Given the fact that we (okay, I) signed up for this series as a way to keep active throughout the winter (and sweats) (and an excuse to eat banana chocolate chip bread), I'm not planning on derailing all of my 2016 plans due to injuring myself in a throwaway duathlon. As a result, I exchanged my du bib for a run-only bib and Brandon signed up to do the four mile run.
A lot of competitors still stuck with the du, but I heard that there were a lot of bike crashes. They told us at the pre-race briefing that the bike course was mostly dry/packed snow ... but we ran part of it during the run portion and yeah. I would NOT have felt comfortable riding my tri bike in those conditions.
We got to Cherry Creek State Park way earlier than we needed to, but it's always better to be early than late, is my thought.
We were planning on hanging out in the car until the last possible moment so layer shedding could happen ... but then we realized, duh, we have a safe transition in which to put stuff. So, trans bags were brought up and we stole a spot ... even though our bikes remained safely ensconced in the car.
Bundled up, it wasn't bad; the wind was a little iffy, but that's par for the course. Waiting for the waves to go off, we took pictures:
Brandon zipping himself into his MaccaX jacket.
Portrait: Brandon. Photographer (me) caught in glasses.
Us.
We learned that Brandon started three minutes ahead of me. We figured I probably wouldn't catch him, but I was hoping that I could finish less than three minutes behind him (and therefore be faster).
Soon enough, it was time to line up and race; men first and then women.
As I mentioned above, it was early on in the run that I realized I was very happy I decided not to ride. I didn't think about that option and therefore didn't have my Garmin, so I only had a general sense of pace thanks to my watch.
Mile one was in the 9s (it's the mile where we're pretty sure I beat Brandon); it got progressively slower after that. The cold was killer on my lungs, though in general, I believe I was dressed too warmly. I decided to wear the BU toque pictured above last minute; yeah, I ended up taking it off and just running in the TriSports technical trucker (worked out much better tighter on my head this time around).
The last mile, I felt like no matter how much ground I tried to cover, I just moved ... slow.
Happily, though, I did end up beating Brandon - by 44 seconds. Woo!
Final Stats:
Time: 43:10
Overall rank: 15/25
Gender rank: 9/15
Division rank: 5/6 (F01-39)
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