I Like To Ride My Bicycle (Race Recap)

It was the eve before my first duathlon.  Steph, Carolyn, Ed and I were set to head to Winkler Saturday evening to spend the night prior to a quick drive to Morden.  There, we would participate in a Try-A-Du, which is a 2k run, 10k bike, 3k run event.  Being in the southern most part of the city and Carolyn having to work until 7pm, we decided to convene at my place for dinner.  I marinated some chicken breast and pork loins in smokehouse mesquite and honey dijon.  Steph arrived first and we cubed up the meat and veggies to make skewers.  Included were mushrooms, red pepper, zucchini, onion and mango.  Ed dropped off his gear and potatoes, then returned home to retrieve his bike.  I boiled the potatoes for a bit and put on the first batch of skewers onto the BBQ.  Once soft, I seasoned the potatoes and put them on the BBQ as well.  Steph prepped her salad and once Ed returned, the food was ready shortly after.  It was a delightful dinner indeed.  Carolyn arrived soon after and partook in a bit of dinner.

Delicious duathlon eve dinner

Once finished, we loaded up mine and Steph's SUV's with our bikes and luggage.  Carolyn rode with Steph and Ed rode with me.  It was about an hour and 20 min drive to Winkler.  I just followed Steph all the way there, despite having it mapped on my Garmin.  We checked in and unloaded the cars.

All lined up and ready to race

We chilled in the hotel, had some snacks, etc and started a game of Settlers of Catan.  Ed had never played, so I explained the rules and he caught on fairly quickly.  The board wasn't ideal, but note I didn't set it up.  2 deserts, later replaced one with wheat, removed the only 5 because it was placed on a desert, only one 9 and a trifecta of 11's were all placed together.  Ore was a commodity seeing as they were all 3's or 11.  During the game, it started pouring outside.  We just hoped that it would stop raining before morning.  Another bummer was, we lost all tv reception which didn't return at all that night.  Carolyn won Stettlers in the end and we decided to turn in.  

I always have difficulty sleeping away from home.  I don't think I slept at all.  If I did, it might have been no more than an hour between 5 and 6am.  Alarms went off at 7am and we got ready to leave.  We all grabbed a bite from the continental breakfast then packed up the cars.  Morden was no more than 10 min away and I followed Steph to Colbert Beach, the site of the Duathlon and Triathlon events.  We registered, got a wrist band chip, body marked with our numbers at the tent and then got our bikes ready at the transition area.  To my disappointment we didn't get racing bibs as I've been collecting mine.  The full adult Du's and Tri's were held the previous day.  Sunday was reserved for the kids Du's and Tri's as well as the Try-a-Du/Tri. 

Our duathlon was supposed to start at around 9:50, following the kids races.  We actually didn't get marshaled in until close to 11, so the waiting around was getting a bit tiring.  I made sure to stretch, but might have been a bit too early.  Including our group of 4, there were 5 male and 3 female participants in the duathlon.  The race started and I took off quickly out the gates.  Probably a little too quickly.  I fell into a slower pace and 3 or 4 people passed me along the way.  My lack of sleep probably hit me sooner than I expected, so I paced myself the rest of the 2k run and got myself to the transition area to helmet up and grab my bike.  I'm not a very strong cyclist, so I did what I could.  Just after passing the entrance to the park, one of my water bottles fell out of my belt.  Doh!  I wasn't about to stop and turn around to retrieve it.  As I got to the highway, we cycled into the wind, uphill.  This was not fun.  Not knowing which gears to use, I experimented.  More people passed me.  There were more people passing me than were in the race.  How could this be?  I realized later that some of the participants were from the triathlon.  Shortly before reaching the turn around point, I found the right gear that required easier peddling with better speed.  I also caught up to some participants and passed them now that we were going down hill with the wind at our backs.  It was a much easier cruise back.  I spotted my water bottle, so I quickly pulled over to retrieve it.  Shortly after I got back to the transition area and hopped off my bike.  This was where I expected my legs to fail me, but I ran my bike back to the rack, removed my helmet and exited to do the final 3k of the run.  My guess was, the little jaunt with support of running with my bike made the transition easier from biking to running.  I did not have the same sensation of useless legs as when I did my practice runs earlier that week.  I ran the 3k almost continuously, except for when I grabbed water where I walked to drink to avoid spilling most of it.  I wasn't using my own water, so I decided to ditch my belt at the water station near the finish line (we did 3 loops and passed it multiple times).  On my final loop of the final stretch, I broke into a faster run passing 3 girls on my way to a strong finish.  Someone retrieved my racing chip off my wrist, I grabbed a chocolate milke and to my surprise, I was given a medal.  I was so happy to earn my 3rd medal, much better than a racing bib.

I walked a cool down, then walked back to meet up Ed and Carolyn to cheer on Steph as she finished.  I later found out that I finished with a time of 1:04:25. We celebrated with some post race drinks and snacks until we were asked to retrieve our bikes so they could remove the racks and fences of the transition area.  We posed for some pics, then headed out and stopped off at McDonald's before returning to Winnipeg.

Showing off our medals

Hoisting up my bike

Bike crashing down on me

This was a fun experience that I shared with friends.  I prefer running over biking when it comes to racing, but may try another duathlon or maybe a triathlon in the future.  Unfortunately there isn't another one that fits my schedule.  The girls were talking about one in Wasagaming (wherever that is) on August 17, but unfortunately Ed and I will be competing in the Dirty Donkey that morning.  We'll see what next summer holds.  I'm sure there is a growing interest amongst our friends for these type of events.

Here is a little web comic at The Oatmeal that a friend sent me regarding running.  I did find it amusing and can relate to some of the artist's experiences.