It was HOT. I finished 27th out of 99 in my AG. Needed to finish top 12 to qualify for the World Short Course Duathlon Championship in North Carolina in Sept. The bothersome achilles did not explode. No injuries.
Long Version:
Mid-hi 80’sF, 90+ in pm, sunny. Ouch.9:30am start for meThis B race on paper turned into to an A race on the day thanks to standard race day adrenalin, the hard to stifle competitive instinct, and world champ qualifying slots on the block.
Heat was the story. High in the low 90's in Richmond, hi 80's before noon. In April! APRIL. Whoever is in charge of the weather got the dials and levers way out of wack.
Top 12 in each AG got a ticket to the World Champs in Sept. No ticket por moi. Another Rockville native took 12th, so someone will be representin'.100+ in my AG showed up, 99 finished. That is huge for a duathlon. Twenty is a big turnout for one AG. 100+ is off the charts. All AGs combined often don't total 100.
The 40-44 racers came from NY, PA, OH, CA, WA, SC, ME, many DE/VA/MDers. Credit the big turnout to a cheap price ($65), a good shot at World's (12 slots per AG is a lot), an impressive pile of race shwag (backpack, hat, shirt, bottle, yada), and shrewdly scheduled before tri season kicks in to avoid that conflict among the multisporters. Came in 27th out of the 99 finishers in the 40-44 Men, turned out to be the largest AG in the race. 136th out of 588 men, and 140th out of 885 overall. If my calculations are correct... Chicked, x 4.
After a 10min jog up and down a shady stretch of sidewalk and a little stretching I eased into the start coral a few mins before the 9:30 gun. Weaved my way up to a spot about 10 rows back. All manner of attire on display. From the gear guru with knee-high compression socks, a skin suit and a head wrap (why not a full body celophane wrap to really boil?), to the minimalists sporting only shoes and shorts (sockless, topless, hatless). Not a single Fuel Belt wearing Urkle, surprisingly.
A 30-something looking linebacker with 44 on his calf bulled his way to ~5th row, parked, looked around, "you guys going sixes?" Silence. Nods to himself: silence = affirmation. Lots of thought bubbles reading "6min pace, really? Go for it Urlacher."
And... we're off. Straight downhill for 3 steep blocks before it leveled out. I semi-faked the run fearing my ornery Achilles could flare. Its recent squawking scared me into running only 3x in the last 2 weeks, 4-5miles a pop. Not much. So, I went out at a "conservative" clip... relative to the 30 or 40 guys rapidly disappearing over the horizon in front of me. I reeled a few back in - including a fading Urlacher - but plenty of dudes put at least a few mins into me going into T1.
No idea of my mile splits. I screwed up my watch at the start. A clue of my mental dullness on the day. I basically lack mojo as I walk around and do my Cullen thing, but I really had no mojo on the bike. Zip, nada. Generally similar in this way to the truly brutally hot and humid Cambridge duathlon 2 yrs ago where my pedal turners were not even jello, well, maybe hot jello, ie watery weak. If Cambridge was a 10 on the heat hobbler index, this was merely 8.5.
Even had I brought my good bike legs, not likely it would have made much dif. Fought off waves calf cramps on the 3 loop bike course. Consumed most of a water bottle, most of another bottle of electrolytes, 3 salt caps. Feared the calves would lock up big time once I got running over the last 5K run. Fortunately, they felt fine once off the bike. WTH?
Angry at the bike, dug fairly deep to catch people on the run. Urlacher had passed me on the bike, turned out to be the last guy in my sights. I caught him just before the uphill finish chute. Rookie move, I passed him early, giving him time to muster a surge to pass me. Nuts.
Could have used another half mile that should have been there. Instead of 3.1mi the course was 2.6mi. No biggie, I would not have caught many more guys, certainly not enough to finish better than 13th.
Band, beer, bagels, bananas, fajitas, water, sports drinks, gels… all free post race festivities I opted to skip. Knowing I was well off the top 12, did not wait till 3p for award ceremonies, got headed back up I95 before 1p. Popped in to work for a couple hrs as I was passing nearby anyway.
Then home to eat, eat, laundry, and eat. Planned to put the feet up, strap on the feedbag and watch a recorded Caps v Rangers game 6 played earlier in the day, but I had, of course, mucked up the recording program. Arghh.
Onward to the Triple T in just 4 weeks. Yikes. A few days of easy recovery, couple weeks ramped back up, then taper and head for OH.
http://www.americantriple-t.com/ohio/ohio.html
