Heels to Wheels Duathlon

I signed up for this one in some euphoria induced haze from surviving the Turtle Crawl Tri- What?! No swim?! I'm in!

And then I started running more miles. And running more miles. And my bike sat in my garage... And I learned something about myself: I'm just a runner. I can dabble in the whole bike/swim thing when I'm hurt and I can't run, but if given a choice of the three, I'll be running... and sitting on my couch, but mostly running.

That's my whole justification for why I hadn't been on my bike in three months. I bought a new pump, pumped the tires, took the sticker from the tri off, and rode around the block. Most people do brick workouts for preparation- ride the bike for say 30 minutes, run for 15 minutes. Nope, not me.

Saturday morning rolls around. After about a month of never waking up late or resetting my alarm for the kids' schools, I woke up late. Not just a little late, but supposed to be in transition 15 miles away 15 minutes ago. Hmmm... At least I didn't have to think about options- throw on the clothes, grab the transition bag, throw the bike in Ted's truck, and on the way! The race was going to start at 7:30 a.m. I arrived at the park at 7:20 a.m. I ran up to the registration area, started filling out the waiver, had to leave my bike and run back for my ID- tedious. Finally got marked and dropped off the bike. My entire transition space consisted of a towel, my helmet, and a water bottle. I had to stash my goody bag behind the bike because I didn't have time to go back to the truck again.

Saw a few friends. Chatted a bit, but still frazzled by my crazy morning. The thought of racing 43 minutes after waking up is a bit daunting. The thought of having part of that race be on my bike was too much to bear.

They gave us our instructions and we all lined up in the grass. It turns out they wanted us to run along the grass for maybe 1/10 of a mile and then turn onto the street. Race starts. No big deal, but I was a little wobbly in the new Newtons with the funny lugs on the grass. We hit the street- lots of little long hills. You go up, you go down, then you do it again cause it's an out and back course. I think I'm second or third girl, so I'm pretty happy. My pace was in the neighborhood of 7:20 miles.

And now I'm in transition- I grab my helmet and bike and walk to the mounting area (it's a crack in the asphalt that I guess looks like a line). I get on and realize my glasses are totally foggy. Oh good. I still can't get my water bottle while riding and there's no way I can get to my glasses and clean them. And for that matter, what would I clean them on? As I'm pondering all of this, my head is slightly forward and the breeze hits my glasses- problem solved!

I head out on the roads. OK, not only did I not ride my bike ahead of time, I didn't check my gears. Yes, I checked the basic "don't leave it in too hard a gear" thing because apparently people get on and then fall off, but I forgot to make sure it wasn't in too easy a gear. You know the big gear thingy? It was in the small ring, so I couldn't generate much speed. I tried pushing down the button a bunch, but it wouldn't shift. As all of this is going on and I'm practically hyperventilating, everyone I just passed is passing me. "On your left!" Oh, really? All of you are on my left! The people with the fancy tires are killing me- "wait, you're passing me on my left? I thought that was the lifeflight people coming to get me!" Seriously, they make this crazy whooshing noise... Everyone had on their fancy bike shoes too. Oh, and my bike was making this horrible noise like a sticker was hitting the tire over and over. I decided to think of it as a metronome so I didn't completely lose my mind. (Turns out it was part of the cadence thing for my Garmin that I've never been able to work- that was money well spent).

OK, had to pull it together. Hit the turnaround....s l o w l y... told the volunteer I probably needed to learn to turn. Chatted with a nice guy who had a bike like mine. Took off again. I mashed that stupid button again out of pure frustration, and lo and behold, my gear shifted! Now I could push a little more. So I keep on pedaling and chatting with people passing me. At least being passed helped kill the time! Oh look, another embarassing turnaround. Seriously should have at least taken a couple of spin classes cause this bike thing is starting to hurt.

Finally, finally off the bike. So happy. Grabbed my water bottle with Heed. Did I mention I can't drink on the bike? Waycross Bank and Trust had signs every few miles with giant letters: HYDRATE. Mocking me.

Grabbed my hat and hit the grassy path again. Now the problem isn't so much my shoes as it is my legs. I heard someone say they had dead legs. When I heard that in the past, I assumed it meant your legs were exhausted. Yeah, that's not exactly it. They are exhausted, but the problem is more that they don't know how to move properly and for at least a half of a mile, you can't convince them that running is a natural thing. If I were ever so reckless as to eat right after getting a filling, I assume it would be the same way- having to teach yourself how to chew. I felt like I was teaching myself how to not move in such a jerky way.

We ran down the same course, so more hills. The really fast people are headed towards us. Everyone yelled encouragement to each other, which I thought was very fun. That was highly unusual- most races I've done people are either extremely quiet and listening to iPods or they are all out crazy like Disney. One of the really fast guys reached out to high five me- don't know how fast he was moving, but that hurt! My first mile was 8:15, the last one 7:52. I was pretty proud to pull off an under 8 minute mile at the end! As I was headed towards the line, I could see the clock at 1:19:xx. Having no clue of a goal time, I decided I'd be good with under 1:20. Final time: 1:19:33.

My time was good enough for 5th overall girl, and 1st in my age group (40-44, excuse me!?) I was pleased with the race, but I think duathlons may have just landed in the BTDT category for me...

So now, my been there, done that category consists of: bridge runs, triathlons, and duathlons. I thought I'd like it better because of the whole "no swim" thing, and I am certainly grateful there wasn't a swim, but I just am not that good on my bike. And really, I don't want to take the time to get better on my bike. I still like it, but it's not really my thing right now. I'm scared of riding on the roads, I'm scared of the fancy pedals, I'm scared of why I would need a helmet. I may very well want to ride more in the spring when I'm tired of running or have met my goals or most likely, am totally injured...

Oh, and my Newtons were a huge hit. Several people asked about them, and one older guy said "I remember you. Those pink shoes blazed past me and I never caught them again." Can you say race highlight!?