Up The Crooked River Duathlon Race Report
- bradleyhaag
- May 12, 2014
- 3 min read
Background
I stumbled upon a flyer for this race outside of a gym just a week or so before the actually race. Although I had heard about this duathlon in past years, until finding this flyer had no idea on the details of the race. Being that I hadn't really been training for a duathlon (or a triathlon for that matter), I debated for a a few days on whether to race it or now. But after talking to another triathlete who was racing it, I decided to go for it. Additionally the fact that it was only $40 made it extremely appealing as well.
Race (5k Run, 40k Bike, 5k Run)
Pre-race activities (setting-up transition, packet pick-up, etc.) went as normal and before I knew it the gun (or rather a guy screaming go!) went off for the first 5k run. Seems I've been doing endurance races for almost 5 years now, I know that everyone goes out way to fast so I tried my best to hold back in the start while others passed me. Even knowing this my first half mile was still well under a 6:00min/mile which is pretty fast for me, finally after the race start energy died down I was able to maintain a nice steady pace.
At this point of the first 5k run I was in 5th overall and assumed I would catch the guys in front of me, but even as my pace picked I just couldn't catch them without blowing up (mind you I still had a 40k bike and another 5k run ahead of me). So after the first transition I was chasing the leaders down on the bike to try and move up in this race. Although I was able to catch one guy pretty quickly I was soon past by another keeping my in 5th place.
The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful, I just hammered away taking in the beautiful sights of the crooked river this bike route paralleled (hence the name). As the turn-around neared I saw the 4 other riders spaced out by about a minute each fly past me in the opposite direction, this made me realize I was a good chunk of time behind them and was basically racing for a podium slot (top 3) at this point.
Soon after the bike turn around I pasted one rider and was now in 4th overall. Then just like earlier I was pasted by another rider just before transition putting being me back in 5th place. This time however, I wasn't to worried as I knew I could beat him out of transition and on the run.
After a 6 second T2 (seriously my dad timed it), I was off on the run leaving the guy who just passed me on the bike still in transition fumbling with his gear. For the rest of the race I just ran through the pain of exhausted legs. The guy behind me wasn't going to catch me and unless I go under 5:00 min/miles, I wasn't going to catch the guy in front of me, so I basically just pushed myself to finished at a steady hard effort.
Overall Thoughts
I'm super happy with this race! Although I didn't take the overall win or even make the podium I raced as fast as my body could on that day, which is all you can ask for. The fact is, the guys ahead of me were just plain faster runner and bikers. Could I train harder and beat them? Yes, or I could continue to train just 6-8 hours a week and swing kettlebells around!
Comments