the Way of the Turtle

Eight Strenuous Weekends - Part 4
The Rochester Autumn Classic Duathlon
Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005

Autumn Classic Duathlon 2005 results
Autumn Classic Duathlon 2005 info

Autumn Classic Duathlon 2005 Photo slideshow

A couple of observations, after having done this sort of thing for four weekends in a row…

(1) Getting up at 4 or 5 AM on a weekend morning to go to a race is truly insane. Basically it means that you are not only getting up at a ridiculous hour on a day when normal people sleep in a bit, but you’re paying someone else for the privilege to do so. Races that are an hour or more away double the insanity.
(2) In the spring and early summer I was finishing in the back half of the race field. Now I’m finishing at the very end or close to the very end. So either the other slow people have given up races by autumn, or they’ve gotten much faster during the summer. (I don't think I've slowed down significantly...)
(3) Run with two knee braces on and people will tell you that you’re doing something incredible, even if you tell them your knees have been like this for years and you do this all the time. At least they're not trying to give me an award for it...
(4) Running the same loop again and again drives me freakin' crazy. By the third running leg I was REALLY tired of the two hills on the course. (There’s a 50 K trail run in the same park in November, consisting of five 10 K loops. While I would like to do a trail 50 K someday, I suspect that one would push me over the edge. Of course, now I've jinxed myself and will probably end up doing it next year or something.)

Moving onward…

One of the pluses to racing in the fall is the temperature change during the morning… Mendon Park was very pretty as the dew evaporated and the mist drifted up through the sunlight. A great feature of being a trail runner - the races I go to are in wonderful wild places. The October ones should be great as the leaves start changing. It’s also nice to start out a bit chilly and warm up as things proceed, instead of dripping with sweat from the moment you get out of bed.





Got to Mendon, checked in, and unloaded my 1970’s Yugo of a bike so that it could take its place on the racks with all the bike versions of Corvettes and Camaros. Geared up, strapped my knees into place, and walked around in my 1970’s Yugo of a body taking pictures while not looking too much at all the human versions of Corvettes and Camaros. Waited for things to begin and then off we went. 2 mile run, started out at the back and stayed there. Hopped on the bike and zipped off, demon biker that I am.



One of the rules of racing is don’t use equipment you haven’t trained with before the race. So I of course rode a bike that I’d only gotten back on the road three weeks ago. It’s much lighter than my other bike, which is a plus. But something wasn’t adjusted quite right, and I had never done any sprinting on this bike (dumb, dumb, dumb) so I found myself with muscles cramping that I don’t typically notice while riding. But I made good time and even passed a couple of people. Hit close to 30 mph going down one hill (actually hit 31.4 mph going down the same hill on the 2nd loop. Wahoo!) Of course it was interesting as I came to the finish of that leg – runners were completing the 2nd running leg as I came in. The same thing happened in reverse as I was completing the 2nd running leg, as riders finishing their 2nd riding leg flew by me. Dang those guys are fast.



Probably the toughest thing about a race like this is the constant transition from running to biking to running… I’m just getting warmed up after 2 miles, and then it’s time to ride! The ride-to-run transition was definitely the toughest for me… it took almost half a mile before my legs really felt like they were working again.



Anyway, I plugged away at it and after 2 hrs and 34 minutes crossed the finish line. There were a few people clapping and cheering, I think because that meant they could finally wrap up and do the awards. (The race organizers get points in my book for not doing awards until everyone had finished… I’ve been in some races where that wasn’t the case, and I find it annoying to finish and find out that the awards have already been done – seems to be making a statement about the relative importance of fast and slow people.) Ann showed up somewhat before the end of the 2nd bike leg and took some pictures of me finishing the last two parts (2nd bike, 3rd run) – I was also photographed by the “official” race photographer several times, so I may have some pics to post of this one at some point.



Of course, one of the reasons I did this race was to see if I’d improved since spring… a tough comparison, since I’m no longer running all out (don’t feel like getting hurt!), I switched bikes, and there’s an extra mile in this race. But, crunching the numbers, I found that my running time in the spring averaged out to 11.7 minute miles, and this time to… 11.7 min miles. An improvement of sorts, since in the spring I was pushing as hard as I possibly could and here I wasn’t. My riding averaged at 14.1 mph in the spring, and 14.7 mph here. Again, not a bad improvement, especially considering I concentrated on distance riding this summer, not speed. So I’m fairly pleased with the results overall, even if I’m becoming the champion of the back-of-the-pack. I guess somebody has to stop and thank the volunteers and cross the finish line with a smile on their face.

JMH

Next up: the Monroe Dunbar Brook 10.5 mile trail run in Monroe, MA – if the weather predictions are at all reliable, we may be freezing our backsides off (especially during the knee-deep stream crossing at mile 9!) Then I get a week “off” (no races) to gear up for the final three – an offroad duathlon, a trail half marathon, and a trail 20K.

Halfway there, race-wise... next weekend marks the half-way point, time wise. Hopefully the best is yet to come!