2:13.47
4th of 12 females
1st out of 6 in my age group!! Woohoo!!
4kR: 27:49.4 T1: 1:10.6 20kB: 1:13:30.2 T2: 0:51.3 4kR: 30:26.0
Course and Elevation Profile
First duathlon and first off road bike race, so take my opinion for what it's worth since I have no point of reference.
Run course, had a couple of steep inclines, but nothing too bad. There is one very rocky descent that tripped me up a bit. I did see one guy fall.
Bike course, very easy, no big obstacles, just a winding path with a couple of good straight aways, there were also a couple fun jumps but easy to avoid if you wanted to. Definately beginner friendly.
Pros:
Plenty of water stops, two on the run, and one of the three loop bike. I will not complain about water this time! Can you believe it??
Very friendly people running it.
Easy bike course, mostly easy run course.
I got a hat for winning my age group... Nice :)
Food!! Glorious food at the finish! Watermelon never tasted so good!
Cons:
Bike - They assumed everyone could follow the green arrows.... eh, I was lucky I rode this course four times in the last two weeks. There were a few places people could easily (and did) go off course. To make matters worse the trail was marked for a crit from thursday night which made things a little confusing. Next time I might even volunteer to mark it cause it needed to be marked.
Run - The run out followed the same path as the bike in... surely this could have been arranged a bit better.... Even if we ran on a non existent path it would have been better than having to dodge bikes. They even said at the prerace meeting that bikes have the right of way.... since when?? Pedestrians always have the right of way. I don't care what they say. I moved off the path for the people running up as I came in. The guy riding in as I was running out was not so polite and I had to dodge him. I feel like there was enough space that definitive paths could have been tied off to allow each their own path.
Apparently the two 5Ks were actually 4Ks. So if you are a stickler for accuracy that might be a problem for you.
Personal:
This race was a lot of fun. I'm sold I want to do a true mountain bike race :)
I was extremely happy with my bike time, especially since I stopped to adjust my seat post, stopped for an encounter with mother nature, stopped twice to be passed, and nearly crashed twice trying to pass (really need to work on that :p). I am sold on trail bike racing... I definitely want to try it again, without the run. The run was hard for me, I'd only run once in the last three weeks. And that was a mediocre run since my dog was getting overheated I walked a lot of it. I rolled my ankle on some rocks. It didn't bother me till the last half mile of the second 5K, I think I started to over compensate with the other leg which caused awful knee pain. I haven't had knee pain like that since giving up my asics a year ago. Shame on me for slacking on the running, lesson learned.
SKUNK!!! In the first lap of the bike what jumps onto the trail!! AHH!!! I came to a hard stop and gasped. Oh pleeeeaasee!! Don't spray me! That tail went up and I held my breath for a minute. I knew people were coming up behind me, so I inched forward slowly which encouraged the little bugger to run, unfortunately it ran down the trail :p I followed it for a while, maybe 20 yards down the trail it decided it'd had enough company and dashed into the brush. I yelled skunk as loud as I could to warn those behind me and moved on as fast as I could.
I could hear people talking ahead of me in the last lap, I was determined to get ahead of more women! I did it! Woohoo! I knew they'd be right behind me on the run. I started walking a lot in the last half mile when my knee started to tweak and sure enough one of them caught me, she beat me by a minute, but I managed to finish a minute ahead of two others that were in my age group. So victory among defeat. The only other two that beat me were girls, 15 and 17 cross country high school students. My body has been through far more than theirs so I don't feel bad about being beaten by them! :)
