Calaway Gardens Duathlon - 5K/30K/5K

Frightened Inmate #2

Alarm goes off at 4:15 AM. Neutral

I've got a two hr. drive to the race start and I still have to register. Good thing I pre-packed this time and left myself a note to eat and drink before I left the house (because I sure didn't want a repeat of last month's failure).

Who'd have thunk it, they have armadillos just south of Atlanta. It wasn't just my mind playing early monrning tricks on me. At first I thought it was just an armor-coated possum, but I asked a local and he confirmed that it was an armadillo. Shocked

I got an escort for the last leg of the drive of the race start. I stopped in to get gas at one place and I recognized a semi-familiar face and we talked for a few minutes and he said he's show me a shorter route to get there. Props to him.

Got to the race site and unloaded the bike and got myself registered. While I was finding a spot in the transition area, a guy that I used to go to church with years ago walked by me so I stopped him and confirmed that it was really him. We stood and talked for too long. After a quick trip to the bathroom, I didn't have more than a few minutes to warm up.

RD had us line up and he went through the standard stuff. He also said that this was a very curvy course and that there were 6 hard 90°F turns on the two loop course.

The race starts and took off at an easy-ish pace. I needed to hold back and let all those jackrabbits (and some legit. fast people) go ahead. No mile markers so I don't know my mile splits. The first 5K felt downhill the whole way, but I asked another guy and he said I was wrong. Either way, the course wasn't really hilly. First 5K in 20:20 (6:33 pace)

First transition in 1:40

Out on the bike - First qtr. mile I was just trying to find my legs, but after that, things seemed to pick up. The RD wasn't kidding about the course being curvy. It was hard to pass people because they were all over the road in the curves. Those sharp turns were hard to navigate too. I would have liked a hillier course. I consider myself a better than average climber and I think I could have picked off a few more people. Too many turns just made it hard to really keep up a good speed. Bike time of 51:10 - Avg. speed of 21.8 MPH

Second run was the first run in reverse. Got passed a couple of times, but passed more people than passed me. I tried to pace one guy that passed me but he just kept pulling away. Dropped my sunglasses, so I lost a few seconds going back to get them. Caught up to one guy that I was getting ready to pick off, but he held me off all the way to the finish line. Second 5K in 21:22 - (6:53 pace)

Total unofficial race time of 1:35:14 - 9th in my AG and 35th overall out of 300+ people (according to a volunteer). I couldn't hand around for the awards ceremony but if they post the official results on the internet, I'll link to them.

Cliff's Notes :: 5K run in 20:20 / 30K bike in 51:10 / 5K run in 21:22 :: total time with transitions was 1:35:14

Gone Fishin

PH, you are rockin'!! Great 5kms and keeping it over 20mph on the bike with having to slow through corners is huge. Looks like your program is working well! Nice race.