Black Diamond Offroad Duathlon
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Black Diamond Duathlon info
2007 Black Diamond Du results
Another GREAT morning - 1 hr 24 min total... and I set some more PRs running today!
From the outset it was clear this would be an odd weekend, since I would be out in Rochester all weekend... and Ann would be in Syracuse. On the one hand, that was unfortunate because it meant we wouldn't have a lot of time together... but on the other hand, it also meant I could go to both the races out that way and get work done with a clear conscience.
My original plan was to drive out Friday night, but this ended up being the week from you-know-where, with multiple nights of little sleep, and Friday evening it was clear that driving for four hours was not a safe option. So I collapsed into to bed at the early hour of about 9 PM with my alarm set for 2 AM, so I could be on the road around 4 AM... that would get me to Fishers around 8, which would leave plenty of time for me to pick up my race packet and get my gear ready. (Oddly enough, the same thing happened in 2005 when I did the first Black Diamond Du...)
So sometime after 4 AM found me heading west on the Thruway... as usual, little traffic at that hour, which is always a plus. I pulled into Fishers at around 8:10 or so, picked up my stuff, and then headed down to athlete parking at the industrial park about half a mile away. Geared up, and then hopped on the bike to ride back to race HQ... no trips back and forth to the car at this race!
After getting my bike racked and my gear set up underneath it, I wandered around for a bit snapping a few pictures and listening to folks' pre-race chatter... it was also interesting to watch people ignore the repeated instructions to have their bike on a rack and to ditch their Ipods and MP3 players. (I'd be a very unpopular RD, I suspect...) Eventually the RD ran through the usual pre-race stuff (thanking a whole slew of folks, very well-deserved, and then talking us through the course with a few safety admonitions) while we stood around shivering, and then we all lined up out on the road and waited for the signal to start. And then - it was time to run!
I stayed near the back of the pack as we ran up the road to the trailhead... the first bit of trail is fairly narrow and goes up a moderately steep hill, so there was a bottleneck there. Pushed what felt like a pretty good pace through the woods and then out onto the grassy paths around the field... I was a bit surprised to hit the 1 mile mark at about 9 1/2 minutes, but that gave me incentive to push up the hills along the the perimeter of the field and back through the woods to the long downhill stretch. Thankfully, this year the trail was relatively dry, unlike the mud-fest of 2005, so I was able to run fairly hard all the way back to transition, for a very surprising 18:50 first running leg - under 9 1/2 minute miles!
My legs always grumble a bit at switching to riding, and it didn't help that today was somewhat windy... but fairly quickly I was moving along at a good clip, and managed to pass a couple of other riders. I also had a few pass me, far closer than I was comfortable with and with no warning... one of the hazards of doing a du with a good number of inexperienced multisport athletes. The first part of the ride is fairly straightforward - a long slightly uphill ride along the wide stone dust Auburn trail. After passing under the old railroad bridge, I got to watch faster riders zooming along on their way back. I also leap-frogged back and forth with a couple of riders who didn't seem to be keeping a very consistent pace. We left the Auburn Trail for a lollipop up into Lehigh Crossing Park... the loop portion of that was very challenging, because under the grass were numerous ruts and holes, and there were a couple of times when my pedals hit some decent-sized rocks as well. Had a few places where I wondered if I was going to lose it and crash, but managed to hold it together and zipped back out and onto the Trolley Trail, a very bumpy, rocky, rooty singletrack. That was slower going for 3/4 of a mile or so... then it was back onto the Auburn Trail for the return journey, and I resumed my leap-frogging with two riders who seemed more interested in riding side-by-side so they could chat. How, I don't know... I needed every bit of breath I had to keep myself moving forward! The wind really picked up for the 2nd half of the ride, plus it started to drizzle, which started me wondering if I'd freeze before I made it to the finish... after the railroad bridge, we had a short climb up to the Lehigh Valley Trail, and I finally managed to leave the two chatty riders behind. Pushed as hard as I could, riding into the wind and wondering if I could maintain my pace for the distance remaining. But before I knew it, I was turning onto the road for the downhill to the last stretch along the main road, and then hammering like crazy to get back to transition as quickly as I could. In the end, I did pretty well, with a 44:09 for the bike leg.
After racking my bike and grabbing a quick sip of Gatorade, I staggered out for the final running leg, trying to get my running legs back after 10 miles of pushing on the bike (I really need to do more bricks!) Managed a pretty good pace up the hill and through the woods, then down around the fields... but lost it on the two uphills in the fields and ended up walking them. No big deal, and not really a huge surprise... the return path through the woods went quickly, and then it was all downhill... first through the last bit of woods, then along the road, and across the grass to the finish line. I poured on every last bit of speed in my legs for that final stretch, and finished the race at 1 hr 23 min 44 sec... about a minute slower than my finish in 2005, but the bike course was over 1.5 miles shorter that year, so a pretty darn good time overall. Even more significantly, I did the 2nd run in 18:39 - an absolutely amazing 9:20 per mile!
After that I snagged some food (pizza! pasta! mmmmm....) and then rode my bike back to the industrial park where I was parked... for some reason, riding up the hill next to Fishers Park hurt...
So better weather than in 2005, despite a brief bout of drizzle and some chilly headwinds, and a good performance all told... in fact, a great performance on the runs (for me, at least.) The Black Diamond Du is a lot of fun; I'm glad I did it this year, and I suspect I'll do it again next year, maybe with a better bike.
Next up: Day two of my 2nd killer weekend - the Ridgewalk & Run 14 Mile Trail Race! I suspect I'm going to be ready to drop by tomorrow evening...
JMH
2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running 250.8 mi, 58 hr 20 min
Cycling 72.2 mi, 5 hr 15 min
Snowshoe 31.3 mi, 9 hr 11 min
states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT
