Sunday, May 1, 2011

Flower City Challenge Duathlon

Feeling a bit under the weather, but went after it anyway. Very nicely organized race, no hiccups and awards were given out even earlier than posted!

Nice day for a race, low 40's, sun.

Run 1
3.15 miles/21:16/6:45 pace

Pleased with this pace. I held back a bit to leave some for the end. The course itself was flat, except for the bridges over the waterways.

T1
:58, eh!

The transition area was quite long and I set up my bike at the far end by the run entrance which meant I ran the majority of the transition in my bike shoes, not ideal!

Bike
20.18 miles/58:16/20.8mph

Got off to a good start on the bike averaging about 23 mph even through some pretty sharp, but brief inclines. I was certainly helped by a bit of a tail wind. Somewhere around mile 15, I started to lose my steam. I was heading slightly downhill, but into a little breeze.

T2
1:06, blah!

Again a victim of the poor placement of my bike, I had to run the majority of the length through transition on my bike shoes. Add to this wobbly legs, and I was hurting good now.

Run 2
2.77 miles/21:28/7:45 pace

I really was hoping on a pace much closer to 7:00, but I just couldn't hold it. My legs were on fire, my feet mostly numb and a decent cramp on my right side. I grinded hard, just to get to the end. Thank goodness it was shorter than the first run!!

Total: 1:43:03 (1:43:10 chip time)

How did I stack up?!? Well, I'm clearly still a bit short of the top performers (winner at 1:28:11). I came in 3rd out of 20 in my age group, 29th out of 333 overall. Happy that I placed, but I still have some hard work to do to get my run legs faster, to keep up with the big boys.

My prize....a flower of course. Half marathon tomorrow...gulp....

2 comments:

  1. I saw a photo of you a few weeks ago in one of your posts. I'm thinking it isn't quite right to call your blog "one fat guy running" anymore. But it's a quandry, because I really like the name of the blog! Nice job on your progression over the last year. I have never tried duathlons or triathlons and maybe never will, although I do an 8.5 rugged trail/obstacle race in Rochester each fall. It has a 40 meter pond swim at about the halfway point, with water temps in the 50s. Does that count?

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  2. I have to make sure that I never forget why I started in the first place, so for now, the fat guy sticks.

    You are braver than me if you are racing in the water...maybe some day I'll try something like that...ever heard of the Spartan Races?

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