3/5/09

Race Report:

Charlotte Long Course Duathlon

Race description:
The US National Whitewater Center will be the site for the 1st Long Course Duathlon of the Series. USNWC is the Official Olympic Training Center and hosts the world’s largest man-made whitewater river.

The run course will head through the Whitewater Center next to Class II-IV rapids and will provide a beautiful setting for both running sections. The run course is 2 loops and composed of packed gravel.

The bike course will proceed out through the small town of Mt. Holly in the beautiful countryside of Mecklenburg and Gaston County. The bike course will feature flat, rolling, and climbing sections sure to challenge all levels.

The race course revolves around a transition area located at the USNWC. The same transition area will be used for all phases. The transition area will open at 7am; ALL bikes need to be placed in position before the transition area closes at 8:45am.

The lowdown:

I'm just going to copy it from my log as that will be easier.

5th overall in 2:12:25.9

Run 1 - 4 miles in 24:44 (8th overall) Felt pretty good on the first run. Stride was smooth and didn't feel like I was working that hard although my HR would disagree with me. My breathing was never elevated nor did I feel over-worked so I'm happy with this effort. I ran most of the way with Cummins until he fell off just a little bit in the last mile to 1.5m. Transition 1 (run to bike) (38th overall) T1 - 1:13 Wow, this was bad. I didn't really know what I wanted to wear; everything I had set out was soaked anyway so it would have been freezing regardless. I dropped my sunglasses, couldn't get my shoes on...ridiculous. I made up 27 seconds on the first run on Cummins and he made up 30 on me in transition. Jeez. Bike - 30 miles in 1:20:13 (7th overall) Started off the bike course just me and Cummins and a bunch of people in front of us. We passed 3 people like they were standing still in the first mile so that was a good way to start. I was pretty comfortable to begin with but starting around mile 10-13 I got very cold. The downhill stretches were pretty miserable. I'm not sure when mileage wise but this big guy on a Look caught us and a little later on Behme caught us and we all ended up riding together the rest of the way. The course was very challenging, lots of rollers and barely any flats. The disc was not the best wheel option for this route. While it was great for the flats and downhills it felt very heavy on some of the inclines. My average HR was only 150 on this ride so I know I could have pushed it harder. I'm not sure what my LT is on the bike but my bet would be that it's higher than 150. Transition 2 (bike to run) (19th overall) T2 - :53 This was a little better. I only lost 19 seconds to Chris this time... There wasn't as much to go wrong, luckily. I followed Chris' lead and started unstrapping my shoes with about 100 yards to go, which proved to be a real pain b/c 6 total straps with cold hands is not the best. Shoes were a bit annoying to get on, I think I had the yankz too tight. Run 2 - 4 miles in 25:26 (3rd overall) Started off the run 20 seconds behind Chris with freezing feet and shoulders. I kept the pace fairly slow for a bit just to try and get my legs under me and feeling in my feet again. After a bit the stride smoothed out and I started feeling pretty good. I slowly made up time on Chris and caught him at the 1.5m mark or so. We then ran together for a bit before I decided to up the pace a little bit to see how it felt. I expected him to go with me but I was by myself. I kind of wish I had started going faster a little sooner because I felt really good on this run. I wasn't particularly tired (although the 2 uphills per lap didn't feel amazing) and my HR wouldn't even go that high. If I would have had better transitions (T2 mainly) I think I would have had a shot at catching Chris Olson. Although that's only because he made 2 wrong turns on the bike and lost a decent chunk of time.... Put a pretty strong effort out in this race though. I feel good considering that it's march. The 8 miles of hard effort felt good which is nice considering New Orleans is 5 weeks from now...