Above, picture of me displaying my cool new hat, award plaque and 'wannabe triathlete tattoo' mark on my arm.DU STATE DUATHLON
You have got to be kidding me... even though it was my prediction, I can't actually believe that I finished 2nd Overall again. This is an awesome result, but come on, if I am going to get that close it would be nice to have at least one trophy that recognized a '1st place' performance.. Again, I am thrilled to take home 2nd place but let's quickly take a look at my 'hardware' (trophies) for 2008, in events involving my TT bike, to shed some light on my frustration...
Swing into Spring Duathlon - 2nd place overall
DICE 20k TT Championships - 2nd place overall
Iowa State TT Championships - 2nd place overall
Du-State Duathlon - 2nd place overall
This is all fun and games now, but that is going to be really confusing 20 years from now when I look back at my 2008 results.
Recap - My main goal was to have the fastest bike split and/or be the first one to arrive after T2... mission accomplished. There were 174 people entered, about 90 of which were entered in the Men's Open individual competition. I lined up at the front and began sprinting it out for the first 2 mile run segment. I was slowly but surely overtaken by about 15 people, by the time I got my bike rolling, but I still ran well. It does suck, though ,to be completely 'redlining' heart rate wise as you start what could have otherwise been a rewardingTime Trial.
Here is a link to the 2008 Du-State Duathlon Results.
I was about 1 minute behind some of the lead competitors, as I began pedalling for the 14 mile hilly bike segement. 4 rather steep hills and some flats sections between. (NOTE: some were on teams, so they had a runner and a cyclist, and didn't have to spend time transitioning).
One by one I passed the riders. Jeff Paul was the pre-race favorite so I kept my eye on him. He had a huge head start on the bike, but eventually I passed him about 10 miles in. I needed to get as much of a lead as possible because he is an incredible runner.
Unfortunately, I only had about 30 seconds or so on him (my bike split, then was about 1min 30 seconds faster) so he ran past me about 1/2 mile into the 2 mile final running segment... Ok, I can back up just a second. The second running leg of a duathlon is the most painful athletic situation I ever subject myself to, and today was worse then ever, because I totally let my running training lapse in favor of being a faster cyclist for the august races. I felt like walking and believe I will probably be ranked about 30th or so in the 2nd run.
I was being passed by some of the 'teams', but none of the other individuals were in sight.
So, sort of cool, to think that I still came in 2nd overall, after having a horrible second run. I did beat Jeff Paul up to the 2nd leg, so that means I should be good at the Harvest Hammer, which is a 5k run, then bike tt, without the grueling 2nd run. (still not sure if I can do that one yet, though).
I am glad that is over, it is a painful, and intimidating race, but I don't like to back down from a challenge, especially one that I have put upon myself. So I 'grew a pair' and entered.
At this point, I believe I am free to enter the IA state crit champs this saturday. This duathlon was extremely painful, which makes me think it was a good workout that will make me strong for the crit. The principle of 'training specificity' mandates that I should have spent more time on the bike doing sprints/intervals, etc. in prepartation, but hey, something had to give, and crit racing isn't my specialty. Having said that, if I enter, I am still going to give it a serious GO, and in a crit anything can happen.
Then, Saturday when I get back from Pella, I am going to grab a case of beer, and begin 'preparing' for Cyclo-cross, because my road racing season will be in the books until next spring.
4 Iowa Riders participated in Sunday's Cat 3 National Crit Championships. Results may be of interest (out of 68 finishers, around 100 starters):
Dominc Moraniec - 8th
Carson C. - 22nd
Chris Reed - 51st
Bryan Moritz - 56th
4 comments:
2nd? You might want to give up road racing and take up tris and dus... Good job second! That is a huge trophy, be sure to put that in my your 'I love me' room :)!
Look at it like this, they will never think you will win until you do.
What were the lengths for each leg of the race?
Come out to MI, we have a few extra road bike races after Labor day!
Chad - good work on the 2nd, wish I could say pigman treated me as well...
what are you doing for the crit on saturday? are others from muscatine heading up there? My brother and I are heading there saturday morning and have an extra spot if you want to cut down on gas costs/not drive 2 hours by yourself...let me know tcampbe3@gmail.com
also, i got a sweet blog I can talk shit on now...http://tcampbe3.blogspot.com/...if you get bored
take it easy - Tim C
doug,
if I get way too much free time, I will do some research into the Michigan racing scene and see what kind of races might be good. Thanks for the feedback, but duathlons really do sort of suck, to be great at them you have to balance running and cycling. so, you become an average runner and average cyclist, but not great at either until you race at the du.
Tim,
I linked up to your blog. I'll email you about saturday.
www.harvesthammer.org they have on-line reg.
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