Sunday, May 31, 2015

NO DUATHLON FOR THE TURTLE...
Sunday, May 31, 2015

Yesterday the weather varied between being sunny, humid, and hot, and rainy, humid, and hot. Despite taking it very easy for the duration of my run at Highland Forest, I still found myself downing tons of fluids all afternoon before I finally seemed to be rehydrated. So I was moderately pleased when I saw a forecast of 60 degrees for today... it seemed to bode well for this morning's 1st annual Rochester Duathlon, despite the fact that I'm really not in shape yet for an Olympic-distance du (5k run, 40k bike, 10k run.)

So waking up at 5:15 AM to sub-40 degrees, rain, and high winds really was an unpleasant surprise.

I've done cold rides, and rainy rides, and windy rides... but the combination of all three, especially when I hadn't packed any cold weather gear, tipped the scales, and I made the correct decision to go back to bed. Had I been stubborn and tried to tough it out, I have no doubt that I would have dropped out after one loop of the bike course, and I would have spent the rest of today recovering from being a frozen drowned rat.

Often when I skip a race I've signed up for I end up second-guessing my decision and in some cases kicking myself for not getting my butt out there to run, ride, or whatever. That would have been the case yesterday had I skipped Highland Forest like I was tempted to when the alarm went off at 5:20 AM. But today there is no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice, and that tackling today's du under those conditions would have been stupid.

JMH


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