Race #11 of the Season: Chilly Cheeks Duathlon #1

Well ... this was supposed to be our first duathlon.

However, it was cold, snowy and windy on race morning (about 27 degrees, iirc). Given that we haven't been training much ... or, you know, at all ... and don't trust ourselves on our road bikes on snow and ice, we pretty much decided to scrap the whole duathlon and switch to the 4-mi run only option (which quite a few people did).

We bundled up that morning to prepare for the weather.


I look pretty ridiculous (duathlon ninja!), but I was toasty warm.

When we got to Cherry Creek State Park that morning and saw a road cyclist wobbling along on the ice, we knew we made a smart decision. Well, that, and seeing transition.


Yeeeeahhhh ...

While there were a few road/tri bikes in trans, a few had fatter tires on them (that is, more tricked out for this type of crappy weather). In all honesty, I do think we could have maybe managed, but the other consideration was I had to work at 3pm that day and going as slow as we probably would have, the 10 mile ride probably would have taken two hours and I didn't want to take any chances.

So, run-only it was for us. Brandon started about two minutes ahead of me, but hung back to be able to run the course with me (which explains his slower time on the sidebar). It was coooold and windy and blowing snow and quite frankly, kind of miserable. However, I kept positive through the whole thing, glad I was out there to begin with with about 200 other crazy people who decided to not stay inside on what would have been a perfect day to cozy up in front of a fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate.

Brandon, on the other hand, was a lot more miserable and not happy we were out there. He was struggling pretty badly mentally trying to get through the run. Since I (still) have a crazy imagination, I pulled out one of our snowshoeing stories and started talking about us needing to make it home in the snowy post-apocalyptic world to get back to the dinos of Team Baby Dino. A little imagination (and break from reality) can go a long way. That helped him out enough to make it through.

In almost our slowest-ever four mile run, we made it to the finish, happily turning in our timing chips and headed over for hot chocolate, chocolate-chip banana bread (SO TASTY) and Cup O' Noodles (which, like many other items, tastes REALLY good after a race. every day? not so much. post-race? mmmmmm.)

Results:
Time: 48:11 (12:03/mi pace)
Overall Place/Total: 22/29 (run only division)
Sex Place/Total: 15/21
Division Place/Total (F29&UND): 4/5