South Bay Duathlon Report

Great day at the chilly South Bay Duathlon last weekend.

Results:

Olympic Distance:

Jon Erskine; 2nd overall, 1st 45-49 age group.

Juan Hernandez; 9th 35-39 age group

Sprint Distance:

Gunnar Roll; 6th overall, 1st 50-54 age group

Brad Williamson; 13th overall, 1st 60-64 age group

Gunnar's Race Report:

Thought I would post a quick race report which is not about a 10k race.

Last Sunday I completed my first ever Duathlon, the South Bay Duathlon, put on by USA Productions, in Morgan Hill. I choose the Sprint distance (2 mile run / 10 mile bike / 2 mile run) because the Olympic distance is NUTS. I was hesitant to sign up because it lacked a swim and I would have to do my weak sport twice in one race. But I was encouraged to try something new, by Coach Martin Spierings and "train through" the race and not taper. We have been doing a lot of multi-bricks so I felt I had the skills needed to give-it-a-go!

Weather: sunny and cold --> cool, no wind

Venue: a high school parking lot and country roads (open fields) Participants: 130 or so...

Warm up: 20 mins on the turbo trainer next to my car.. someone pulled their

car next to me and kept their engine running. This irritated me. then a 10 min run with accelerations.

Run #1 (2 miles flat roads): everyone bolted off the line. within the first half mile I was 30 spots back. the pace was relentless. I stuck to my race plan and held back my pace. sure enough in the second mile I began to pass some gasping folks who went out to hard. Ran into transition feeling in control.

T1: went smooth / fast / and passed a bunch of racers. I did a flying mount and slammed my right inner thigh on the saddle (huge bruise).

Bike: two 5 mile loops, mostly flat, with one small hill which I did in the small chain ring. I did not know the course so the first lap was recon. Settled into aero and kept pressure on the pedals. Second loop was faster and I passed a few more guys.

T2: flying dismount / super-duper fast. By this point I had tunnel vision and had no idea where I was in the race.

Run #2: once on the road I could see the competitors ahead. at the first right hand turn I counted heads. I was in 6th place. 5th was 15 seconds ahead of me, 1st was 90 secsonds up. I went into suffer mode, kept my cadence high, leaned forward, and never looked back. No one passed me on the run (which rarely happens). I turned into the finish chute glad to have this over!

Final Stats: 57:41 6th overall out of 130 1st in 50-54 age group out of 10 Run pace 6:40s (even splitting) Bike Pace 22 MPH