2008 East Fork Sprint Duathlon

My new pre-race ritual is now to ride big roller coasters, eat powdered sugar donut holes, ice cream, and spaghetti with meat sauce from the Olive Garden, drink Starbuck's coffee, milkshakes, Sam Adams, and a Frozen Tiramisu from said Olive Garden, and spend all day walking around in the sun, getting dehydrated and dodging people who looked like they just walked out of a terribly cliched 1980's movie. (I'm quite sure that is the longest sentence I've ever written!) Seriously, it was like we hopped into the Way-Back Machine 20 years on our visit to Cincinnati. Mohawks and mullets, tank tops, halter tops, Motley Crue tee shirts, no shirts (please put a shirt on, no one wants to look at that)! But I digress. I'm not here to update the thriving cultural mecca that is the Queen City. Whatever I did Saturday, proved to be very beneficial on Sunday. Well at least it didn't hinder me too much.

The day started with some gorgeous weather. It was humid but in the 60's, so it felt fine. The day would turn out to be completely sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. Unlike last year, when we got caught in a monsoon on the bike. Believe me when I say there wasn't a dry spot on me! I mean, even the wet spots had wet spots. Not so this year. Absolutely beautiful racing conditions.

The results aren't posted yet, but I can tell you that I finished first in my age group. I'm very happy yet surprised because this is a tough course. The bike is rolling terrain while there is a great big hill on the run. We get to run it twice in the sprint duathlon and thrice in the Olympic duathlon. I started out at a comfortable pace. My left shin has been bothering me since the track workout last week. I felt I was being held back by the people I was running with, but I had no where to pass. Until we got to the hill that is. I picked up my pace going uphill and managed to pass quite a few people. Once at the top, I was able to find my rhythm right away and just pressed on. I could tell I was running a faster than normal pace. I waited for my body to tell me to slow down, but it never did. So I just kept going. I'm sure my mile 1 pace was below average, but at mile 2, my split was a little over 14 minutes. That would put my mile 2 pace in the sub-7 minute range. I guess the speed workouts are working out!

The bike went well. I was passed a lot, as usual. But my average speed was a bit higher. There were only a couple sections of uphills that gave me some trouble. My main concern was my back tire. I hadn't looked at my bike since the race in Columbus two weeks ago. The one where many people were getting flats on the course. I didn't flat out on the course. Nor did I have any debris embedded in my tire. What I did have, however, was a wear spot and a tear where I locked up my tire and skidded while trying to stop at the dismount line coming into transition 2. The right little rock or whatever in the right spot, and I was going to have trouble. I even put my flat repair kit on the bike. I never bring that in a race. But I think I will from now on. It was a nice security blanket.

Run 2 went much like run 1. I was tired coming off the bike and so started out slow. But once again, I was able to pick it up a bit going up the hill. Once at the top, I settled right back into a very good pace. I've started to take shorter but quicker strides, which really help me improve my pace. And they don't seem to take as much of a toll on my legs either. If you've never run hard after riding hard, it's hard to describe just how tired your legs are, and how easy it is to push too hard, causing cramping. Anything to lessen that chance is welcome in my book.

I'm going to turn in now. But I will return when the official results have been posted.

Mr. P