Reverse Duathlon - my favorite race.

I just competed in the Flora-Bama Hot to Trot Reverse Duathlon . Aside from many-a speed skating meet from years back, this was my favorite race. It was cold (low ‘50’s) and wiiiinnnnnndy.

The race was 9.2 miles of biking to a lake, 5.6 miles around the lake, and returned for the remaining 9.2 miles on the bike. In triathlons and duathlons, bike drafting is not allowed. However, since the race was a reverse duathlon and started on the bike, they allowed for 1 mile of open riding (drafting allowed). Until this point, I hadn’t understood why my bike computer’s mile readout was to the thousandth place. I drafted until .996 miles. I don’t know what .004 miles looks like, but I figured that was a decent point to start passing. The rules are very specific as far as only taking 15 seconds to pass other cyclists.

The wind was very significant. On the way out, my average speed was around 24 mph. Even knowing that the tailwind was strong, I thought that most of that 24 mph fast pace was me feeling strong.

The run was delightful. I don’t mind running but I surely don’t love it like I do biking. There was hardly any traffic, the lake that we ran around was beautiful (though undesirably big), and I actually controlled my pace. Running, I usually let my druthers take over and expend too much energy too soon.

The bike back….ugh! The now-headwind learned me that it wasn’t my feel-good-status on the way out, it was simply the strength of the wind that pushed me at 24 mph. Returning, I had a tough time maintaining 17 mph. As it turned out, my bike times differed by 8 minutes! My calves cramped up big time on the last ½ mile of the ride. I gave it the ‘ol college try.

Looking at the linked race results (also off of www.runresults.net, where all my local race results have been), you can see how this is an Old Man’s Game. It was refreshing to see a 45 year old win the race. The 14 people that beat me were all older. And during the after party, I gave some young adults my free beer tickets. As it turned out, those ‘young adults’ were all in their 40’s! My judge of age at the race was way off. It’s reassuring though, that if I keep exercising, I’ll look younger, longer.
In fact, I got passed by only 1 person on the run. When he passed me, HE MADE CONVERSATION!!! I later found out that he is 52! I was maintaining a sub-7 minute mile (I think) and he ran by me like I was walking backwards. Too cool.