I signed up for this race on a whim! i just started working at the local running store (chain called Running Room) and found out a few days before this race event that all races put on by ‘FinalStretchInc.’ are free for employees. What a deal, I had to do it, but wasn’t sure if I would be ready or not.
Night before the race day is my favorite. Feels like I’m packing up for a vacation or something…making a list, checking it at least twice (learned that the hard way) and neatly packing all the things, and more, that I would need for my race. My biggest worry was the bike. I still had my ‘training’ tire on the rear, it was worn out to the point that it was not road worthy, but had plenty of life for the trainer. nonetheless, it needed to be swapped, so that was the first task at hand. Luckily, my buddy Stephen from http://www.gearandtraining.com/gearntrain/ had given me some Michelin racing comp tires to test out. I just put on the rear tire to give it a whirl on the road….smooth ride, i guess a 75 dollar tire might actually be worth the money?! To say the least, the first road ride of the year (albeit a short one) was really good and super fast!
I went through the rest of my list, got my Tri bag all packed up and was ready to hit the sack for an early rise Saturday morning. The nice thing, I learned, about a duathlon is that you don’t have to worry about the swim part…not only is that good for me cause I suck at swimming, but the lack of all the extra gear is nice to not have to worry about.
Saturday came on real fast! I had no problem waking up and getting ready for the drive to Cannon Falls (about 1.5 hours from my house). One more last minute check on the gear, loaded up the bike, sucked down a protein shake and had a banana….Dad was gonna show up by 6:15 to watch the kids for me….then off to pick Izzie up in SLP and head to the race. Race start was 9:00am, nice change of pace from your normal 7 and 7:30 starts. It was a brisk, but beautiful morning, and I was pumped, and a little nervous.
Directions to the sign - in area were mediocre at best…but I think my GPS in the car got me more confused then it really needed to be…and the fact that I have never really had the need to navigate through Cannon Falls before, but we made it in plenty of time, got registered, marked, set-up transition and started to warm up for the race start. A brief meeting 10 minutes prior to start and we were lined up in no time. i met a couple guys who were decked out in Team and Training gear so i struck up a convo to settle the nerves. They knew my buddy Drew who is a running and triathlon machine and does much work with TNT, so that was cool. Ready set go!!!!!
Off to a quick 2 mile loop….i have a Garmin 305 to track heart rate, mileage, and time…I don’t think i looked at it more than one time during the first 1.8 miles. Had to keep track of the heart rate mostly, being under trained and having a heart of steel can really be conflicting at times and that's when injuries tend to happen. HR steady at about 177, so I was working, but not too hard! 2 miles down and a fair amount of bikes were missing from T1…no problem! I felt like the bike was s going to be good this day, so I felt good about conserving energy on run #1. T1 felt pretty good, much quicker than in a TRI! And off to an out and back 14 mile ride in the country. nice roads, rolling hills and passing alot of people. Got passed a by a few, but never let it get to me too much and just kept plugging away. Besides my balls being on fire (lack of butt butter) i was feeling fairly comfy in the saddle and getting through the gears. I tend to hammer the uphills and put some of the competition behind me…I hate being passed back, so this usually works for me, and it did today too. NO passbacks on the bike at all! heading into mile 13 my right leg cramped up like crazy…again, not enough hydration during this windy ride…so I paid for it near the end. Had to unclip and let the leg hang out fora stretch and got passed by some gal who was just hammering it. I knew at this point I would have to clip back in and get through the pain…that's what I did and the pain started to fade. bike portion felt good overall.
T2 was very quick…I caught back up to the gal that passed me on the bike near the end and we were out of T2 at the same time. She was in first place for women and was really excited about it…we chatted a bit and then I left her alone and pulled away. A biker that I had passed on the bike portion had made some ground on me and passed me effortlessly on the run…I told him he was running too fast and he laughed out loud. I actually knew him from another race, but couldn’t pin-point it exactly, all I did know was that he was a hell of a runner and I wasn't’ going to try and pace him.
3 mile out and back…I love out and back short runs and my legs felt pretty good, but my HR was spiked at 182 so I just kept that pace. Learned later that it was a pretty nice pace (sub 7). I had some fun with the patrol police and the race photographer…cheered on some fellow racers as they were already on their way back to the finish. nice thing was I ddin’t see too many of them….YET! Made it to turn around on the run…had just downed a Roctane about mile 1 and needed a bit of water to wash it down. Water down the throat and I could feel the roctane take over. I now swear by that stuff…this was the first time I had raced with it and i was very pleased wtih its overall results. 1.5 miles to go, I could see some bodies out in front of me…had to catch them now or never. My biggest problem, as stated before, I hate being passed back, so at times I may wait too long to pass someone in the first place…I need to keep the confidence in my running and start picking these guys off quicker, cause I know I have it in me to keep up the pace. Anyway, caught up to a couple few guys…they were gassed so i took the opportunity to take them over and never heard from them again. About .3 miles left and 2 more runners and a last chance to move up 2 more places before the finish. hammer down and I did it…crossed the finish line in 1 hour 21 minutes 3o seconds. my goal was 1:25, so goal one accomplished…goal number 2…to feel good about my race! Accomplished! goal 3 was lofty….top 15 % for finishers……18 outta 131…….Accomplished! Great day, great race, and ready for more.
Thanks to Izzie for cheering me on throughout, Thanks to Mr. Bongers for putting on a good race to kick off my season…many more to come I hope. I bounced back pretty quick, ddin’t have time for the ceremonies and headed back toward SLP to relax for a moment and head back home to see the kids! What a great weekend, for so many reason, this one just happened to be my favorite part.
Night before the race day is my favorite. Feels like I’m packing up for a vacation or something…making a list, checking it at least twice (learned that the hard way) and neatly packing all the things, and more, that I would need for my race. My biggest worry was the bike. I still had my ‘training’ tire on the rear, it was worn out to the point that it was not road worthy, but had plenty of life for the trainer. nonetheless, it needed to be swapped, so that was the first task at hand. Luckily, my buddy Stephen from http://www.gearandtraining.com/gearntrain/ had given me some Michelin racing comp tires to test out. I just put on the rear tire to give it a whirl on the road….smooth ride, i guess a 75 dollar tire might actually be worth the money?! To say the least, the first road ride of the year (albeit a short one) was really good and super fast!
I went through the rest of my list, got my Tri bag all packed up and was ready to hit the sack for an early rise Saturday morning. The nice thing, I learned, about a duathlon is that you don’t have to worry about the swim part…not only is that good for me cause I suck at swimming, but the lack of all the extra gear is nice to not have to worry about.
Saturday came on real fast! I had no problem waking up and getting ready for the drive to Cannon Falls (about 1.5 hours from my house). One more last minute check on the gear, loaded up the bike, sucked down a protein shake and had a banana….Dad was gonna show up by 6:15 to watch the kids for me….then off to pick Izzie up in SLP and head to the race. Race start was 9:00am, nice change of pace from your normal 7 and 7:30 starts. It was a brisk, but beautiful morning, and I was pumped, and a little nervous.
Directions to the sign - in area were mediocre at best…but I think my GPS in the car got me more confused then it really needed to be…and the fact that I have never really had the need to navigate through Cannon Falls before, but we made it in plenty of time, got registered, marked, set-up transition and started to warm up for the race start. A brief meeting 10 minutes prior to start and we were lined up in no time. i met a couple guys who were decked out in Team and Training gear so i struck up a convo to settle the nerves. They knew my buddy Drew who is a running and triathlon machine and does much work with TNT, so that was cool. Ready set go!!!!!
Off to a quick 2 mile loop….i have a Garmin 305 to track heart rate, mileage, and time…I don’t think i looked at it more than one time during the first 1.8 miles. Had to keep track of the heart rate mostly, being under trained and having a heart of steel can really be conflicting at times and that's when injuries tend to happen. HR steady at about 177, so I was working, but not too hard! 2 miles down and a fair amount of bikes were missing from T1…no problem! I felt like the bike was s going to be good this day, so I felt good about conserving energy on run #1. T1 felt pretty good, much quicker than in a TRI! And off to an out and back 14 mile ride in the country. nice roads, rolling hills and passing alot of people. Got passed a by a few, but never let it get to me too much and just kept plugging away. Besides my balls being on fire (lack of butt butter) i was feeling fairly comfy in the saddle and getting through the gears. I tend to hammer the uphills and put some of the competition behind me…I hate being passed back, so this usually works for me, and it did today too. NO passbacks on the bike at all! heading into mile 13 my right leg cramped up like crazy…again, not enough hydration during this windy ride…so I paid for it near the end. Had to unclip and let the leg hang out fora stretch and got passed by some gal who was just hammering it. I knew at this point I would have to clip back in and get through the pain…that's what I did and the pain started to fade. bike portion felt good overall.
T2 was very quick…I caught back up to the gal that passed me on the bike near the end and we were out of T2 at the same time. She was in first place for women and was really excited about it…we chatted a bit and then I left her alone and pulled away. A biker that I had passed on the bike portion had made some ground on me and passed me effortlessly on the run…I told him he was running too fast and he laughed out loud. I actually knew him from another race, but couldn’t pin-point it exactly, all I did know was that he was a hell of a runner and I wasn't’ going to try and pace him.
3 mile out and back…I love out and back short runs and my legs felt pretty good, but my HR was spiked at 182 so I just kept that pace. Learned later that it was a pretty nice pace (sub 7). I had some fun with the patrol police and the race photographer…cheered on some fellow racers as they were already on their way back to the finish. nice thing was I ddin’t see too many of them….YET! Made it to turn around on the run…had just downed a Roctane about mile 1 and needed a bit of water to wash it down. Water down the throat and I could feel the roctane take over. I now swear by that stuff…this was the first time I had raced with it and i was very pleased wtih its overall results. 1.5 miles to go, I could see some bodies out in front of me…had to catch them now or never. My biggest problem, as stated before, I hate being passed back, so at times I may wait too long to pass someone in the first place…I need to keep the confidence in my running and start picking these guys off quicker, cause I know I have it in me to keep up the pace. Anyway, caught up to a couple few guys…they were gassed so i took the opportunity to take them over and never heard from them again. About .3 miles left and 2 more runners and a last chance to move up 2 more places before the finish. hammer down and I did it…crossed the finish line in 1 hour 21 minutes 3o seconds. my goal was 1:25, so goal one accomplished…goal number 2…to feel good about my race! Accomplished! goal 3 was lofty….top 15 % for finishers……18 outta 131…….Accomplished! Great day, great race, and ready for more.
Thanks to Izzie for cheering me on throughout, Thanks to Mr. Bongers for putting on a good race to kick off my season…many more to come I hope. I bounced back pretty quick, ddin’t have time for the ceremonies and headed back toward SLP to relax for a moment and head back home to see the kids! What a great weekend, for so many reason, this one just happened to be my favorite part.
GK17….out!
1 comment:
Way to hit those goals!! Congrats!!
Maybe see you at Apple, but no, I'm not doing Buffalo...
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