Competing against the best in the WORLD…

Last week I had the unbelievable opportunity to be a competitor in the International Triathlon Union World Duathlon Championships.  Most are familiar with the specifics of what a Triathlon is: Swim, Bike, Run.  A Duathlon is quite similar except there is no swimming and the sequence of events is: Run, Bike, Run.

Early last spring I entered the Mt Rainier Duathlon, which was a regional qualifier for the ITU World Championships.  The qualification specifics of the Rainier Duathlon were pretty straightforward, first two in each age group qualify for a Team USA slot for Worlds.  Categories are broken down into age groups, 5-year increments.  I finished 2^nd and thus qualified.

Interestingly enough I was skeptical of what this Worlds thing was all about.  I wondered if it was just a big business, moneymaking venture that lured all of these unsuspecting athletes into spending a small fortune prepping for and traveling to the event.  Or was it a legitimate World Championship event that by definition could really only be rivaled by the Olympics.  As the spring and summer passed and my training became more and more event specific I began to realize that this might in fact be a BIG DEAL.  Soon, I was sending photos to the organizers for my on site credentials (ID), ordering and receiving clothing with TEAM USA all over it, reading magazine articles about the upcoming events, etc, etc, etc.

The most ironic thing is how quickly I was able to qualify.  I come from a bike racing background.  Way back in high school I entered my first bicycle race and immediately fell in love with the sport.  For the next 6 years I lived and breathed bike racing.  I traveled all over the States testing myself against the best in the US.  My ultimate goal had always been to get picked up by the “Federation”, aka the United States Cycling Federation (USCF).  All I ever wanted was to wear the colors of the stars and stripes and represent our country in a few events.  But you see the USCF doesn’t really have an intelligent system for selecting its athletes.  Very few of their selections are based on merit.  They sometimes do have qualifying events but they will usually only take 1 athlete IF ANY from these events.  It is high on politics and low on merit…….ok, off my soapbox!  Back to the ironic part, the Rainier Duathlon was only my 3^rd Duathlon ever!!  Here in my first year competing in this new sport, I was IN!

This year’s Championships were held in Alpharetta, GA which is about 1hr north of Atlanta.  The course was to begin with a slightly rolling 10K run followed by a fairly hilly 40K bike, and then finished with another rolling 5k run.  In my category, 30-34 Male, there were ~50 competitors from at least 12 different countries.  All competitors had to pre-qualify for the event.

As always the race started fast, especially for me as my running is always my weak point.  The leader after the first my mile clicked in under 5 minutes while I was already 25 seconds behind.  (Coming from a cycling background I know I can expect to loose time on the run, make it up on the bike, and hope to hang on during the last run.)  At the 5K mark I was falling further behind but looking at my watch, ~18:15, I was pretty close to being right on schedule.  All I can hope for is that the folks out in the lead can’t ride as fast as I can.  The last half of the 10K I began to loose some momentum.  My heart rate was at the right place but I seemed to be slowing down.  I wanted to push harder but the feed back I was getting from my body was that you will pay dearly if you do.  I was beginning to overheat and once my core temp goes into the red it takes a long long time to come back down, ie not until after the event! For most, the temperature at race time was perfect but for me, the native Northwestern, the temperature was warm and a bit muggy.  I valiantly tried to keep my pace up but I could feel the body resisting.  I told myself to be patient and that it would all change once on the bike.

Once into the first transition even more feelings of dread began to creep in.  I could feel my core temp was into the red and my legs had molasses flowing through them. Regardless, I jumped onto the bike and rocketed out of the transition area.  Often times I can pass 5-10 people within the first 1k.  Today, would not be that day.  Immediately, I knew I was in trouble.  Numerous times throughout the bike section I wanted to throw in towel and just “soft-pedal” through it.  Each time I fought that urge and told myself to just keep trying.  Slowly I began to real folks back in.  By the 30K mark I was into the top 10.  While this may seem encouraging, for me the slower runner, I need to not only be in the lead coming off the bike but I need to have a cushion of 1-2 minutes if victory is to happen.  By the end of the 40k I had passed 5 or 6 more folks but my lead on them was not nearly significant enough. 

Dismounting the bike and cruising through the transition area went well.  Unfortunately, that was to be the end of my highlight film.  One would think that 5k or 3.1 mi is not that far to run.  Even more so when the course, like this one, was an out and back.  Go 2.5K out and turnaround.  By the time I got to the 4K to go marker I had already been passed by 4 people.  I was going slow and began to wonder if there was a minimum speed regulation!  If there were I would be in danger of violating it!  Every fan, volunteer, police person, as well as some of my peers offered encouragement and thus I felt obliged to continue the torture.  Continue on I did and after what felt like years had gone by a huge swell of relief and disappointment engulfed me as I crossed the line. 

While I was very much disappointed in my body’s refusal to cooperate I was happy that I participated and looking over the results it became obvious that 13^th was not a result to be ashamed of.  The bummer is to know that you could have done better, not to just hypothesis that you could have but to really know you are capable of posting a significantly faster time.  At Duathlon Nationals this past summer I posted a time, which was 4 minutes faster over the same distance.  The course for Nats was equal in difficulty to Alpharetta if not harder.  Four minutes is a lot of time. In fact it was the difference between finishing 13^th and bringing home the bronze medal.

It has been a long season, one that would not have been possible without the continuous support from my wife E’Lana.  Also, I have to offer a huge thank you to the sponsors that helped me make this season a reality.  www.RunningShoes.com stepped up in a huge way providing more than I could have ever hoped for in financial and emotional support,  Grand Ciclismo provided the nicest ride anyone could wish for, a Cramerotti Bladerunner TT bike( www.cramerotti.com  ) , and of course Recycled Cycles for their ongoing support and understanding.  It is a true statement to say that without this support I accomplish none of this!

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