Results and Final Thoughts from the Oakdale Du

I published my Oakdale Duathlon race report without the results because they weren't in yet, but then I added them to that post once I saw them. If you missed it, here's how I ranked:

Steve Stenzel, #166, 34, Male

- 3 mile run: 17:44 (5:55 pace), 10th overall, 1st in age group
- T1: 0:32, T-25th overall
- 14 mile bike: 37:48 (22.2 mph), 33rd overall, 4th in AG [Garmin: 21.2 mph, 13.35 miles]
- T2: 0:24, 9th overall
- 2.5 mile run: 14:27 (5:47 pace), 7th overall, 1st in age group

1:10:54 total

11th out of 177 overall
4th out of 166 non-elite overall
1st out of 13 in 30-34 age group

Racing with family: sister-in-law Annie and her boyfriend Matt (as seen in my race report)

Matt was 61st overall, and 2nd in his age group. His splits were:

- 3 mile run: 21:46 (7:16)
- T1: 0:55
- 14 mile bike: 40:53 (20.5 mph)
- T2: 0:43
- 2.5 mile run: 19:03 (7:38)
- 1:23:19 overall

Annie (in her FIRST MULTISPORT RACE) was 122 overall, and 1st in her age group. Among all females, she was 24th out of 64! And had she registered as an age-grouper and not an athena, she would have won that category too! Here are her splits:

- 3 mile run: 27:31 (9:11)
- T1: 1:22
- 14 mile bike: 46:03 (18.2 mph)
- T2: 1:06
- 2.5 mile run: 23:01 (9:13)
- 1:39:02 overall


6 POST-RACE NOTES:

• Less stress, but harder push: My "prediction" from last week was pretty spot on: I noted that I'd be more stressed doing Cinco because I knew I could be racing for the lead. But I said that I'd push harder at Oakdale because the field would be deeper and I'd always have someone to be trying to catch. If I had to give my run/bike/run efforts a percentage at each race (with 100% being the most possible effort I could give in a duathlon), I'd say Cinco would be 96%, 99.8%, and 97%. Oakdale would be 99%, 99%, and 99.9%. I'm really happy with my effort this past weekend.

• Super fast final run: As I was shooting for the 2 guys in my age group in front of me on the final run, I ran a killer run. The VAST MAJORITY of racers have a second run pace that's slower than their first run. At quick glance, I'd say the average is about 10 seconds slower/mile on the 2nd run. Maybe this means I should have biked harder, but I was NOT biking easy. I was 8 seconds/mile faster on the final run. At a quick glance through the top half of the results, there was only 2 other people who had that big of a drop between the 2 runs.

• Rematch from Cinco: As I noted in my race report, I beat Brad, the guy who SHOULD have beat me the week before at Cinco Du. Officially, I got him by 14 seconds, and he WOULD have beat me by around 60 seconds at Cinco if he hadn't taken a wrong turn near the end of the bike. Again, I pushed well throughout the entire race.

• Last time at Oakdale: The last time I was at the Oakdale Du was in 2011. That was the first time they used this course, and it was when Matt and I won the relay event.

Wet and chilly T2 chip exchange in 2011.

It was a rainy day, and it's a well-known fact that Matt doesn't perform as great in less-than-ideal conditions (he's a beefy guy, so there's a lot of surface area for the wind to catch - #EpicPecs). I knew I biked well this past weekend, and I NEARLY out-biked Matt's rainy relay split from 4 years ago (37:48 now vs 37:21 then). And then my fast final run this past weekend was only 23 seconds slower than when I did it as a relay 4 years ago! Again, I was PUSHING it! My overall individual time was just 1:55 slower than our relay time. Nice.

(And yes, my brother-in-law is Matt L, and his sister [Annie, pictured above] is also dating a Matt L. It's weird, right? Oh wait, I married someone with my sister's name...)

• Beer race lead to a fast T2: If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the next point. I wondered if my T2 would be faster because of the "race within the race." This photo of me in T2 from my race report sure didn't look speedy:

In fact, 2nd place female Suzie offered to coach me in transitions after seeing that photo. But then the results came in and I was only 3 seconds slower in T2 than she was. And my T2 overall ranking was 9th, vs my T1 ranking which was 25th. So thanks Ross to pulling me fast through T2! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the next 5 sentences...)

• Second race in a row with "DILF" status: Finally, we also got a mention on MN Tri News. The article about the race was about about the "epicness" of the female race (as I noted in my race report), but then it also contained the photo of Ross chugging his tall boy along with this text:

Adding to the Epicosity of the morning was the awesome weather (55-60 degrees, sunny and breezy), and the bet that spectator Ross Weinzierl had with participant Steve Stenzel. Steve, who is an Elite DILF and Devon Palmer's BFFFN, bet Rossy that he (Rossy) couldn't chug a PBR Tall Boy faster than the time he (Stevie) needed to get into-and-out of T2. Ross totally won that bet and expelled numerous malodorous beer burps thereafter.

I'm glad I was out there racing and not around for the malodorous beer burps. And I'm glad that this "DILF" thing that Devon started seems to be sticking... I think...

Here's my race report full of photos if you missed it!