First of all, I'm very happy to say that I met my biking AND running goals for today!! I didn't set a goal for my transition time, but maybe I should have. I didn't expect for it to be twice as slow as last year. :-) I still finished the entire race in 1:08:19 (on my watch), which is about 4 minutes faster than last year!
The transition area was moved to a different parking area at the park, but otherwise, the course was the exact same as last year. It might have been a touch warmer and slightly less windy today. Overall, it was a pretty nice day for a race!
Only one woman was in the duathlon, the rest of us (8 ladies, I think) took part in the biathlon. The biathlon and the duathlon began at the same time, with the bikes all up front slowly rolling. The bike course had two identical loops of about 5.75 miles through some rolling streets here in Stow. The run course followed some local roads for the first two miles, and then looped back to the park on a bike path.
One lady and I stayed together for the majority of the bike part. We took several turns passing each other at various points of the race. She entered transition just before me (in 2nd place overall), which put me in 3rd at this point. Sandy (another racer) entered transition as I was leaving on the run. Within a half mile she caught and passed me, leaving me in 4th. She clearly had a strong run, and I knew I wouldn't be catching back up. So, this left me trying to catch the woman who came out of transition just before me. I had a hard time on mile one of the run today, but felt pretty strong during the second mile. I slowly caught up to the runner in front of me, and then passed her at the mile 2 marker. With one mile to go, I was now in 3rd. I felt pretty good, and I knew I'd better run hard to keep my place. I ran miles 1 & 2 in 20:07. I then ran the last mile in 8:37 - and felt really good. :-) I finished in 3rd overall for the women, which is exactly how I placed last year, but against different women.
Stats (on my watch and bike computer):
11.4 mile bike - 38:24 - Average 18.1 MPH
Transition - 1:10
5K run - 28:44
Total time - 1:08:19
Great job!!
ReplyDelete