USAT Dualthon National Championships Race Report

Race Report:

(Race results and times haven't been posted yet. I have a rough idea of my times, but I'm not going to put them here until I see the official times.)

FRIDAY
The plan was to drive into DC Friday night and stay at my friend Tracy's house so the drive down to Richmond wouldn't be too long on Saturday. I failed to plan, however, for all the last-minute things I needed to do (including installing the new computer, practicing transitions, etc.) so time got away Friday night and I decided to get up early Saturday morning and drive the entire distance.

SATURDAY
The alarm went off at 4:30 Saturday morning and I was in the car and on my way by 5:00. An uneventful and relatively quick drive got me to Richmond around 9:30. I got an early check-in to my hotel and unpacked my stuff. When I took my bike off my car I realized that somewhere between Rehoboth Beach and Richmond was an aero-bar pad (those pads where you rest your forearms when in the aero position). The glue holding the velcro attachment had come completely unglued.

So I found the nearest bike shop, bought a couple new pads (even better than the ones I had been using) and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon scoping out the transition area and parts of the route close to the transition area. I also got to see part of the Off-Road Championship race. Then I hopped in the car to drive the bike route. I'd heard it was hilly, but when driving it, it didn't seem nearly as bad as the Brandywine Valley Duathlon.

Saturday afternoon and evening were spent doing absolutely nothing in my hotel room. The temperature outside was in the 90s, so staying out of the heat and sun was the best thing to do. Plus I had to do my pre-race evening ritual of trimming the hair on my legs. (The real reason cyclists shave their legs is not for speed but for safety. If you were to crash, the hair on your legs would catch the pavement and rip your skin open much worse than with smooth legs. The risk of infection is also greater with hairy legs.) So I ordered room service, watched "Legally Blonde," and clipped my leg hair. And it occured to me that this was probably one of the gayer moments of my life.

SUNDAY
I was up before the 6:00 alarm to get ready for my wave start time. (The first wave of 60+ year-old men went at 7:30). Everything pre-race went according to plan and I was ready for my 9:30 gun.

10k
I went out way too fast on the first mile - a 6:31 - and slowed it down over the next couple miles. It was already getting hot and nearly the entire 10k was without shade. I was amazed at the caliber of runners. I picked one guy with an Ironman tattoo on his leg (meaning he's completed at least one Ironman race) and paced with him. But then I got a little burst of energy and left him behind. (felt good about that!) A lot of the men in my age group were ahead of me, but I noticed that a good number were behind me as well, and I had to remind myself to not worry about anyone else and just run my own race. I ran into the transition area feeling pretty good.

T1
My transition practice really helped (Thank you, Kevin!). I already had my gloves on and my hat off before I entered transition. I threw the hat down, threw my helmet on, whipped off my shoes, and ran through the transition area with my bike - my cycling shoes already being clipped onto the pedals. I mounted fine, and got my feet on top of my shoes right away, just like I practiced. But when I turned the corner and went to put my feet in the shoes, one of them came off (the shoes, not my feet.) So I had to stop, put the shoe on, remount, and regain my momentum.

38k Bike
Once I got past the shoe debacle I was alright. The bike course was 3 loops of about 7-8 miles each. Like I'd discovered in the car on Saturday, the hills really weren't that bad. There was one part of "rolling" hills but that was it. (Going down and up rolling hills makes your mind go, "This is awesome.....oh, shit.....this is awesome.....oh, shit....") We got to pass the main group of cheering spectators 6 times on the bike so that encouragement helped a lot. I was also much more conscious of my nutrition on the bike than I was the last race. I was able to down a Gu (although I should have done 2) and I finished nearly 2 bottles - one with water and one with Accelerade. My new bike computer has 2 features that I haven't had before. The first, cadence, definitely helped. I tried to keep my cadence up around 85-90. That didn't always happen, but I was there most of the time. Second, the computer also has a thermometer. When I started the bike leg, it was 86 degrees. By the time I finished, it was 93. Yikes!

T2
I was determined to not let a wardrobe malfuction hurt my second transition. I loosened the shoe straps early enough, coasted to the dismount line as I swung my leg over, and dismounted flawlessly (just like Mary Lou Retton) as I broke into a run with the bike toward the transition area. What made me feel really good was that I blew past a guy who'd reached the dismount line about 5 seconds before me, and I had my running shoes on and was headed toward the run exit by the time he was entering the transition area.

5k
I started out with those jelly legs most everyone gets after riding a bike, and after about a quarter mile my quadracep cramped - big time. I had to stop and walk, and then stop completely and stretch and rub it out. I walked about another quarter mile and decided I needed to start running again. But I couldn't. I simply couldn't make my legs go. I could do a little "jogging shuffle" but that was about it. The leg was still cramping a bit so the rest of the run was a walk/jog for me. It sucked. No, it really sucked. Making matters worse was the wave of 18-29 year-olds that had just started their 10k blowing by me as our routes shared part of the same streets. Damn kids. I finally got about a quarter mile away from the finish and decided I just needed to kick it in - and leave it all on the course. I reached the finish chute and that's when my leg decided to cramp up even worse than before. The rest of the way to the finish line was pretty agonizing, but I made it across and to the medical tent, where a very nice lady taped an ice-pack around my leg and told me I was awesome. She made my day.

Aftermath
I stuck around for a while, talked with some other racers, drank more Gatorade - now up to well over 100 ounces of fluids for the day - then finally grabbed my bike and things for the long drive home. It wasn't until I was about halfway home and thinking about my performance today - I was reasonably satisfied up until the 5k, but realized that shit happens - that I thought about how I did compared to other racers. Complete results haven't been posted yet, but I know I didn't do very well. But then it occured to me that I had just competed against some of the top duathletes in the country. This was the National Championships!

I'm definitely going back next year. I want to conquer that 5k, and I so need a re-do with that cycling shoe.

Now showered and sipping an ice-cold beer, I'm one happy, satisfied duathlete.

Yeah, I'm a duathlete.