Playing catch-up

It has been almost two months since my last post and that was a review of cycling shorts. Well, a few things have happened since then.

On May 2, 2009, I competed in my first duathlon of the season. I did the Willow Duathlon all by myself. I ran (jogged), biked, and then ran again (really jogged this time). At this event, I came to realize many of my fellow competitors are runners who thought it would be cool to throw in a bike ride. I am a bike rider who thought it would not be terrible to bookend my ride with 3.1 mile runs. Due to this difference in competitor focus and my lack of competitiveness with others (which begs the question of why I do this at all), my first run was a tad slower than my competitors' runs. I was second to last after the first run. I made up some time and places on the bike ride. I shot out the gate and proceeded to pass people. I thought I must have really trained well in the off-season because I was passing people and felt like I was not putting forth much effort. Well, I was not putting forth much effort. At around mile 5 of the 12.4 mile ride, I looked at my average speed on my bike computer and it was about 14.4 mph. For reference, last year I did the bike leg as part of relay at this duathlon and my average speed was 15.6 on a heavier bike. So this news spurred me into action and it was, as they say in the race descriptions, Hammer Time. This being in the put the 'hammer down' sense not the "Can't Touch This" sense.

Side note: MC Hammer or Hammer has a reality TV show now.

(cont.) Anyway, I put forth some effort and ended up averaging 15.9 mph according to the initial results. Funny thing is that the Athlinks results have my average speed as 16.4 mph. I will take the 16.4 mph as my official speed. I dismounted my silver bullet on two wheels and took to the run course, again. This time my run pace was only 30 seconds slower than the first leg. I was happy with the consistency. Overall, I thought it was a good start to the season.

These events provide timing chips that strapped to each competitor's ankle with a Velcro band. Well, the volunteer taking the bands and chips was a little kid probably 8-10 years of age. When I was done, he commented that he did not mind taking my strap because it was not soaked and disgusting. While I am glad I could oblige the young lad, I think I probably could have exerted a little more effort. The Mrs. would like me to run a little faster so I am not the Black guy at the end at all the races this year. :)

Finis.