Columbus Challenge Duathlon Race Report

This was an epic race for me, a challenge which made me dig deeper than I knew I could.  I experienced the lows and highs of racing - emotions swinging from "all is lost", "I'm not going to be able to finish this" to "I can do this!", "I can win this!" on a minute by minute basis throughout the event.  Whilst it was an incredibly close race (only 7 secs separated Danny Fisher and me at the end of it), it was mostly a psychological battle with myself.  Danny and I started at the same time, and finished within sight of each other but through the whole of the race we only caught glimpses, could only imagine how hard the other was pushing and re-run endless scenarios in our minds about what the outcome would be.  Despite this, it was so much more than a solitary experience, there were lots of friends shouting out support around the course and the spectators close to the transition area really engaged with our battle, it was so much fun to hear their excitement as we raced and at the finish.  In the end though, there's a special sense of pride & satisfaction that I take away from this event, knowing that I tried as hard as I could, that I emptied myself completely.

Race report:

1st place overall - 1:13:45.4

Strava data - Leg 1 (Run 5k) - Leg 2 (Bike 15 miles) - Leg 3 (Run 5k)

Only 6 days after the Tri-Indy duathlon race, our local race, our local multi-sport race took place in Columbus, Indiana.  This is a big event for the local community, raising money for Foundation For Youth and their programs promoting all sorts of activities for the young people of the town.  This would be the 19th running of the event which started as a sprint distance triathlon, a couple of years ago an Olympic distance triathlon was added and this year, for the first time, a duathlon (run, bike run).

Whilst the Quaff ON! Racing team is mostly about running, we love to support this event and over the past couple of years various individual and relay teams have competed.  See this year's team race report from Matt Flaherty here.  With the addition of the duathlon, the traditional excuse of "can't swim" was no longer valid and after the fun Firetower 15.3 race earlier in the year, Danny Fisher and I thought it would be fun to have a re-match.

The race format was to be a 5k run (just like the Firetower race), 17 mile bike (7 miles more than the Firetower) and a repeat of the initial 5k run (1.1 miles more than the Firetower).  On paper, it looked like a pretty even match again, with Danny's far superior pace in the run but my speed on the bike.  The lessons of the earlier race hadn't been lost on Danny either - I had taken 40 secs advantage in transition which was a big proportion of my win margin, so he'd been practicing!

Last minute change!

Just a week or so before the race, one of the country roads used on the bike course was resurfaced with "chip & seal" making it dangerous so the organizers had to make a route change which resulted in a course 2 miles shorter than originally planned, at 15 miles.  Now it was going to be close - I started to believe that the balance had tipped in Danny's favor.

Ready for the start

Leg 1 - 17:48 (5:45 / mile)

Danny and I started the race side by side on the line under the finish banner, right from the start he pulled away from me quickly opening a gap, after 1 mile he was out of sight leaving me to a solo effort trying to minimize the deficit.  Danny had run a 5k PR at a local race the night before - I thought his legs would be tired, but he was on great form.  By the time I saw him at the turn around he'd built a lead of 1:40 in just over 2 miles, he was easily going to have more than 2 minutes on me after the first leg.  This was bad news, I thought I could close 3 to 3.5 minutes on the bike, but 4 mins seemed unrealistic and with exactly the same run course to complete at the end of the race, it was looking like Danny would pass me with ease before the finish.  These thoughts haunted me for the rest of the run, I tried to stick to my race plan, not go too fast now & run out of legs before the end of the race, just stick to the plan.  I saw Danny heading out on the bike as the bike & run course overlapped close to the finish area - I was pleased that he wasn't already out of sight, but I knew I had a lot of work to do in the next phase of the race

Leg 2 - 36:59 (24.3 miles/hour)

In transition I quickly got off my shoes & took the time to set them up for T2, with the tongues pulled forwards, ready to go.  I went to grab my bike & realized that I didn't have my helmet on - it's the first time I've missed that part of the transition routine, I think it indicates how much pressure I was feeling to get on the bike & get going.  Quickly fastening my helmet, I ran to the bike out, made a cyclocross re-mount (running & jumping onto the bike) and started to pedal.  Dan Smith, another Quaff ON team mate, yelled "2 minutes" at me - this really meant that the race was on, I had to go as hard as I could and hope I could hold on to the lead in the final run.

Mentally I'd rehearsed this part of the race, I had imagined catching & passing Danny at various points on the course & what it would mean in terms of margin at the end.  But the start was all about getting past the numb feeling in my legs and settling into my rhythm.  The new course had a couple of short, sharp climbs and I figured I had to attack these as hard as possible to maximize my gains - raising the effort level for each of these hurt and took time to recover on the other side of the hills.  Approaching grand view lake, I was starting to give up hope of making the catch early enough, but just as we started on the rolling southern loop of the course I caught sight of a shirtless rider and willed it to be Danny, I finally caught & passed him about half way round the course.  In my imaginary scenarios this was about as late in the ride as I thought it possible to still have a chance at winning - so the race was still on, but still needed to give it everything!

At around 10 miles, I started to get cramps in my calf muscles, it was a very peculiar sensation like the bottom half of my leg had gone numb and wouldn't respond to what I was asking it to do, my ankles stopped articulating and pedaling became much more "lumpy".  This was definitely bad - running on cramped legs was going to be very slow, slowing down on the bike to get rid of the cramps was going to cost me precious time.  I grabbed my energy gel but it stuck to the roof of my mouth, I took a drink but managed to spray it all over my face & helmet and then I started to get an acid reflux from the gel.  I really struggled for a couple of minutes, mentally it was tough to deal with, these things have not happened before, why were they happening now?  One benefit was all this had taken my mind off the cramps, and I'd lost focus on my effort - my heart rate had dropped and the brief moment of recovery seemed to be helping my legs.

After picking up the pace again I felt good coming into transition to start the final run.  The transition area always surprises me at the Tipton event, it's actually a steep down hill and I only just managed to skid to a halt in my socks to rack the bike and pull on my shoes.

Entering T2 at the end of the bike section

Leg 3 - 17:43 (5:43 / mile)

Despite thinking I felt good coming off the bike, my first mile was terrible.  My legs felt wooden and I was struggling to find anything like a comfortable pace.  My watch beeped at 1 mile and said 6:07... nearly 30 secs slower than my target pace and no way fast enough to hold off a fast charging Danny Fisher.  Shortly after this, the course passed the start / finish area and Dan Smith told me the gap to Danny at the end of the bike was 1:30 - and I'd probably lost nearly a full minute of that with my slow first mile.  I had to pick it up.  MacKenzie Caldwell (North HS's Cross Country MVP and 2nd in the State Champs) was running with a relay team and came past me in the first mile.  I convinced myself to hold on to her pace, to hold the gap and use her pace as motivation to elevate my own effort.  This worked and I actually passed her back around the half way mark as her initial pace started to fade, then I just had to keep going!  After the 2 mile mark, the course doubles back with a short loop around a driveway, as I came out of this to head for home, I caught sight of Danny entering the turnaround - he could only be about 20 secs behind me and we still had a mile to go.  I figured that it was "do or die" at this point - the rest of the race was going to take about 5 minutes and you can bear just about anything for 5 minutes.  The final coals got thrown on the fire and I did feel my pace increase just a bit.  After the 3 mile mark, it is all down hill to the finish line but Danny was so close I could hear him yell at me - I started to sprint not really believing I could hold him off but at this point I really didn't care, I knew that I had tried my hardest.

The final yards seemed to stretch out forever but the finish line did come eventually, and Danny hadn't come by me.  I didn't have breath or energy to turn around to see how close it was.

The Finish - 7 secs separation!

Danny vs Tim

Leg 1 - Run 5k - Danny beat Tim by 2:01

T1 - Run to Bike - Tim beat Danny by 9.6 sec

Leg 2 - Bike 15 miles - Tim beat Danny by 3:25

T2 - Bike to Run - Tim beat Danny by 6.7 sec

Leg 3 - Run 5k - Danny beat Tim by 1:33

Tri-Indy Duathlon Race Report

1st place overall - 1:01:27.4

Strava Data - Leg 1 Run 2 miles - Leg 2 Bike 20km - Leg 3 Run 5km

My son, Angus has been competing in the Kids Tri for Kids series of kid friendly triathlons based in & around Indianapolis.  So far this year he has entered 5 of the races which all feature a mass swim start for a 100m swim, a 2-2.5 mile bike and a 0.5-0.7 mile run.  It's been a lot of fun and a great Father-Son bonding opportunity as many of the races we just go as the two of us with an early morning start, leaving the rest of the family sleeping soundly.  The latest round of the series was organized in conjunction with the "grown ups" race at Tri-Indy and included the kids swimming in the downtown canal, just like the adult race!  The timing of the kids race meant that the whole family would come and join in the fun, having a picnic in the park and cheering him on and this opened up the possibility of me competing in the adult race earlier in the morning.

There was a duathlon race as part of Tri-Indy (run, bike, run) which fit really well with my training being only 1 week ahead of the Columbus Challenge Triathlon & Duathlon where my Quaff ON Racing team mate Danny Fisher and I were going to have a repeat showdown after the Firetower 15.3 race earlier in the year.  There's no way to truly replicate the race intensity in training so I was excited to go out & push myself, get comfortable with the transitions under race pressure and to be part of what is always as well organized and fun event in downtown Indy.

One great aspect to racing the duathlon is the mass start - most non-Ironman tri's are now time-trial starts for the swim with racers starting at 3 sec intervals seeded by expected swim performance.  Because I'm such a terrible swimmer, I'm always way back from the front of the race and never know how I'm doing or who I'm racing - with the duathlon starting with a run, we all toe the line, just like any regular 5k race, then the gun goes off and you can see the whole race unfolding around you.  I enjoy this a lot more, it's motivating to be amongst all the other competitors and there's even the opportunity to think a bit strategically about how you race (maybe I should just get better at swimming...).

Leg 1- Run 2 miles

We lined up outside the NCAA headquarters and went on the gun at 7:45am.  There were a lot of people setting out really hot and I settled in to an uncomfortably fast pace keeping the front of the race in sight.  Through the first mile, much of the early enthusiasm had faded and there were 5 people ahead of me and a pretty good gap behind me.  I made a conscious effort to slow down a bit & recover my heart rate through the second mile.  The two really fast runners looked like high schoolers and I doubted they would have my speed on the bike.  Judging the time gap against land marks, it was about 30 secs to the front which I thought was fine to control & overcome once we got out of transition.  Despite slowing up myself I passed 3 more people in the 2nd mile of the leg, finally entering transition in 3rd place overall, about 40 secs down on the lead.

Leg 2 - Bike 20km (12.1 miles)

In transition there seemed to be some confusion - the first two runners hadn't found their bikes and I wasn't certain where we'd entered the transition area - luckily I had made a mental note of the bright orange backpack at the end of the rack where I'd left my bike and I found it easily, and was quickly heading towards the exit.

On the bike, I'm still getting used to the feeling in my legs after the run - it's completely different to the sensation of starting to ride after swimming.  I settled into a pace and allowed my heart rate to come down after the somewhat technical start to the bike course.  Not long into the bike, Paul Smith passed me and this was a bit of a wake-up call.  I dropped out of the draft zone to avoid a penalty and assessed how fast we were going & how hard I was trying then made the decision to push harder and take back the lead.  I did this as we hit the first of two rail road crossings on the course - they're a little unnerving and break the rhythm, so I sprinted briefly after this to create a gap then settled back down and concentrated on maintaining my effort.

With about 2 miles to go, Paul passed me again, clearly my increased effort hadn't been enough to shake him off completely but now I was committed to reducing my effort a bit in order to prepare for the run.  It took a lot of self control to drop back & let the gap grow slowly as we approached the end of the course.  I guess there was about 30 secs between us as we turned off the road into the park and negotiated the pathways to get back to the transition area, maybe by luck or stupidity, I closed a lot of the gap by carrying more speed through a couple of turns and we hit the dismount line with me still in 2nd place, but only a few seconds apart.

Leg 3 - Run 5km (3.1 miles)

With almost identical times in transition, we headed into the run together and I had no idea how fast Paul was capable of going over the last 5k.  I took the lead as we ran over the bridge toward the Indy Zoo, as we turned along the river, my legs started to feel OK and I increased the pace to what I thought was sustainable for the rest of the race - worried that if we stayed together to the end that I'd have nothing left to sprint with.  The breathing & footsteps stayed right behind me for about another minute but then started to fade as I sustained the pace.  By the time we turned onto the bridge to cross back over the river at about 1.6 miles I was able to look back down the course & see a big gap had opened up - I was pretty certain at that point I had the win.  Thinking ahead to the next weekend and the race with Danny, I knew I would need to run as fast as I could through the final miles, so I set about maintaining & even increasing my effort through the final section of the race even though I could have relaxed and maintained the gap I already had - no training like racing, and I put an image in my mind of Danny running me down over the final mile to spur me on!  I crossed the finish line with close to 2 minutes gap, Paul finishing a strong 2nd.

It was a fun race with lots of other friends competing in the Sprint and Olympic distance triathlon races.  The kids race got underway a couple of hours later and Angus had a blast racing on many parts of the same course.

Things to do differently next time (only a week to make it happen!):

• Always rehearse the entry to transition from the run and bike, knowing where to find your rack is critical
• Transition is part of the race, time lost here has to be made up on the race course where it's much harder
• Probably go a bit harder on the bike, I think I was being conservative, but I was very pleased with the final leg run pace

Firetower 15.3 Race Report

1st place overall; 59:45.6

Strava data for [Run] (17:46.0); [Bike] (25:01.7); [Run] (15:59.1)

The Brown County YMCA organizes the Firetower 15.3 duathlon in beautiful Brown County State Park, this was the second running of the race.  Last year I came second to Greg Fraze who was using the event as a build up to his Duathlon Worlds competition (he got silver in his 35-39 age group), this year I had talked Quaff ON! team-mate Danny Fisher into competing and Greg made a return trip to defend his title.  It was sure to be a hard race!

The race with Danny was going to be interesting since he's a significantly better runner than me and we both figured it would be close, all hinging on how much Danny could limit his losses to me on the bike section with very little training.  He seemed to think there was no hope, I however, was worried - training or not, great athletes like Danny have so much inherent fitness and mental discipline to work through the pain it was no-way a "done deal" in my head.

We made a family weekend of it, camping in the state park on Friday night (even though it's only 15 miles from home!), this made the early start easy for me.  After a Skratchlabs recipe baked egg bite (see below) I simply rolled down the road on my TT bike to complete registration and get my transition area set up.  The race isn't a huge affair which is nice in one way - no lines for sign-on, plenty of transition area space with no fighting for places on the racks, but it's also something I hope will change as the organizers persist with it as an annual event and work on promotion to attract more people.  The 5k pavement run, 10 mile pavement bike and 2.2 mile trail run course is challenging for people wanting a hard race, but safe and manageable (with no swimming!) for first time multi-sport participants.  The final trail run is a really fun twist to the traditional duathlon format and takes advantage of the amazing trail network and challenging terrain in the park.

The first part of the race unfolded pretty much as I had expected.  Fisher was gone off the front in the 5k, and after the first mile or so it was just me & Greg Fraze running about 5 secs apart (Greg ahead of me) all the way to the turn.  I felt pretty good with the pace (about 5:45/mile) and in the second half of the 5k closed the gap on Greg to enter transition only 0.6 secs behind him - Danny of course was long gone, having run a 16:29 5k, he was about 1:20 ahead of us.  Closing the gap on Greg gave me some confidence as last year he was pulling away from me.

Making the turn in the 5k run

The bike section is quite technical, downhill with sweeping bends to a pivot turn, then climbing all the way back to the start / finish area which you ride past to re-trace the 5k run course making ~9.9 miles in total.  Greg has killer transition skills and opened up a gap as we set off to chase Danny Fisher down.  Just as we got going, Greg missed the first turn but quickly rejoined, still ahead of me after a trip over the grass!  I passed Greg with a surge of effort on one of the short uphill sections but I knew it would be tough to open any significant gap on him.  It wasn't until the turn that we finally got sight of Danny, who was, by that time about 20 secs in front of us.  I finally made the catch as we climbed back towards Hesitation Point, to be honest I was getting worried about how much effort and how much distance it had taken to recover the time loss from the run.  It meant that I had about 4.5 miles to build a big enough cushion to avoid being caught in the second run.  Having completed the climbing, the road flattened out and started to feel more like a traditional time trial, I found the legs to turn a bigger gear and pushed on towards the turn, and finally the transition area for the second time.  I only had 10 secs advantage over Greg and his superior transition skills meant that once again, I was following him out onto the final trail run.

Coming off the hard bike effort, my calves cramped as soon as we started to run and the first mile of the trail is almost entirely downhill over rough terrain giving no respite to settle into a stride & shake out the cramps.  Having Greg clearly in sight the whole time was pretty much the only thing which kept me going at this point!  After about half a mile the cramps eased and I started to feel a more normal running gait come back to me whenever the path leveled momentarily.  The second mile of the trail is, you guessed it, almost entirely up hill with some brutally steep sections.  Each time we attacked one of the steep pitches, I felt I was taking some of the gap back to Greg and by about 2/3rds of the way up the hill I'd closed to only a couple of seconds - this was fortunate as I saw him go off course again and was able to call out to him the mistake (although I was so short of breath, I was worried that my feeble "yell" hadn't been heard).  He quickly rejoined just behind me and I didn't know what to do - I hadn't earned the lead on merit and I didn't really want the race decided by a simple mistake.  I eased up just a bit but on the next steep section, the sound of Greg's breathing dropped away and with a quick glance over my shoulder I saw a clear trail behind me, I had maybe 3 secs gap.  The final section of the trail climb is ridiculously steep, simply maintaining forward motion is a challenge let alone anything that might be considered running!  I knew this was coming and had saved something for the final effort (as the Strava data shows my heart rate peaked at 176 bpm) I stayed on my toes and tried to spring with each step as I climbed, finally breaking out onto the level trail with 0.2 miles to the finish and the win.  Greg finished 2nd and Danny came in 3rd, a minute behind me having run the trail 40 secs faster than me.  Quaff ON! team-mate, Erin Webb also had a great race, coming in 5th overall and first female.

Tim, Danny & Erin - Quaff ON!

It was great to win the race, having such a close battle with Greg made it more fun, but also made me try harder in every part of the event - it was a shame that he went off course, I'll always have a question in the back of my mind if I would really have caught & passed him on the final steep pitch of the trail but there's no way to know that - all I know is I put it all on the line, gave my best and had a great time being tested by both my peers and the terrain.

The race with Danny, which we'd debated over several pints of Busted Knuckle in the preceding weeks shook out like this:

5k run - Danny beat Tim by 1:17

T1 - Tim beat Danny by 0:17

10 mile bike - Tim beat Danny by 2:19

T2 - Tim beat Danny by 0:32

2.2 mile trail run - Danny beat Tim by 0:40

Equipment:

Shoes - Saucony Kinvara with elastic laces

Bike - Mercian TT bike (all steel frame, 26" front wheel) - retro still works!

Nutrition - Skratchlabs Lemon & Lime hydration mix; Baked Egg bite for breakfast (Skratchlabs Feedzone Portables recipe here)