my first du (and bike-related race)
So sometime in July I must've seen this race advertised. It was an off-road duathlon, pretty cheap, good cause, and the course didn't seem so tough. But I didn't have a mountain bike at the time, so I wrote it off.
Three weeks ago, I bought a mountain bike. Sometime early this week, I remembered about the du. After several days of harassing people for advice and opinions (thanks!), I signed up. 5k run, 20k bike, 5k run.
And the short version of the story is...I survived it. I came in 7th of 11 women and saw pretty much none of them once the race started. Turned out to be only 23 finishers so we were alone for big chunks of the race. The only person who passed me on the bike got passed back on the second run. The universe is in balance.
It was a first-time event for the coordinators so there were several snafus...I don't know what transition normally looks like in an off-road du, but this place was a cluster. Then most of the trails were logging roads/nordic ski trails, and so while they were lacking most of your "normal" mountain bike hazards, they had every energy-sucking, absolutely soul-sucking abnormality you can imagine. Knee high grass? Marshes and wheel-sucking mudholes? Several inches of mulch from the recent logging (along with derailleur-impaling sticks :( )? Yes, yes, and yes. Lots of energy expended on hills that looked like nothing. Then they'd accidentally routed us incorrectly on the first run, so I came back out expecting another short course but they'd added on a second mountain once they realized their mistake.
But in all honesty, it was a good beginner course. And I specifically chose a du to "start" (implying I'll continue?) mountain bike racing because I was hoping we'd be spread out after the run. And boy, were we.
My personal performance had a lot to do with my queasy stomach which turned out to not be pre-race jitters. Had an unfortunate introduction to a McDonalds bathroom on the way to the race, spent several minutes trying not to vomit while choking down gatorade about 20 minutes into the bike course at the top of the first big hill, and spent the rest of the race wondering if i was going to start spewing red fluid all over my favorite jersey (at least it would've matched the bike). Didn't get sick, didn't puke on the slow runner that I threatened :D (I was trying to inspire him to go faster!) but I'm just having toast for dinner, thanks!
Oh, and I walked two downhills. One was called "endo hill" though, so I feel justified.
