RE-CAP: Falls Duathlon & Spring Classic Kids Mile

While I was setting up in the transition area at the Falls Du (start time of 9am), Carin brought the kids to Rochester so Jace could run in the Kids Mile at 8am.  I asked Carin to send me a text after Jace finishes the run.  I checked my phone about 8:45 and there was a text on there and all it said was  "6:45".  So...Jace finally got under 7 minutes in a solo mile race.  I found out later that he was first to cross the line as well.  The Kids Mile is totally for fun--no awards, no placing, but they do have the big timing clock running so the kids get to see that as the start and finish.  Good day for the little guy.

As far as the Falls Du goes, I had a painful, but great race.  A lot of talent showed up today which included a lot of fast runners. Here's a few that were there: 

• Chad Millner, an accomplished tri/duathlete who usually races in the elite category if its offered (but I don't think he is a card-carrying Elite). 
• Jesse Nelson, last years Falls Du champion and winner of several tri's/du's, track coach. 
• Troy Vargas, raced at Worlds in 2009, just raced at Nat'l in VA last week, finished 3rd last year at the Falls Du, but was actually in first until the last mile of the race when Jesse, and Ian Lanza caught him--I wasn't very close to catch him, but did finish 4th in 2009

This year it was more stacked in my opinion, but it was mainly due to running talent.  However, I think the horrible wind out on the bike course helped me out.  I, as most people, do not like riding in the wind, but I seem to do a little better head-to-head with people that are normally faster than me when its calm.  Anyway, here's my splits:

• Run 1 (2 miles)- 11:49, 13th overall (5:55 per mile pace)
• T1-  00:48
• Bike (14 miles)- 36:23, 2nd fastest bike time (23.1 mph av speed)
• T2- 00:34
• Run 2 (3 miles)- 18:40, 9th overall (6:14 per mile pace)
• 3RD place OVERALL FINISH @ 1:08:15
• 1ST AGE GROUP 35-39

Here's how it went down... 

RUN 1: It hurt like he//.  Not the legs, but the lungs.  I was in about 5-6th position for a bit and could still see Millner and Nelson, but then I think they increased speed as I decreased and they got so far out, I couldn't see them for much longer.  A handful of others caught me and I was guessing I was in T1 in about 15th position or so, but I got there in 13th.

BIKE: It was about 1/2 - 3/4 mile maneuvering thru side streets before we were on a main stretch of the course that went almost straight North and would turn us around at mile 7 (it was an out-n-back).  I caught a few people within the first couple of miles then on the main course we had a pretty decent wind from the SW.  Sort of a cross-tail wind.  Then I saw that I was gaining on Andy Clark and finally passed him.  Then, to my surprise, I saw Troy Vargas.  He was having a little trouble on the bike as he was on his road bike with TT bars--his TT bike was still in VA!  About a mile or two later I was in 3rd position.  I was approaching the turn around and first saw Millner coming at me, then Nelson.  I shifted to the smaller ring up front for the turn, made it around the cone, then came the WIND!!  What a big change at the turn-around.  The wind was ridiculous. I'd never TT'd in such high winds.  A couple of times I was blown almost all the way to the center line!  I didn't even go back to the big ring.  I eventually caught and passed Nelson at about mile 11, but he stayed within about 1/4 mile of me.  I hit T2 in second place overall and was pretty thrilled about that, but knew Nelson and maybe a couple others would catch me.

RUN 2:  Nelson transitions so fast, its probably negative time and he can out run me by AT LEAST 30 seconds per mile--ok, more.  He caught me at about .75 miles in and ran with me for about a minute. Thinking people were gaining on us, I said "You better get going, don't let me slow you down."  He said "Ahh, I'm not going to catch him (Chad Millner)."  He sped up a bit after that, but I was able to keep him in my sights almost all the way to the end.  This was mostly at out-n-back too, so it felt good to hit the turn around and know that run 2 was half over.   However, I wasn't 100 yards on the way back when one by one guys were approaching the turn around.  I had to speed up or at least maintain my pace.  I kept glancing at my watch to see the mileage.  I didn't feel safe until I could see the finish line.  Even then I looked back just to make sure.  I crossed the line in 3rd overall and less than a minute behind Jesse Nelson, but over 4 minutes behind the winner, Chad Millner.  That is one of my best races to date.

They had a lot of sweet drawing/give-aways after the awards which was a nice surprise.  The Grand Prize was a Blue-Seventy Wetsuit.  Get this, they drew number 103.  WHAT?!?!?  That's ME!!  

FULL RESULTS: Go here, then click on RESULTS. They are still working on them. I believe this was the first race that Final Stretch used their own, brand spankin new, timing system.  Many of the split placings are way off as they have someone at over 31 mph av speed on the bike.  They have some Transition times as the run and bike times so its pretty messed up...