Lake Effect Snowshoe Duathlon
Sunday, January 28, 2007
2007 Lake Effect Snowshoe Du results
Lake Effect Snowshoe Festival info
2007 Lake Effect Snowshoe Du photo slideshow
For the second weekend in a row I was off in Rochester to play in the snow. While we remain essentially snow-less around here, Rochester has managed to accumulate a good 8 inches or so of the chilly white stuff. Saturday's weather was initially a bit worrying - pretty much non-stop fine drizzle - but that turned to snow overnight, giving us an additional couple of inches of fresh powder for the fun on Sunday.
Unfortunately, after I rinsed my bike down Saturday evening (to get rid of the road salt and grime it had accumulated on the drive out) I forgot to spray the cable housings and derailleurs with WD-40... and I neglected a major rule of multisport prep, checking the bike over the night before or the morning of the race. That mistake ended up making the bike leg more challenging than it needed to be...
Snow was falling lightly as I headed over to Webster Park and got checked in. All the way over I worked on convincing myself that I would drop down to the shorter distance Bailor Du (only one 10k bike loop) if the riding was really difficult, either due to the weather or my lack of riding over the last two weeks. During check in I found out the decision had been made for me - ALL duathletes would be doing a single loop, due to weather and safety issues. Bless the wonderful folks at Yellowjacket Racing! I have no doubt that I would have stubbornly persisted through both loops had they not made a good decision for me (and for all the other crazy people out there!) After about 8 trips back and forth between my car and the transition area, it was close to start time, so I strapped on the snowshoes and waited for the fun to begin.
Boots had a few quick words for us about the snowshoe course (including mentioning that the stream crossing was only an inch deep... yeah, he said that last year, too... and a warning not to lean into the curves on our bikes or we'd find ourselves kissing pavement.) And then - off we went!
I settled into a run-walk pattern pretty quickly on the snowshoes and made pretty good time. The course is a lot of fun - a rolling trail through the woods, up and down hills, and over and around fallen trees. Enough uphill stretches to give me walking breaks, and enough level stretches that I was able to run a decent amount of the distance - more than I ran last week at Mendon. The only parts I didn't like were the three steep downhills - which the snow packed down I'm still not comfortable with the traction level on those (since the main forward/reverse traction comes from the cleats under the balls of my feet, I'm always worried about losing my balance and popping a knee... I much prefer gliding downhill through deeper snow.) Anyway, after being passed by half a dozen runners doing the snowshoe-only race, I hit transition in only 27:47, or just under 14 min/mile... a new PR for my snowshoeing!
Transition took a while, as I pulled on my balaclava and windjacket and changed into a different set of shoes for riding. Over 4 minutes, all told. Pushed the bike out to the road, hopped on, and discovered why I should have lubed the derailleurs and cables and/or checked the bike pre-race: both derailleurs were completely unresponsive, turning my 21 speed mountain bike into a single speed. Fortunately, there weren't any really steep hills, but that definitely made things more interesting as I struggled up the hills on the loop and pedalled like a maniac on some of the faster sections. Still, as Boots indicated, the roads were slushy and pretty slippery, so it's probably just as well I was limited in how fast I could go. The worst bit was along some side streets through a housing development, where the roads were unplowed and I had a moment or two where I wasn't positive I'd remain upright. It also got a bit chilly by the end of the ride - I'm very, very glad they decided to limit us to only one loop! But after a bit over 33 minutes of struggling through the snow - I was back at transition again, for the final snowshoeing leg.
(As a side note, I have now joined the ranks of riders who've had stuff thrown at them... about 1/4 mile from the bike finish, some punk threw a baseball at me from a passing car. Unfortunately my glasses were too clouded for me to get a good look at his plates, and with my shifters locked I couldn't sprint to catch up with him... so he got away with it.)
Took a little longer in the 2nd transition, mainly in trying to squeeze my feet back into the shoes strapped into my snowshoes. Headed back out on the course, more walking than running initially (that bike-run transition is always a killer for me!) but warmed up a little ways in and set a pretty good pace. It had stopped snowing and it was a beautiful day to be out in the woods (and best of all - no having to dodge out of the way of the faster snowshoe runners coming up from behind - I was one of the last folks on the course!) Climbed the last hill, came out in the field, and ended up going through a stretch of unbroken snow for the last bit - couldn't quite make out where the path to the finish was! But managed a decent final sprint, for another snowshoeing PR - 26:47 or just under 13.5 minute miles. Total finish time 1:35:20... not bad at all considering the long transitions (probably 11-12 minutes all told) and the difficulty of the bike leg.
All in all, a fun race and as usual, I have to give HUGE credit to the folks at Yellowjacket Racing. They put on some of the best events I've attended... the organization is fantastic, the volunteers are incredibly positive, and I've always felt welcome at their races, no matter how slow I was.
Next up - the Saratoga Winterfest 5k Snowshoe Race (though in all likelihood it will be a trail race again this year, unless we have the amazing good fortune to have a blizzard at the end of the week...) Who knows... maybe I'll stay at the park and continue for a longer run after the race...
JMH
2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running
Cycling 6.2 mi, 33 min
Snowshoe 10.2 mi, 2 hr 37 min
