**I had this post in draft and thought it was published two months ago! Better late than never! This duathlon took place on nov 8th, 2009**

After my duathlon last Sunday, I took a power nap only to be woken up by a horrible dream. I dreamed I took an extra lap on the bike leg of the duathlon. Reality check, that’s exactly what I did. Before I go into the details aka excuses of what went wrong, I’ll give my overall thoughts on the race and outcome.

I underestimated the travel time to get to Prospect Park from the city and ended up arriving at 8:05. Race begins at 8:30 AM sharp and I’m running around aimlessly. Where should I rack my bike? Do I have my transition gear ready? Where’s check-in?

I checked in at 8:12 AM and you should’ve seen the face on this girl!

Seriously dumbfounded! It’s not that serious, just give me my race chip! Anyways, the race organizer was announcing the details of the race which I paid zero mind to because it didn’t make any sense to me nor was it possible for me to retain that much info. If a race is well organized with directional signs, why do you need to repeat it to everyone? “Go over the hills , under the bridge, make a right, keep going straight, go right again and between these two trees” could’ve been summarized with “follow the signs moron”.

I head on over to my bike to prepare my transition gear (helmets, gloves, sweat headband, water) and had literally 5 minutes to piss (in a bush, don’t worry no one saw my pecker) and warmup. I’m estimating about 250 people (duathletes, runners, and relayers) was at the start line and I was somehow near the front of the pack. It was nice being in the front even though we weren’t actually racing at this point.

Run 1

And we’re off! Seriously we haven’t even reached 150 yards and the leader of the pack already established a lead (10 sec?). I managed to hold on for a wimpy 30 seconds before slowly being passed by runners. I looked at my new garmin 305 only to find that I’m only at mile marker .25. I did one of those double-takes — THAT’S IT!??! The course had a good mix of everything – flats, trails, uphill, downhills. While running to complete my last mile, I saw a guy dashing towards me heading to transition. “ROCHE” was his name and later found out he won the event. DAMN he’s fast, I think he ran 3 miles around 15 minutes and change. I always “friend” the top racers to get an idea of their training and if you’re lucky, most have a blog. You can follow David Roche here: http://myduathlonblog.blogspot.com/

I’ve never personally tested how fast I can run a 5k but  judging by how fast I ran a 10K (52 mins) I figured an all-out effort should get me to 24 minutes. That was my goal. I ended up finishing the first run in 22:08 (7:16/mile) which was 66th out of 144 duathletes. I can’t fathom what the hell running a 15 min 5k would feel like but certainly possible. Anyways, I head to transition following an asian dude (what’s up my brotha from anotha motha??) and head LEFT meanwhile my girlfriend is yelling “GO RIGHT, GO RIGHT”. The situation was even more confusing when Beyonce’s song was playing “TO THE LEFT TO THE LEFT. MMMMM…EVERYTHING YOU OWN TO THE BOX TO THE LEFT”. (don’t ask me how I know the words)

I was so winded at this point I took my time in the transition area slowly putting on my gear and heading out with my bike. Cycling is my strength, and by strength I don’t mean I’m fast. I mean if my life depended on either running or cycling I’d choose cycling. I head on out and feel pretty good because I’m actually passing people (maybe 20-25?). By this time I realized I frickin forgot my shades. I normally wouldn’t make a big deal out of this but I wear eye contacts. For those who wear eye contacts understand that they tend to easily dry when wind is blowing at your face. The only way to prevent the lens from completely drying out is to constantly blink.  Not only was I blinking like an idiot, I put my head down looking at the floor and road the bulk of the bike leg in this fashion because my eyes started to tear like a crybaby.

So how many laps did I do? Gooooood question, I have the slightest clue. I glanced at my garmin 305 and it’s telling me I was on my last lap. How could this be? I only passed my support crew 3 times. I doubted the garmin and said I rather go an extra lap than get disqualified. So that’s what I did, I took my chances and rode an extra lap.

Run 2

I head to transition to put on my sneakers and while I pointed my toe down to get my foot in the shoe, my calf cramped. Just like that, it cramped at the worst possible time. I walked out of transition and ran as fast I could while stopping to shake off the cramp. I don’t have a mantra that I repeat while competing, but this quote came to mind:

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

-Mahatma Gandhi

I kept repeating in my head like a broken record the above quote and realized, Gandhi is a fool! What is he talking about, this crap didn’t work. You can’t will yourself to go faster when your body isn’t cooperating. Period!

I noticed at this point, athletes that I’ve passed on the bike leg was already coming towards me to finish their race. How is that possible? Because I accidentally rode 5 laps instead of 4. I’m such a newb.

Race Result

Total time: 1:48:23

Official Overall Result: 116th out of 144

Had I not gone another lap I would’ve placed mid-pack around 75ish. Still happy nonetheless.

What I learned

• Don’t try anything new. This includes new tech, gear, clothes, etc
• Add 3o minutes to the time you think you’re supposed to leave your house
• Eat at least 1.5 – 2 hours prior to the race
• Do your homework. Scout the race map and properly train. There should be no surprises
• Unless you’re an elite athlete, ignore the competition and stick with your plan no matter how many people pass you.
• Racing is painful. And I like it.