Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Recap of the Younglife Fall Classic Duathlon

In the Spring, my multisport racing started with the Oakdale Spring Classic Duathlon. Just this past Saturday, my multisport racing season ended with a race on the same course--the ParkTool/Younglife Duathlon. It was nice to do the same race at the beginning of the season and at the end so results can be compared. I expected my race time to be about 5 minutes faster at the Fall version, but we'll blame that on the wedding we attended the night before. I was still about two minutes faster, but the wine and margarita's may have held me from beating my time by more...time.

The course was a 3 mile run, 13 mile bike, 3 mile run. The race winner was Neil Miller (GearWest). He won it in the Spring as well. This adds another component for comparison as it shows if you are gaining on the race leader. His time was 14 seconds faster this time around. Overall, I finished in the Top 10 with a time of 1:12:08 (Spring Classic time was 1:14:19). I improved on all three sections and I suspect my transitions came down a little too. They added about 200-300 yards to the start, claiming that the Spring race distance for Run 1 was a little short. Run 1 for me in the spring was 19:03; the other day it was 18:39. Not blazing, but I'm happy with it. I was 15th on Run 1. The bike time shows me taking longer, but the bike section included T1 (no chip timing at this race), while Run 2 included T2. I was hitting the lap button on the HRM, but couldn't do it on the way in to T2 because I was jumping off the bike and not crashing is a priority of mine (obvious statement). My computer showed 13.3 miles @ 32:50 with a 24.2 mph average--I checked that while it was racked after the race. I am guessing that is about right. I hit T2 in about 3rd overall, but was beat out of T2 by about 4 guys that came in just behind me so by the time I was on the trail for Run 2 I was in 7th position overall. This is accurate because I passed one (teammate Joe M. or J-Mo), was passed by two (one of which was teammate Jason S.), and ended up in 8th overall. Jason finished 6th, and J-Mo 9th so all the PCR guys in the race placed Top 10 overall. PCR Ann M. (A-Mo) was the 3rd female overall and placed 1st in her age group.

It was a fun race and a nice placing to end my du racing for the season. Now on to CX (that's cyclocross for the abbreviation impaired). Well, maybe CX. I love those races, but I think the family has had enough racing weekends and I am not sure I want to go at "puke intensity" again this season.

STAY TUNED FOR INFORMATION ON A MULTISPORT TRAINING CLASS STARTING IN JANUARY AT THE RAC.

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