Barkin’ Dog Recap

I did my first ever duathlon this past Saturday, and I’ve gotta tell you the truth–I honest-to-God think that duathlons might be harder than triathlons! I’ve done quite a few tri’s over the past few years, and something about the change-up between sports just works for me. Running, riding, and then running again….well, it was quite a bit tougher 🙂

 Anyway, between Craig, Cindy, and I, our heats were slated to begin at 7am. Of course, with their new decision to charge each car an entry fee into Cherry Creek State Park, people were arriving waaaaaaaaaay late. All the heats got postponed and started about 15-20 minutes later than originally planned. They also kicked everyone out of the transition area way earlier than we were expecting! Cindy and I were in line for the bathrooms when they closed it down, and we realized we still had our sweats on and everything! Luckily, we already had our running shoes on, and although I had planned to swap out my sunglasses, I ended up doing the race in Armani shades…true story! (Could’ve been worse–Craig got there and realized he forgot his SOCKS of all things! He had to beg a vendor to give him a pair!)

Craig’s heat took off first so we got to watch him sprint away like the little gazelle that he is. Mine was supposed to be next, but I made the brilliant decision that I would just start with Cindy’s heat. I figured the whole race was chip-timed, and it was pretty small, so what difference did it really make? Wrong. After seeing my results posted this weekend, I realized the race WAS chip timed….but the start was not! They started my race time when my age group took off, but since I started with Cindy a good 15 minutes later, my overall posted time is approx. 15 minutes longer than it really was. And, for the record, my first 5k was NOT 42 minutes long! I’m slow, but not THAT slow 🙂 Lesson learned, I suppose!

The first 5k wasn’t too bad, and Cindy and I stayed together for the first mile or so until we broke off into our own paces. The running course had a few hills but nothing major, and if I’m being honest, I kinda maybe sorta feel like it was a tad bit shorter than a 5k…but whatever. Not complaining! However, the sun did pop out on the first run and I felt my white-girl skin starting to fry. When I got to the transition area, I actually took a few extra minutes to dig through Cindy’s bag for sunscreen. Sure, it slowed my overall time down but lets face it: I sure as hell wasn’t gonna win the duathlon, so I might as well keep melanoma away!

The bike was awesome, but this is pretty usual with me. It’s always the leg where I can make up any possible time that I lost because I run like a grandmother. The only downfall was that it was a double-loop course which I don’t typically love. Some people were doing the short course, so they just did the loop once, but if you were doing the long course, you looped it twice. Mentally, the second loop can be brutal. The other no bueno aspect of the course was seeing all of the people ahead of you! Cindy and I started in the almost-last heat of the entire duathlon, so almost all of the other competitors were ahead of us (Craig’s heat started a good 30 minutes ahead of us!) Overall, it obviously makes no difference, but when you’re racing a double loop course with people that got a 20-30 minute start on you, it can definitely mess with the head. I tried to keep that in mind as I saw Craig halfway out on his second loop as I was just coming back from the first!

All of this was fine and dandy…and then came the second run. Because of the time difference and the fact that they started first (and the fact that they are bionic and actually don’t require any oxygen to make their lungs work), all of the elite athletes were done with the race and waltzing around in the transition area as I was heading out for the second 5k. Problem #1. Problem #2 came around when I realized that a brick workout would’ve been handy (brick workout = bike to run workout so your legs get used to the changing of movement). I’ve always sucked at doing these, and this time around was definitely no exception! I got maybe 200 yards into the first mile and I almost face planted into a tree. I had absolutely no idea what my legs were doing! Needless to say, the whole second run felt this way, and I was definitely hurting. It may or may not have been the slowest 5k….in the world. No joke! I was coming back for the final 1/4 mile when I saw Cindy heading out for mile 2. We were able to joke about the pain at the time but lesson learned….training makes these fun-filled events a whole lot easier!

 I finally made it to the finish line and started laughing when the announcer A) didn’t even attempt to say my last name, and B) announced to everyone that I competed in my first Olympic tri last year. How the hell did she know that?! I almost stopped to ask, but then I realized I needed to finish the race. Oh well. Apparently I have a stalker somewhere 🙂

 In the end, I loved it. Like I mentioned, I wasn’t prepared for the race, but I had a great time and would love to do another (possibly this September!). It’s a good size, not too big, and the course was well-managed. I do wish they had something other than BBQ for the after-race food, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers, right?!