South Bay Duathlon Race Report

The South Bay Duathlon just 20-25 minutes away in Morgan Hill and run by one of our local race companies was a perfect way to kick off the season in that respect! The course started and finished at the local high school but was mostly rural through farm fields and parks.

The best part about small local races is getting to do them with lots of friends.  I was busy visiting with people from the moment I got there (Mary and I were parked right next to each other) until the moment I left!  Meredith was even awesome enough to come down just to volunteer removing timing chips at the finish line!

With agility & nosework classmate/masters lanemate Mary and my aunt Jo

Three ELF athletes at today's race - Kristi, Mary and me

Oh, you wanted to hear about the race, didn't you?  Well...let's see.

One thing I haven't talked about much here on the blog is that I aged up into a new age group this year!  The 35-39 women are one tough and competitive group but I'm excited to join the ranks.

The 39-and-under women's field lined up at the start line first (yay for going before the men for once!) and with a honk from the air horn we were off!  The pace was pushed from the start but I was pleasantly surprised to see I was hanging with 3 or 4 other women at the front.  One quick flat loop on the run course and we were back to transition.

2 mile run, 7:21 average pace.  The first mile was the fastest mile I've run to date, a 7:06.  Soooo close to finally breaking 7 minutes for a mile!

T1: 0:52

Off onto the bike and time to hammer two mostly-flat-with-one-steep-hill loops through Morgan Hill.  My instructions from Coach were to hold ~90% of my bike test watts for the ride, so I just focused on pushing the pace and keeping my watts up.  It made it simple in the headwind, tailwind, uphill, downhill, etc to just keep those watts up!  I found the uphill was the one spot I got to catch my breath!

10 mile bike, 18.7 mph average.  And I totally nailed Coach's instructions with an average power of 91% of my threshold watts!

T2: 0:49 (and would have been faster if i hadn't had to tie my shoelace that had come undone during the 1st run! Time for some speed laces...)

And then off for another loop of the run course!  I'd made the mistake of taking a caffeinated gel pre-race and it came back to haunt my stomach at this point.  For the first mile, I hung with another woman from my AG that I'd been back and forth with the entire race and when the chance came to go with some faster women from another AG I went for it and pushed as best I could the end.

2 mile run, 7:52 average pace.

At this point I was quite happy just to have nailed my plan as determined with my coach - that's always what I consider the biggest success for a race.  The combination of perceived exertion (on the run) and hard data (on the bike) worked just as intended today!

I drank some water and cheered in all my friends and family...put a layer back on because I was getting cold...packed up my stuff and chatted some more with Mary and Kristi.  We said we should check the results before leaving so we wandered over to the results tent and realized the awards ceremony was going on at the same time.  Just about the same moment I saw the posted results, I heard my name being called!

*whoops*

Making the podium for my 1st race in the 35-39 is an extremely nice way to begin!

Puck wanted to help display my prize shirt, just so he could sneak into the blog for Maggs

I was a good athlete and went for my recovery run before heading back home.  Jeff was peeling bags and bags of oranges off our tree when I got back, so I ended up juicing something like 100 oranges.  We are stocked on Vitamin C for the week.

Don't worry, I made sure there was fun race recovery eating accomplished!

Thanks to my coach for taking me to new levels every year!  Thanks to TrainingPeaks for supporting me in racing this year - I look forward to having a team kit to wear by my next race!  And thanks to Concept Cyclery for keeping my bike happy and healthy so I can ride the heck out of it!