Felt good at the start but my pace was a little faster than planned. Thanks to the Duke Liver Center Half, I was prepared for the hills. This is where I passed the most people.

My run has really improved this year and I'm getting close to where I want to be. Continue to do more hill work but pace my self better on the first run.

This was a local race with no timing chips so I am going by my watch. I may have marked the split a little early because from the end of the run to the transition area was about 150 yards. Once I got to my bike I had a fast transition.

This was my first du and I didn't practice T1, taking running shoes off and putting bike shoes/helmet on. I ran without socks because I don't wear them on the bike. Still did well getting out of running shoes but I will probably practice some before my next du.

I've ridden parts of the course once before, however, I forgot about some of the hills and the biggest one caught me by surprise. Again, Duke had prepared me well.

I played cat and mouse with a roadie who was 15-16 years younger than me. He seemed a little arrogant on the bike and ended up drafting me for a good portion of the race. Figuring this was his first multisport event, I pushed it hard on the hills knowing he would do the same to keep up with me. I was also guessing that he either ran or rode, but never ran off the bike so I was trying to get him to spend as much energy as possible on the bike before the run.

About 2 miles from the finish he passed me but on the last turn I retook the lead with about a half mile to go. As I approached the transition area I got out of my shoes, did a flying dismount and had a fast transition. My strategy with the roadie worked. :-)


Always can use some more hill work.

No issues. T2 time is estimated based on run and bike times.

Nothing.

I pushed hard on the hills during the bike so my legs were screaming at me for about the first half mile or so. But I found my rhythm. I knew the roadie wasn't far behind me but didn't look back to check. My plan was to maintain a strong pace until the turn around then pick it up some more. At the turn around I slowed for some water, took a couple of sips and kept going. I saw the roadie about 45 seconds behind me so I picked up the pace.

At the end of the 5k course a couple of elderly men had set up an aide station in front of their house. This was not a USAT sanctioned event, just a local, fun C race for me, so I felt compelled to slow down, take a cup of water and say thank you since they took the time to set it up. It was pretty cool that they did this on their own to show support.

I crossed the street and back into the park area. There was a gravel area used for parking that you had to run through and somehow I managed to get a rock in my shoe but I wasn't going to stop to get it out. After this, an uneven grass area before hitting the paved trail around the pond. On the back side of the pond the rock came out of my shoe and I noticed the roadie had dropped back some more but for good measure I picked up the pace again. When I could see the clock I started to sprint as fast as I could because it was approaching 1:33:00 and I decided a 1:32:XX sounded better.

I had a slower pace on the second run. Most likely from too fast a pace on the first run and really attacking the hills on the bike. My plan was to run comfortably on the first run then redline the bike and second run. While the first run wasn't redline, it was too fast a pace. The second run wasn't completely redline.

Ran 2 laps around the pond, ate a banana then found out Gezzo's Grill had some chicken tacos by the finish line. Ate 2 tacos, drank some water and Powerade.


I need to pace better on the first run.


I said the race was organized, and it was for a small local race. However, it was an open course and I would have liked to have seen law enforcement officers at the major intersections. I didn't have to stop for traffic, but I heard some racers did on the bike course.

My first du and I podiumed. And while not all roadies are bad, it did feel good to beat a young arrogant one by 1min 30+sec. Especially after I tried to congratulate him on a good race and he turned away.