER right. So I figured out about lap 3 or 4 that my watch had said "4" when I started. Then after every lap, the number went up. So I convinced myself, which I verifed like 5 times, that when my watch said 11, I was on my final lap and I could go into T2.

On the final lap, I got that you gotta pee and soon feeling. I also had hunger pains so I was trying to get in more gel which meant more water (with NUUN) of course! I also knew that there was not a porta potty on the run course. It was about 75 yrds away across a parking lot no where near the race course. So every corner I took, I looked for a place to stop. Granted, I had a quick thought of just going...but then I said...peeing on the bike is bad....peeing on the bike and then having it freeze to you...horrible!! So after all the cops were out of sight and luckily, the USAT motorcyle just went by, I pulled over and hugged a tree for about 2 min. It was hard because as I saw an "appropriate" tree, the USAT official slowed down to check on drafting for 3 riders about 100 meters in front of me. Didn't he know I really had to go!!

So I went with about a mile to go and I'm glad that I did. It didn't cost me too much time and I didn't have to run with a frozen blob of pee in my shorts.

Wear wind proof gloves! Remember my cycling tights because running in your cycling leg warmers tends to hurt a bit.

Not put my gel in the fridge before the race when it's going to be below freezing on the bike!!! Once again...Don't do like Dan kids.

Ok...get ready for the fun to begin. I decided to do a "rookie" dismount because I wasn't going to do a cyclocross dismount in the cold without feeling my body. I put both feet down and literally slid to a stop about 5' after the dismount line. The volenteer laughed and said, "Well you were off the bike before the line". Then I ran into T2 like I was doing great...

Racked the bike beautifully since I had a side spot. I took my shoes off without a problem...put my running shoes on beautifully...now the helmet...

What the hell??? I can not only NOT feel my buckle...I can't push it either. Now I start to panic. I try to pull it off from the front...NO...try to pull it off from the back...NO...the side...NO. I take the gloves off my right hand and try...nothing...then the left...nothing! All I can think of is, "They are getting away". I look at the people just outside of T1 and they had that, "Can we help but CAN we?" look on their face. Finally, when I had decided I was going to run with my helmet on, I saw another fingerless soul 3 racks down from me pulling and yanking on his helmet. He had decided the same as I...to run with it on. I yelled at him, "HEY...and we ran towards each other".

We took each others helmets off and it still took about 30 seconds. So no, I didn't have a pizza ordered in T2...I couldn't get my helmet off. At least I know that if ever I fall off my bike, my helmet will stay on my head.

The guy who's helmet I took off, I would see again!

Work with my fellow fingerless riders sooner. A couple of the pro's had long T2 times as well, so I don't feel too badly.

When I finally got out of T2, I settled into a decent pace. After about a mile, I started to get feeling in my fingers again. I stayed with 2 guys that left T2 with me and then put on a surge to drop them. They faded quickly and I could no longer hear their foot steps. My plan was to go out consistant and then push the last lap and hammer the last half mile.

I felt slow, but steady on the first lap. The hills were taking their toll on me, but I would push the downhill as much as I could. I picked off about 5 or 6 people on the run. It wasn't until the second lap of the second run that I realized just how many people I passed on the bike. One guy that was about 30 seconds in front of me after the first run was now in front of me and he was on his first lap and I was on my second. So I decided that I was going to lap him. It took me over a mile, but I reeled him in.

With just over a mile to go, I tried to pick it up a bit. This didn't last very long because I had nothing in the tank. The hills had taken their toll on me and I felt like I was slowly jogging and that people were going to swallow me up. I had one guy pass me on the run, but I saw him coming back the other way for his second lap as I was finishing. Other than him, no one passed me on the run.

With a half mile to go, I told myself, "Only 4 min of pain...go now..go now!" I couldn't. I had been at redline for so long on no nutrition that my body said this is it. At least it didnt' shut down on me. Which I was glad about.

When you pass the turnaround for the second loop, you have about 200 meters to the finish line. Half of it is an uphill. I trudged up it and was going to just shut it down because my body hurt so bad. Luckily I didn't because I had a stalker. If I had shut it down, he would have passed me. I kicked it in and he told me that when he saw that he shut his engines down. He finished 7 seconds behind me.

So the lesson is don't give up 3 hrs of work for 5 seconds of no pain. Push it through the line.

Eat more during the race. If you don't count breakfast, all I had to eat was 2 oz of Gel and about a dixie cup worth of PowerAde. I was amazed how well my body did on about 300 calories for 3 hrs worth of racing.

I didn't do much other than just walk around and try and chit chat with people. Jen was there cheering me on and was my honorary IronSherpa! She rocked. I got my stuff and then waited for Beth to finish. Beth is one of the people in my swimming lane at Masters. It was her first Duathlon too. While I was looking at the results, I ran into MichlMead (Michelle) and her TP Roger. Very nice people!!

After the awards ceremony, the guy that won my Age Group came over to me and I recognized him. He was the guy who took off my helmet! I looked at the results and he put 1m 30 sec on me in the first run and I got it back on the bike. So we pretty much came into T2 together. But then he laid down a 36 min last run and all I managed was a 39. So I wonder what would have happenned if I had known I was so close and if I had been able to stay with him.

Doesn't matter because I got my slot for World's and we are now Team-mates on Team USA!!!


Never doing a Duathlon and not training on hills. Duathlons are harder than any Olypic distance race I've ever done. That first run takes so much more out of you than a swim.


There were plenty of drink stations on the run. But none on the bike. Granted, it was a 4.7 mile loop...

The coolest part was a state trooper on the top of the biggest hill that happenned to cross over I-64. The first loop, he was just standing there. Then the more times I passed him, the more excited he was. He was yelling, "This is your hill,take it" the last time I passed him. He was yelling at cars to stop and that was by far the safest crossing on the race course.