This weekend was a great day for a race and I got to open up my legs to my first duathlon.  I can describe the Tyler Carter Memorial Duathlon as nothing more than great!  The run course was smooth with with a bit of undulation, and the bike course had fresh pavement on nearly every foot of the 18.9 mile course.

The small group of 60+ participants lined up ready to go.  The race went off and 3 runners were off the front of the group rapidly.  I settled in to my pace, that I knew I could sustain and still finish strong.  I got into transition one and my lack of equipment slowed me down a bit, however, within moments I had my cycling shoes slipped on, helmet in place and I was on the road in 4th place.  I settled in with my forearms resting on the tops of my handlebars and tried my hardest to keep the power to the pedals. At 18 minutes in I caught the 3rd place rider and had 2nd place in my sights.  Within several minutes the road turned and my headwind turned into a cross wind and then a tailwind several miles later.  With 4 miles to go I had a cyclist go flying by me and no matter what I tried to muster there was nothing I could do to stay near.  Within the next 4 miles I lost nearly 35 seconds.

Off the bike, and a fumble in transition with my running shoes I hit the road.  Feeling heavy legged and fatigued I did everything I could to muster a 6:50 pace.  By mile 1 I had caught 3rd place and did what I could to keep my pace up.  Finishing in just over 1 hour and 12 minutes I was more than happy to be done!

What a great day for me, and an even better day for athlete Melissa Thompson who took first overall female which was a great showing of true ability after coming off a less than desired St. Anthonys triathlon.  A hat tip to Grady Smith and Colin Prinsloo who showed us all what it looked like to make going fast appear easy.

RESULTS