Yesterday was a bit of a stepping stone for me in my (young) life as an endurance athlete.
I competed in my first multisport event...
I competed in my first multisport event...
Yes, I can already see my roadie friends cringing and shaking their heads in dismay. While this first foray into the world of duathlons was in direct contravention of rules 24 and 25 of the Euro Cyclist *(see below), I did maintain proper "Euro" etiquette by ensuring my legs were freshly shaven prior to the start. A practice which, I'm afraid, doesn't seem to be prevalent in duathlons. A quick survey of the other contestants confirmed what I had feared. I was alone in a heard of HL's. (Hairy Legs as they're called in the peloton).
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| (Locked and loaded. At the start, chilling with the HL's) |
All kidding aside, I had been looking forward to this event for the last 2-3 weeks after finding out from my father that I could take his bib for the race. (This short event was not conducive to proper Ironman form-building, so he opted to go for a longer brick workout). While I am by no means a runner, I knew that the specific "run" distances for this event - 3K, followed by 30k on the bike and wrapping it up with another 5k run, were not too inconceivable for me to accomplish. Further, the 30k bike portion, which happened to be on the OBC Time Trial course, was right up my alley.
So there you have it! Just a bit of running to warm the legs up, followed by a TT, followed by a 5k run! Should be easy right? Well, as it turns out, it's not so straight forward, especially if you've never tried running after a bike workout.
As I was lining up at the start line, I replayed in my mind the game plan that I had devised for the day. Don't get caught up in all the excitement and attempt to follow the quickest runners. Not only would I burn too many matches if I tried pushing the pace in the first 3k, but there would undoubtedly be many fast runners present for this split. (All events started at the same time; the long duathlon, the sprint and the relays.) Therefore you would be seeing people with completely different pacing strategies.
The horn went off and before you knew it I found myself near the front of the group pushing a 3:20 pace. Ok Alex, time to keep that ego in check and slow'er down. After getting that initial rush out of the way (and going momentarily anaerobic), I found 2-3 runners who were going at roughly 4 minute pace and kept it steady for Leg 1 of this 3 step race. I exchanged quick "good jobs" with these running-mates, ran to my bike in the transition zone and attempted a "quick transition". After a bit of fumbling and making sure that I wasn't forgetting anything, I navigated my way out onto the parkway and readied myself for phase #2.
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| (On the run. First split: 11:29) |
I quickly got myself up to cruising speed and was actually surprised at the amount of people I caught in the first 4-5 minutes on the bike. (I guess the majority of people there were stronger runners). I started drinking some water and popped a gel before I really got into my zone. My goal was to hold 40k/h in order to save some energy for the final run portion. I knew the course well, so there weren't really any surprises. It was windy or fast in the same usual spots. Before finishing my first loop, I had passed all but one of the competitors who had beat me on the 3k run. (I think 15-20 people were ahead of me at the start of the bike leg)
As I did my turnaround I was able to see my adversaries coming, and was thus able to gauge how much of a lead I had. (Roughly 1.5 minutes over 3rd place after 15 kilometers, as it turned out). On the flip side, the turnaround also allowed me to see how far behind the leader I really was. He had gone out really fast on the run and seemed to be maintaining the pace quite well through his bike leg. (I'd say at this point he was a solid 3-4 minutes ahead of me).
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| (Time to git'er done! Rockin the armwarmers with a sleeveless jersey. HOT!) |
Coming into the final 2-3 kilometers of the bike leg, I shifted gears and ran a higher cadence so I could flush the legs out as much as possible before my run. As I dismounted and parked my bike, my garmin read 39.6 k/h - not too far off my pre-race goal. I quickly put my running shoes on, took a final swig of water and jogged out of the transition zone.
I had been warned that the final run of a duathlon is always the hardest portion of the race. Some have referred to it as "running with a bear on your back". Having this in the back of my mind through the first two legs, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my legs were responding very well. Granted, I wasn't going to be setting a Personal Best for my 5k, but I definitely wasn't going to be walking it either. (One of my friends had joked that I would probably be doing the Ironman-Shuffle during the final run).
In any case, I put myself right back into the hurt locker and kept myself there for 20 minutes and 45 seconds. (Interestingly, only 1 minute off my 5K PB - fresh.) At the finish line, I was greeted warmly by Catherine, my mother and Cat's mother. Bagels, bananas and gatorade were thrust upon me, and I appreciatively devoured them. In the end, it was an awesome experience and I really hope to try some more multisport events in the near future! (Perhaps a Triathlon next year?? Dun dun dunnnnn...) Thanks also to Cyclelogik for their support and hooking me up with my race wheel!
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| (Oh, and I guess I can mention that I was able to hold my placing after the bike!) |
Results can be seen here.
And for those who actually read through the whole thing, here are rules #24 and #25 of the Euro Cyclist which were broken this weekend:
25. Any physical activity other than cycling is STRONGLY FROWNED UPON. This includes any form of running or swimming and their derivatives (this includes walking). The ONLY TWO other sports with a recognized degree of euro are: cross-country skiing and long track speed skating.
Cheers,
Alex
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