HP3 Duathlon at Heritage Park - Duathlon

Started off nice and slow. Being my first Duathlon I figured I'd just take it easy the first 5K then see what happens. I noticed a couple guys in my AG. I passed two of them at around mile 1 then one of them passed me at around the 2 mile mark but he didn't put too much distance on my going into T1.

Nothing. I think I paced that first run perfectly

I actually brought two pairs of shoes. The first pair were my Saucony Hurricanes which had standard laces. So I had to untie those to get them off. Everything else went pretty smooth. I wasn't dying to have the fastest T1 either.

Nada

I didn't recon the course, I was familiar with some of the roads but not in the same direction as the race. I rode the first loop very conservatively, mainly because the roads were still wet from the rain all night. There were still some puddles on the course. My second lap was TWO minutes faster than the first. I was in 17th place OA starting the bike, ended up in 5th OA coming out of T2, second fastest bike split of the day.

Recon course, at least ride one lap as a warm-up before the race. I could have been a minute, minute and a half faster had I done that. Cost me 5th OA at least.

I wore socks so ran with my bike shoes, didn't have to go too far. Put on my Zoot Tri shoes this time, no laces.

Pretty good transition for me. Nada.

Typical post bike tight legs to start with. I know my HR was up there so I just settled down a bit and tried to just run relaxed. I was pretty sure I was ahead of any other 45-49 year olds out there so the question was....could I hold on?. 3 of them were faster than me on the first 5K. I remember passing a guy in his 20's on the last lap of the bike and he went cruising by me about a half mile into this run. The 2nd run had at least two loop around sections where you can see where your competition is. I saw two M45-49 runners in that first pass and I figured I had at least a minute, minute and a half on them. The last loop around the gap had widened so I felt good about my chances.

As I started my turn towards the dam, about a 1/2 mile from the finish I looked back and ... nobody in sight. The next guy ahead of me was at least 30-40 seconds ahead so there was no way I would catch him so I just started shutting it down a bit.

Nada, a well executed race for me.

For the last 4 months or so I've only averaged 8-10 miles per week so I'm pretty happy with my paces here, especially the 2nd 5K

Walked over to the refueling area and drank two chocolate protein drinks and half a banana, then some water. Just chit-chatted with some of the other competitors and volunteers.


Training, mainly run training.


As usual, JCPR puts on a good race. This year the numbers were small, for sure the rain scared many away. It rained through most of the night and was still raining at 5:00 AM.