Pedal and Plod Duathlon - DNF
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Got well and truly stomped this morning by the Pedal and Plod in Adams, MA. First I was the last runner in by a good bit (and the top two guys had already finished their first bike loops by the time I even got on the bike) and that was after running what for me is currently a decently quick pace, about 12 min/mile. Then I discovered that the first 3-4 miles of the ride went up and up and up - I never got off and pushed, but crawling up those hills in my lowest gear had me planning to stop after one loop of the bike course for a DNF. Once I was finally on Rt 8 things were going a little better - I was looking to wrap up my first loop in just over an hour and considering tackling a 2nd loop - until a mile from the start of loop #2 I ran over something that blew out my back tire. At that point I threw in the towel and walked the bike the last mile - I could have changed the tube right there but it was already taking me so long that I didn't want to add even more time to how long it would take me to be done riding. Clearly the duathlon gods did not want me doing a 2nd loop today.
Afterwards I took advantage of a park bench and changed the tube (I was hoping to ride on the Ashuwillticook Trail before heading home) and found out it was just as well I bailed because the burst tube had blown out the sidewall of the tire (ie. I need a new tire to keep a little bubble of tube from poking out) so I couldn't have safely kept going in any case. I also noticed that my front wheel seems loose (the bearing cones loosen up sometimes, maybe during yesterday's bumpy ride) - another sign that DNF also stands for "Did Nothing Fatal", since I was hitting 30 mph on some of the downhills and front wheel failure pretty much always means a crash.
Right now I don't know if this is one I have to go back to someday and beat it, or if this is one that's just too dang hard for someone of my abilities. Guess I'll figure that out at some point. Bloody shame that today was such a fiasco - it was just about perfect weather for late July (sunny but relatively cool.)
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| 4.3 mi run |
 |
| 10 mi ride + 1 mile walk |
2017 Event Totals
Run 235.2 mi, 62 hr 15 min
Bike 43.7 mi, 3 hr 43 min
Snowshoe 30.0 mi, 10 hr 16 min
Kayak 0 mi, 0 hr 0 min
states visited: CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT
