Lake Michigan 5K/40K/5K Duathlon
July 15, 2006 – Kenosha, WI
4th – 1:59:22
Many years ago, someone stupid thought it would be a cool idea to combine running and biking into one event. Then several years later, someone stupid thought it would be a cool idea to actually do one of these events. Gee, who could be that stupid? Well, duathletes like myself of course! OK, enough with smart ass comments, it’s time for my race report from the Lake Michigan Duathlon.
I have to admit that was nervous about my first duathlon. Maybe it was looking at the 2005 results and realizing that I had an outside chance of winning. Nevertheless, it was a feeling that I hadn’t experienced in years with a race. To help my nerves, I decided to take Friday off and drive up to Kenosha to spend the night. I found the Microtel Inn in Racine to be reasonably priced and only 15 minutes from the start. That evening, I picked up my packet and drove the course. Good idea, as I was able to head back to the hotel and relax. After a couple of beers, I was out like a light.
I woke up at 5:30 AM raring to go, but soon lost some of my enthusiasm the minute I stepped outside and felt the humidity. Oh, well, at least the race was starting at 7 AM, not noon. I got to race about an hour before the start and found that the triathletes (whose race started before the duathlon) had occupied nearly all of the racks in the transition area. I did find one spot to setup my gear, but I got a very snooty vibe from the people around me. I must have looked like the total novice, since I spent 5 minutes deciding how to arrange my gear. At least, I looked fast with my black TT bike and matching XXX team kit!
As I was stretching for my warm-up, I felt a tap on the shoulder and turned to be pleasantly surprised to see another XXX teammate, Chris McAuliffe. Sure, we couldn’t really utilize any race tactics like we would in a criterium, but it was nice to have someone to cheer on from your team during the race. We did a short warm up together, but found that our legs got loose rather quickly in 80 degrees F with a dew point in the 70s. Oh, this was going to be fun.
After all of these years of running, I’m so used to having the first people on the line go like bats out of hell. Thus, I decided to start a few people back as I wasn’t going to go that fast. Duh, I should have realized that everyone in this race was probably doing the same thing. I found myself trapped for the first 400 m, but that’s not a big deal over 50K of racing. I soon settled into my pace. I had planned 6:10/mile and that’s what I hit. The course was out and back with a few short hills and no real wind. I sat in third behind the top 2 guys who I had planned to get back on the bike.
Coming into the first transition I felt pretty good, but was a little disoriented. Triathletes were starting to come in from the swim which made things a little hectic. I couldn’t find my gear at first, so I was getting passed by people in the transition area. Plus, it took me a few minutes to get my cycling stuff on. Oh, well, rookie mistakes!
The bike course was probably one of the worst and best I’ve ever seen. The course was completely closed to traffic and a simple 5 mile loop. Unfortunately, there were a lot of tight corners, a few short hills, and the first 1.5 miles were bone-jarring enough to warrant a Santa Cruz Blur. I found it impossible to use my aerobars the first half of the half of the course, which was not a bad idea considering the pavement and the effort required to dodge other triathletes. Thankfully, we had a few glorious miles on a newly resurfaced Sheridan Road. Here I was able to get into my TT position and open up to 24-26 MPH. On the way back, we detoured on a bike path, which was smooth but made passing challenging. On my last few laps, I saw the heat really get to people on the bike. I saw a few crashes including people on hybrids with aerobars. I’ve never quite understood putting aerobars on a hybrid, let alone crashing on one of the most stable/controllable bikes you can buy. Go figure.
Overall, I felt pretty good on the bike and got plenty of fluids. I felt my calves cramping at a few points, but I figured this was from the heat and coming off the run. I probably could have pushed myself harder, but I wanted to save some for the last leg of running. Now, the second transition is where things got very interesting.
After taking my time on the first transition, I wanted to fly through my second since I thought I was in the Top 3. Ummmm…where’s my stuff? I made a total rookie mistake and couldn’t find my running shoes! Thus, I lost about 90 seconds just walking back and forth along the racks trying to find my damn shoes. My legs felt like mush anyway, so the first few hundred meters were tough out of the transition.
My last run was frustrating, since my energy levels were high but my legs were Jello and the humidity was starting to affect me. The first mile was about 7:30, but I was able to pick up the pace once my legs adjusted from biking. However, I wasn’t able to replicate the 6:10 pace from the first run. On the way back to the finish I dropped the hammer as much as I could and passed a few duathletes who had passed me in the transition as well as a bunch of triathletes out on the run. Coming into the finish, I saw I was going to break 2 hours, one of my original goals.
Not a bad first duathlon. I now understand why multisport events are so hard. Going between different disciplines puts on a lot of strain on your muscles and psyche. Besides the heat, going 100% for 2 hours starts putting you into marathon land and the potential to hit the wall. The next time I do one of these I’m going to practice my transition and pacing on the runs. As much as some people get addicted multisport race, I would rather stick to one at a time. They’re less painful (sort of).