We had a little speech 5 minutes before the start. The race director was telling us that he always thought duathlons were harder than tris... and was verifying that there was no triathletes around as well, like he was going to get stabbed in the back for saying that... lol The last 2 minutes before the start were very calm and collected for me, that was unusual. Thanks TriYoda (Steve8). And off we went... Damn! had we run a 5k, I would have blasted my PR out the window. That was fast and felt totally effortless.

Nothing.

Yep, already in transition after what felt like a 2 minutes run. I struggled a tiny bit to put the helmet on but that was no biggie. Then the lllooonnggg run to the bike mount, I'd say close to 250 meters. When getting on the bike I almost knocked one of my bottles out of the wing... classic. I forgot to use the smaller bottles.

Use the smaller bottles. Get used to putting the new helmet on.

So I headed out for the first time, total discovery. I had no time to drive the course the day before but I had talked to a few people about it, marcag on BT being one of them. The way out is a very fast slight downhill where we had a tail wind. Then we had to turn around and head back into the wind on the same road, six times. Very nice place & road. Very scenic.

The first 30k was FAST. The wind wasn't a factor, I felt good and was hammering it. There were people from shorter race still on the course at that time so there was a fair bit of traffic. A group that was close to me was almost organized as a peloton. I came close to give 'em a load of sh!t. As far as I can tell, none of them got a penalty. I saw 34.6 km/h of average after that first third of the bike ride.

As the kilometers piled up, I gave a "theme" to each of the laps in order to stay in the moment. I would keep thinking about that theme and I had a couple of good songs in the head as well that would help keep me pushing. As time went by, the wind picked up as well and was becoming a real biatch on the way back to the transition. It was about 25km/h with gusts at 30-40 km/h (thanks weather underground). Once the shorter racers were gone, it became really calm, no traffic, no pass me pass you, I was almost alone. Only once a while I would pass someone or get lapped by one of the leaders of the HIM. I don't think I got passed more than once or twice by riders that were at the same stage of the race as me (be it HIM or my race).

Both bottle exchange I did went nicely which is always good. On the last lap, ust as I hit the turn around, I realized that some pretty dark clouds were coming at us. Fast. My first thought was "I want to get off that bike now!!". The combination of strong wind, rain and cool weather could make things miserable quickly. A little drizzle started but it stayed at that and it lasted for no more than 10 minutes. I would not experience some mild post race hypothermia for the third time this year. Lucky me!

Not much really.

It went pretty well execution wise. The only thing that worried me was that on the long run to the racks, my toe thing kind of flared up and I started feeling some pain.

-----

So out I went for the half marathon that was left. It was along the canal as well. Slight downhill and tailwind on the way out, slight uphill and headwind on the way back.

My foot was an anoyance only for the first 2k or so... I guess I was lucky. The first half of the first lap went very well. I guess the downhill + tailwind helped me find my legs quickly. Not long after hitting the turn around I spotted a couple of guys in my race, they were 2:30 and 4:00 behind me. Knowing that helped me to keep on pushing. On the way back, my right calf started cramping slightly, or was it the achille that was flaring up? Whatever. The wind had slowed down so that helped. All in all the first lap was good. I did it in 35:28.

The second time out was uneventful. I just focussed on keeping my focus lol. When I hit the turn around I realized that the wind had picked up. The calf wasn't perfect but better than on the first loop. I could only spot one guy this time though, he was about 3 minutes back so I was fine I thought. At that point I started to have some Port-O-John thoughts... A serious job had to get done. Second loop was done in 37:26. Not an awful time.

I finally went at the very beginning of the first loop. I had to jump over the transition zone fence to get to the port-a-potty. Started doing my thing... only to realize that THERE WAS NO FREAKIN' TP IN THERE!!!!!! WTF do I do?? WTF do I do?? No choice, I had to use the cardboard rolls. Let's just say that I've experienced smoother things in the past. On the 2k after that, I felt really light and in control... but that was the easy part. At about 16k I started feeling like I had been hit by a small truck, and I was still on the way out. When I hot the turn around, the wind had REALLY picked up. I'm talking steady 40 km/h. The longest 3.5k of my life followed. I felt like a freakin' snail and, in hindsight, I think I was pretty darn close to bonking. I didn't take in much calories in or drinks on the run. That is most probably a point to improve in the future.

I was ecstatic at the finish, fist pumps and everything... then I collapsed and just lied on the track (we finished on a 400m track) for a few minutes. I had no idea of my ranking. While I was trying to pick myself up to go grab some lunch, a volunteer came to tell me that #222 (me) had finished at exactly 2:22 pm ... Next year I want #202 Lol.

Take in more calories and drink more.

I grabbed some lunch, changed clothes and went to see the results. Nothing was out yet. I went to grab some more lunch and then packed my things up. I stopped at the board before going back to the hotel, just in case, only to discover that I was third!!! I knew I was somewhere up there... but not so high...

There was no award ceremony so I headed to the registration tent and they gave me two little ribbons, one for the overall and one for age group places. I thought that was a bit lame. But it became much nicer when they gave me a 100$ gift card at Pecco's, a local bike shop. First thing I did on sunday was to go there. Off course I got out with a 225$ bill. I bought some Profile Design S bent extensions to put on the P2. I was sick of the ski bent ones on the P2.


Wind. Nutrition & hydration on the run. Non draft legal race :P


The race part was well organised, nothing to say about it. The only thing is the race site is set up in such a way that there is no real race atmosphere. People finish their races and then go home ASAP.