Chilly Cheeks Duathlon Race #1

On Saturday I raced in the first race of the Chilly Cheeks Duathlon series. Actually it wasn’t a real duathlon it was just a 4 mile run followed by a 10 mile bike. It’s been bitter cold and really snowy here thus for this particular race I entered the “fat tire” division....good move on my part, the roads were completely snow packed in parts. Overall it was a good race and I finished 5th overall female and 2nd in my age group but I could have done a whole lot better. However I did learn a few things at this race that I would like to share:

1) No unexpected sprints before a race! Bringing your new puppy to a race and having him slip out of his collar is NOT a good way to warm up for a race! Porter (the new pup) decided it would be a great time to run away from us and play keep- away twenty minutes before the start. Since he really only responds to me right now I had to help catch him. 19 mins later the little rascal was back on his leash and feeling Ryan’s wrath : P and I was running to the start line for the start of the race, out of breath already!

2) Know the course before you race it!! The race was in a state park called Cherry Creek. Ryan and I have ridden there a lot!! So I figured I would know the course and not have to worry about where to go and what I would be racing on because I was already familiar. Two little details that didn’t enter my mind, 1) I haven’t ridden there in the winter and 2) I have never actually run there. Well the run course was on a dirt trail that had about 3 inches of snow covering it and there’s stupid me with regular running shoes on. As you could imagine I was slipping all over the place!! I was first in my division in the run until about 3 miles when some girl, who had these nifty spiked attachments for her shoes, came flying by me! DOH!!! I never saw that girl again : ( Should have brought at least trail running shoes or even my spikes from HS track, anything would have been better than my regular running shoes!

3) Know your equipment!!! After this race I have now claimed the title of being the dumbest/ most unprepared racer of all time! As I mentioned before, I decided to enter the fat tire division of the race because the roads still had snow and ice on them after a week of below zero temps and about a foot of snow, thus onto my mountain bike I climbed. I rarely think I’m good at anything, but on a mountain bike, I’m good...I know, surprising. I don’t know if it’s the confidence of the wider tires or what but, I feel, I’m A LOT better mountain biker than road biker....well until this race. I started the bike and shifted to the gear I thought I should be in and just started to pound away, like usual. Then I noticed my cleat wasn’t properly attached to my pedal, here my cleat had frozen and I couldn’t attach it, thus I stopped, stamped my foot a few times to loosen the ice, and off I went, determined to make up some lost time. I got into the biggest chain ring and just pounded away (insert dramatic irony here). I noticed within the first few miles that my legs were super tired and I had no idea why, the run wasn’t that hard, so I just kept pushing and pushing. My cadence was surprisingly high but since I was in the hardest gear on the bike I just kept forcing my legs round and round. Around mile 8 I started to get really tired and kept getting passed. I was very much dismayed and thinkin’ “WTH! You are good at mtn biking, get you’re a$$ in gear and go!” So I PUT MY HEAD DOWN, started to push as hard as I could and happened to notice I was in the GRANNY GEAR SMALL CHAIN RING AND NOT THE LARGE ONE!!!! The whole time I thought I was in the hardest gear and I flippin’ wasn’t!!! No wonder why my cadence was high and my legs were so damn tired!!! My mountain bike and my road bike are opposite when you are gearing and being that I ride my road/tri bike about 99% of the time, just out of habit, I was shifting gears as I do on my road bike!!! Ya see, I’m a freakin’ idiot!!! UGH!!!! Well as you could guess I switched my gear to the “real” big chain ring and pounded the last mile. I passed 10 people that last mile, that’s a lot for a 300+ person race!!!

Overall the race was great and really well run for a non-sanctioned small race!! Funny that the race that I kinda blew off in getting prepared due to the small size and short distances of the race is one of the races I learned the most from! Oh well the next race in this series is Jan 23rd and I plan on kicking some major a$$!!! : )