Spring Classic Duathlon

I completed my first true Duathlon with Run (aka Walk)/Bike/Run (aka Walk)... Previously I did a Duathlon that it just had you bike and then run. This was definitely a different experience...

It was at a nice close location to home... I just had to drive about 10 miles to airport way. Got there in time to do some creative parking... Picked up my race packet and headed back to the car to get my gear. Found that someone had boxed me in with their parking job, but didn't care since I knew I would be one of the last people to finish so I wouldn't be needing to worry about being boxed in.

Headed for the transition area - got my legs marked with permanent marker - they put your race number on one leg and your age on the other. Lets people know your number no matter what and you can glance at someone and know if they are in your age grouping or not... (always fun to have that on my legs for the next few days as well...) Got my gear all set up in the transition area & waited around people watching... Quite interesting to see all the different things people do to prepare to start. Some running around, some out riding on the course... Me, I people watch... The guy with the Bert and Ernie Jersey, the gals that hadn't done an event at all before, the diehards that had to have everything "just right" in the transition area... It is all interesting...

Finally it was time to crowd up to the starting area... Listened to a guy explain the course... Basically back and forth a bunch of times on marine drive...

We started out, and I quickly realized that I was at the back of the pack... I mean the very back... I thought I was the only person walking the event until I caught glimpse of one other person doing so that was behind me. I knew there were no restrictions on doing so, so I just went along doing my thing... Listening to my MP3 player and walking along at a good pace right around 12:30 minutes per mile. The first 5K went quickly... I was back in just over 38 minutes... Pretty good...

Walked down into the transition area & joked with the volunteers in there about finding my bike... There were only 2 left! It was easy to find, get rid of my coat, MP3 player, Garmin, and find my helmet and riding gloves... Up the hill and time to start again... It was funny trying to get my leg up and over the bike, a bit wobbly after walking a quick 5K. Got up and out on the course quickly & it was nice for a change of pace.

Out and back two directions. The going out and back got a bit boring (we covered the same bit of ground like 4 times) but it was neat to be facing the people ahead of me... Time for pedaling and more people watching... Going out wasn't too bad on the first leg of the biking, but on the way back of the first leg was something else... The gorge winds (this course is right along the Columbia river) really were strong... I usually on a calm day could ride 20 mph no problem... I was working to maintain 14 mph on average. I just kept pedaling along... Thankful that my equipment cooperated and I didn't have to walk back to the starting line with my bike like a few others had to do... (not sure if they had flats & no equipment with them to fix it or didn't want to spend the time...) Again, I was just thankful...

As I got to the turnaround for the second leg of the bike, I stopped and stood up for a bit. My lower back needs to gain some strength or something, it usually gets sore after about 10 miles (nothing like it used to with my previous bike)... Got back on the bike and back to riding... Came back to the transition area with a time of 1 hour and 2 minutes for the 15 miles... Average speed of 14.36 MPH.

I was happy to be back on my feet again. The wind doesn't effect my speed on my feet. I had grabbed my Garmin and my MP3 player and headed back out on the course. Got all the gear back on myself & decided I probably should munch on something. I had a peanut butter egg thing in my pack... I munched on a bit of that & was so upset when part of it dropped to the ground! MAN... LOL... At least it wasn't the rest of the thing, there was still one more bite to enjoy and get a bit of a sugar rush from... LOL

WALK, WALK, WALK, kick a nail on the shoulder to the dirt/grassy area on the side of the road... WALK, WALK, WALK, kick a screw out of the road... Yes I was bored and didn't care if I spent a few milliseconds kicking stuff off the road. I would hate to be someone that drove over any of these things, so why not kick them out of the road all the way?

Just kept walking, thankful that I had music to listen to. Close to the end (about 3/4 mile out) I was pressing the buttons on my MP3 player to go past a song that was slow, or one that isn't my current taste in music and I was delighted to find a silly song that Mikey had put on my player... It is called CRAZYFROG that has a fun and crazy beat to it that just pumped me up to get me going the rest of the way. I was out in the open with no one around at all so I was singing along with the beats as well... :o) Yes, having fun & getting to the end in quickly!

I finished up the second 5K in just under 41 minutes - 13:10 minutes per mile.

This was lots of fun. I would love to do the same course without the wind and see what my times would be.

I got a really nice finisher's medal and a 3rd place in my division medal... My division was the Athenas - women over 150 lbs. Nevermind that only 3 people registered in that division! LOL

My final stats:
Overall time: 2:26:14
1st 5K Run/Walk time - 0:38:33
Transition Time - 2:07
15 mile Bike Time - 1:02:41
Transition Time - 1:56
2nd 5K Run/Walk time - 0:40:56

Found pictures on the internet - cool to see one of me on the bike!

First 5K


On the Bike :o) -- -- 2nd 5K