Fort Leavenworth CGSC Triathlon (Duathon) Race Report

Finishing up Run1 of the DU

Well, since I am on a roll here, might as well get my second race for the season race report out (this one was ONLY a month ago), so I can get back to posting a little more regularly and all.

Well, sorry to confuse folks with the title, but due to weather, the CGSC Tri became a Du, and they dropped the swim and modified the bike (less hills because of wet, possibly icy pavement).  Yeah I said possibly icy, game time temp was a brisk 38, hence the RD didn't want to have folks come from the nice warm pool, and freeze their butts off, get sick, and maybe keel over and have to crawl inside a Tauntaun (token Star Wars reference)!

But really, I was a bit mad because was going to try (no pun intended) my new 2XU trisuit out for the full triathlon, but guess it'll wait til next time.  And I was a little mad about the last minute change to the format, but found out that I actually like the no-swim kind of thing, hmmm, might do some more of these Du's!

Well the wife and dog and I made it a small little vacation the two and a quarter hours from Ft Riley for the race, and it was good to get back to my old stomping grounds at Ft Leavenworth, and no, wasn't in the "joint" there, just the one year school (which was almost the same!).  But got up on race morning a bit later than usual and drove to post and of course, got a crappy rack location, but oh well, I can ALWAYS use a good excuse in case I have a crap day!

Me at my rack, looking bewildered

 

Well, got my bike racked (brought the Jamis since I knew it was going to be wet and nasty) and laid out my transition, I got kinda smart and laid out my racing shoes (Nike Zooms) for my Run2 run shoes (the race was 2.25 mile run, 8.25 mile bike, and 2.25 mile run) and wore my regular shoes (Asics) for the Run1, that way I could kick them off, put on my bike shoes and roll out!  So my transition area kinda looked like Imelda Marco's shoe room, but it worked pretty good.  Plus my rack area was between the Run In and Bike out, but for the Bike In to Run Out, I had to double back, oh well.

Well, it's easy to pick me out (hint short guy in red)!

 

Well after the pre-race brief indoors, went back outside and got lined up for the run, which as always a good time, so I lined up about a row back so that the tall guys would block the wind a bit.  I love that every race I go to, I am about the shortest guy there, but that just means I have a lower center of gravity (which doesn't matter in running!).  But took off at the gun, and kept in the front area with the tall, lanky folks, and latched on to someone who was about my pace.  The course was a loop on sidewalks around the Ft Leavenworth golf course, with a few nice hills sprinkled in at the beginning and end, just to keep you honest.  But my legs felt good, and kept a nice pace and passed a few folks, mainly running up the hills at the end and got into T1 in good shape, and despite this having no swim, yeah I was wet from the drizzle / puddles, so I can kinda count that, right?

 Finishing Run1, not ready to puke yet!

Run1 - 14:54 (10th OA / 3rd AG)

T1 - :53 (10th OA / 3rd AG)



 

The benefits of being small: I can draft a gnat!

 

On to the bike, which I will say, fortune favors the prepared!  Being a guy, I rarely read instructions, but I was bored the night before, and read the rules for the race here.  Tucked down in the bottom of the rule book, was THIS IS A DRAFT LEGAL RACE (not sure if it was in bold but, that is how I read it!).  Hmmm this could be fun, and yup it was, since not everyone read the rules.  But after putting on my bike shoes, I ran past the mount line, flying mounted my bike and was off, looking for a wheel, which I promptly found.  Another guy on a road bike just left T1, so rode behind him for a bit and kept finding someone better and faster until I found a dude who was cruising on a TT bike, so bang, on his wheel.  Which was not an easy chore, we were moving at a good clip, but being small I could tuck in nicely.  We picked up another rider, and became a little train o' pain, I took the 3rd position since I figured I could hide from the wind better back there.  Well despite taking out the REALLY BIG HILL, there were still plenty of rises to keep you honest, but the pain train kept on rolling.  We all hit the turn around, a nice 180 turn, and boogied on back down the hill.  A little after the picture above, we lost our middle man, so it was a two-man show for a bit more.

Our little pain train.

 

 

After we were down to two, and with about two miles to go, I looked down for something, looked back up and my TT was about 20 feet ahead of me.  Just a little lapse in concentration, and boom, lost the wheel.  Well, guess I would solo back, trying to bring him back, but I didn't want to kill my legs for a few seconds on the bike when I might be able to run him down on the second run.  So I still was cranking it out, just not at max effort, since I wanted to have something in the tank for the Run2.

 

Bike - 24:26 (5th OA, 2nd in AG)

T2 - :57 (35th OA, 9th in AG)

 

As you can see, not too big of a gap!

It takes a little skill to run in cleats!

Again, I look lost in transition

 

As I mentioned before, my rack was not the best place for the rack-the-bike-and-run-out, but it was a nice quiet neighborhood!  My T2 was a bit sad, but I caught my breath here, put on fresh shoes, and headed out for the money-maker, Run2!

 

Well Run2 was a bit like Run1, but I was alot more tired this time around, but 2nd in my AG (oops, he was in my USAT aged up AG) was just ahead of me, maybe about 15 secs up on me, so I worked on closing the gap early to try to demoralize him.  Not sure it worked because over the entire route, I would close to about 10 secs or less and he would open up to 15-20 again.  I knew he was toast because he kept looking back for me, but I was just not getting the "jump" from my legs.  We cat and moused the entire run, and it was a bit frustrating.  I knew I didn't have anyone behind me, the race was in front of me, but didn't have the gas to catch him, well, maybe if it was 2 more miles, but it wasn't.

The gap early in Run2.  Guy behind me is the speck on the far right.

 

But despite not catching him (behind him by 20secs at the finish), I still finished nice and strong, placing 6th overall in my first DU, and love the fact that my run has really come along after a year of "training only" while in Afghanistan.  But I really think that I like this run-bike-run thing, it eliminates my worse event!  But I still like the swim, somewhat. ;)

 

Run2 - 15:59 (9th overall, 3rd in AG, see a trend?)

Overall results - 57:06 (6th overall, 3rd in AG) with a gap to 5th at :20 and to 7th at 1:12.

 

But I'd like to thank whoever took the photos, was a nice surprise to see so many photos, and to the Leavenworth Tri Club (just might have to join, they are a good group of folks) for putting on a nice race, as always.  And the brave volunteers / voluntolds (CGSC students) for helping make this a great event.  I keep telling myself that I'm going to have to volunteer a few times, to pay it forward/back so might just not race some weekend and help out, we'll have to see.

 

But I am on a roll for these race reports and almost caught up, next one is my disaster in bike racing next, then I can get back to posting how my training is going and other funny tips!  Thanks for reading!