Post-Race Thoughts from the Fall Classic Duathlon

Sunday was the LAST EVER "Fall Classic Duathlon" that Henry did as his FIRST ever multisport event and that I won. Here are a few final thoughts.

• I had a good guess on my competition leaving T1. I was leaving on my bike as the next runner came around a corner 500 feet (or so) from transition. I had 2 thoughts: first, he looked like a "runner" so I didn't think he'd catch me on the bike; and second, I guessed by the time he got into transition and got back out to the spot that I was at, I'd have about a 2 minute lead on him. It turns out I was EXACTLY correct as he came into transition 2:00 behind me:

• And my first sight of 2nd place was him wiping out!! When I took off on my bike, I saw him take a spill on the final turn off the trail to head back to transition. It didn't look too bad, but then post-race, he was being tended to - he had a big scrape on his knee, and both of his palms had some big chunks taken out of them. Yikes! Nice job finishing the race, let alone coming in SECOND!!

• Even though I was stopped by a train for 1:40 of the bike, I still posted the fastest bike by 3:30! And yes, that includes the 1:40 stop, so I was over 5 minutes faster than the next fastest cyclist. Sure, I'm in DECENT bike shape (not as good as last year), but I'm not THAT fast. This is why this duathlon isn't coming back - the truly "fast" people aren't coming out to race them like they used to.

Overall results showing the bike splits.

• Charlie (our cheering section) made it sound like Henry was near the back of the first run, but he was the EIGHTH runner back to T1, and then he had the FIFTH fastest final run!! That's amazing!! When I told him that, he smirked and said, "Yeah, but how slow was my bike?" He had the 9th slowest bike on his big ole' mountain bike, and he only biked 15+ miles ONCE this summer (a few weeks back when he was serious about doing this race). He didn't do any REAL bike training. Ahh... to be young.

• Henry was fighting for 2nd in his age group the entire race. First was GONE - it was the person who ended up 2nd overall (who was 16 years old) and finished 20 minutes faster than Henry. But Henry hit T1 just ahead of someone else who was a year older than him. And then that kid out-biked Henry by 3 minutes. But Henry had MUCH faster transitions, and then out-ran him by 2 minutes and finally out-kicked him in the final 0.2 miles to take 2nd in his age group by just 3 seconds! Nice kick Henry! Those CC miles are paying off! :)

• Henry was happy to see he beat me in one part of the results! I thought he'd sort of take his time in both transitions - this was going to be his longest "workout" ever, and I figured he might stop and have a granola bar in T2. Be he truly RACED through transitions. And being he didn't have to change in-and-out of bike shoes, he just had to grab (or drop) his bike and then go! So his transitions were FAST! (And, for what it's worth, my T2 was crappy - I was more concerned with making sure Henry was out on the bike and that he was fine. I wasn't prepared to transition, and I even forgot which way to go when I was running out.) So BOTH of his transitions were faster than mine! Although, he just beat me by a second in T2 and I should have been faster.

Combined transition times.

• So how did this race compare to the "Spring Classic" on the same course? If you'll remember, I did this same race back in June right before having a really fun June with really poor training (that's the last I felt like I was in "GOOD" shape). Back in June, both runs were each 0:13 faster, my transitions were 0:06 and 0:05 faster, and my bike was 1:34 faster. So overall, I was 2:11 faster in June. BUT, for what it's worth, that big difference in my bike time was due to being stopped by a train for 1:40 this year, so the fact that I was only 1:34 slower means it was about even. So honestly, I'm decently happy with that difference in time from June to now. It's 2:11 on paper, but "feels" only like 0:31 or so based on the train stopping me.

• It's too bad these duathlons are now over, but it was fun to win both of them at their final racing. Here's the race from June, and here's the race from last weekend. And it was SUPER FUN that Henry got to race with me this year!!

Back with some "Friday Funnies" tomorrow, and then some thoughts on THIS WEEKEND'S TC 10 MILE after that!