Desert Grande Duathlon

Another fun race!  I'm on a roll!  Despite technical difficulties (see below), I had a really great time at this race.  I said a while back that I was going to take a break from triathlons, mainly because the swim portion of the race always puts me in a sour mood for the rest of the day.  Since I've been running a lot more lately, and have been putting in tons of miles on the bike, it only made sense to sign up for this short duathlon.  Duathlons replace the swim portion of a tri with an extra run, so this race consisted of a 1.5 mile run, a 10.3 mile bike, and a 3 mile run.

We arrived to the race site before sunrise, so it was still quite chilly outside.  I knew it would warm up as soon as the sun rose, but I wasn't ready to part with my sweats until just before the gun went off.  I found a good spot in transition, picked up my number, set up my stuff, and wandered around a bit waiting for 7:30 to roll around.  Luckily, the sun was completely up by the time the race started, and it had already started to get a lot warmer.

The first run was pretty uneventful.  I started off a bit too fast and had to slow my pace a little bit, but otherwise felt pretty good.  The 1.5 mile course was a boring dirt loop, so there wasn't really much to look at and people were pretty spaced out.  I knew I was right in the middle of the pack, which was fine by me, so I was pretty happy when I made it back to transition.  My transition was pretty quick, shoes went off and on easily, and I was off running with my bike.

I felt terrific for this bike segment, and I was ready to hammer it full throttle.  I knew that I didn't really care what my run times would be, but I was really hoping to get a great time on the bike.  For the first two miles of the bike course, I was averaging well over 20mph, passing people, and feeling awesome.  I got to the first turn, leaned into the corner, and suddenly felt my front rim scraping the road, almost causing me to spill sideways.  My front tire was flat.  ARGH.  I kept riding, trying to decide if it was worth the time and effort to stop and replace my tube on such a short ride.  The course was really flat and the roads were pretty good, so as long as I was riding straight and watching closely for rocks, I decided I would keep going.  I rounded another corner with similar uneasy results, and kept riding, but between the extra friction on my tire and my nervousness about potential crashes, I couldn't go faster than 16mph anymore.  By the time I got to 4.5 miles in, I decided that I need to try something... I pulled over and filled up my tire with a CO2 cartridge, not taking the time to replace the actual tube (replacing the tube would take me probably 4-5 minutes, whereas just refilling the tube took only about 30 seconds).  The extra air helped a little bit, and for a short while I was able to get my speed back up, but it didn't last.  By mile 6 my front tire was completely flat again, and I decided just to push it as hard as I was comfortable with and to get the ride finished.  Riding that far and fast with a flat tire is almost akin to riding standing up, and boy, my legs were feeling it.  I finished the bike leg five minutes slower than I had originally hoped for, and I honestly believe that without the flat tire I might have finished a full 10 minutes faster than what I did.  Oh well, considering the circumstances, I'm still happy with my time.

Screaming, "My tire has been flat for SEVEN damn miles!!"

My legs were pretty spent when I ran into transition the second time.  I stopped for a minute to drink some fluids and stretch my calf, then I was off again.  The second run course was really nice- it was a dirt trail with a few small rolling hills that went up towards the foothills of some small mountains.  At one point we passed by a fire station where a bunch of full-uniformed firefighters were running drills- kind of random, but interesting to watch for a few minutes.  My left calf was really tight for the entire run, obviously a result of the rough bike ride.  I walked only a few steps at each water station on the run course, but otherwise ran the entire thing.  I got passed by a ton of people, which wasn't too surprising and I was too concerned about the pain in my legs to care anyway.  I was finally able to pick up my pace a bit when I could see the finish line, and finished the race in 1 hour and 28 minutes.  My goal time for the race had been 1:30, so I was happy to meet that goal... but thinking about how much faster I would have been without that flat tire (and tired legs as a result of the flat tire) was pretty frustrating.

The fact that I managed to finish the race and enjoy myself despite my troubles makes me feel pretty good.  And once again, Josh proved to be quite the race photographer.  It was perfect weather, the course was really nice, the race was well organized, and everybody there seemed to have a great time.   I may very well have to do this race again next year to get my revenge on the bike course...