Run by Elizabeth

This was supposed to be a swim. At first, the announced that they were shortening the swim to be a shore-to-shore (400 meters or so). The first wave of men went off just as the storm was blowing in and they ended up canceling the swim part of the way through. Unfortunately, some of the swimmers finished. :(

The storm hit pretty hard as people were walking back to transition. We stashed our things in plastic bags to keep them as dry as we could. Then, it was announced that it would be a duathlon and would start at 8 (about 7:20 at this point). We went and hung out in the parking garage to stay warm. Eventually ended up in the inside room where packet pickup was because it was warm. Tried to figure out if it we were going to race or not. We decided we would if the rain slowed down. At about 8 there was just a little bit of drizzle.

Maren too the chip off Elizabeth and put on me.

Slipped a little getting into my cleats because everything was so wet.

While Elizabeth was running the first section, I decided to throw on the tshirt I was planning on wearing after the race (Duathlon Nationals shirt). Very glad I did because it gave just a little more warmth.

I ran out to the mount like, which was kind of far. I started my bike computer when I crossed the mount line. I wanted to finish the bike in about 1:30, which required an average speed of 16.6 mph. The first hill out of downtown was pretty tough because my legs were so cold and didn't want to move a lot. Once we were on Osbourne turnpike, I was feeling a bit better and could push harder. The first 5 miles went very quickly. There were a few places where I was getting speeds of 18 - 20 mph for a good stretch. Matt (mwhitely) was volunteering at Mill and Osbourne and recognized me when I made the turn. That was awesome!

Once I turned onto Kingsland, the situation changed a lot. I was now into the wind and having a harder time maintaining speed. A gust of wind would come and I would watch the speedometer drop. It was pretty depressing. I was hoping that once I made the turn onto Strath it would calm down and ease up. That was true mostly because there was a little more cover. I was very happy to turn around at 13.2 and get to go mostly downhill to Kingsland. I was a little nervous coming down the hill having seen a few people wipe out there.

Made the turn onto Varina and was into the wind again. (sigh) I'd been working on eating a few Gu chomps, but hadn't really been drinking enough. I could tell that my calf was starting to cramp a little on this section, so I was trying to drink a lot. Throughout here, I was just trying to pedal as hard as I could and keep the bike going as fast as I could.

At the turn from Mills onto Osbourne, I knew there was a hill right after the turn, so I wanted to keep up a lot of speed. But, a lot of people had wiped out, so they were slowing us down. I still made it up the hills just fine. The worst hill was still coming up - going over 285. I ended up in the lowest gear and was still basically crawling. I had a fair bit of speed going in, but it is a tough hill and I was kind of nervous on the downhill because it was very wet and there were a few cars near me.

Once I made it up the hill, it wasn't that far back into the city. There was a big downhill, so I had a fair bit of speed coming back in. I was so relieved to see the buildings of Rockett's Landing. I slipped a little at the dismount line. Wet cleats are really not so much fun. Ran in to transition. Elizabeth transferred the chip and I just tried to stand on my shaky legs.

Not have wind, rain, and headwinds? Or, train in those more?

Elizabeth took the chip off me and put on Maren.

Fastest relay transition!

Run by Maren

Warm-down description? How about warm-up description! My legs were very cold and shaky coming off the bike, so I really tried to warm up after. I grabbed a bottle of PowerAde from the finish area and then went inside to where packet pickup was located. It was the only warm place available. I was so wet. Elizabeth got a banana for me. Everything I was wearing was wet, so I took on of the extra volunteer tshirts and took off the wet tshirt, armwarmers, and tri jersey. Felt much better to have dry clothes. Tried to stay dry and warm while we waited for Maren to finish.

They were moving everything inside (band, awards, food) at around 11:30 and I just didn't feel like staying anymore. We decided to leave. We were pretty sure we wouldn't place as there were faster relays and faster female relays. Either way, we were ready to go.


Wind and rain!


They did a good job of dealing with the weather and lots of changing plans. Still a lot of volunteers on the bike course, so that was nice.

I heard a lot of people complaining about the name + chip combinations being wrong in the results that were posted on the race site.