Pedal to Metal Duathlon 2/16/14

This is the exact same course from Bronda’s Du last November.  Texas Motor Speedway, close course 15 mile ride (3 loops of 5 miles) between two 2-mile runs (2 loops of 1 mile each time).  Last time I was 6^th out of 9 girls in AG.  I was the very last gal at the end of 1^st run, passed out 20 people and didn’t finish last. 

https://www.nolimitstiming.com/results/default.aspx?event=24141

Tony and I knew of this race, but Texas February can be pretty icy and cold.  The same race in 2013 was sunny 30 degrees and that is not an optimal bike condition; maybe OK for run.  But one weekend, we remembered about it and Tony got excited and agreed to be a chauffer and Sherpa again.  Coach Todd sounded excited saying, now he can assign brick workouts.  I have probably done more run races than most friends on Spinervals this season already (some are buried in snow and stuck at home in icy condition) and I started to feel pretty good about myself as a runner.  Coach Todd and I are testing what I can do on bike from both sides and this Du sounded a good idea. We had extremely cold winter.  We started early in December and closed school at the end of fall semester already.  Below freezing temperatures do happen and I don’t remember this often for so long.  We gambled signing up fearing another bad weather for this race and we got lucky.  I declared the winter was over Thursday last week.  But diligent Sherpa Tony was worried if I don’t forget to bring warm gears and stay warm.  Coach Todd’s words were pretty simple.  He trusted I know how to pace, so simply said “Go get 'em!!”.

 After wonderful Valentine’s Day weekend dinner, Team T&K headed to Ft. Worth and as we approached the visibility became worse and worse.  Normally we can spot Texas Motor Speedway and its buildings from miles away assuring us we are heading to the correct direction, but even from parking lot, we could barely tell we are in the famous Speedway.

Since I realized that getting a good spot in transition area is not that crucial because it is a small enough race and besides, there are not many bikes left when I get to T1 (!) and I pre-picked up the packet, we arrived when it was already bright enough to see everything.  When we got first, people were doing race day pickup and bringing bike to the transition.  Although it was the same area, finish and start spots were set up differently and the bathroom by the parking lot was closed!  So I ended up doing running warm up and picked up the timing chip.  Then I started to run on run course and felt pretty good.  Recent training plans of Coach Todd must have been working.  Then I realized all this bathroom warm up, I forgot to do pre-run active warm up.  Then I heard in loud speaker that pre-race briefing is starting, so I went to the registration area, where we were inside.  I didn’t think it was cold, but glad to have Tony around to take the jacket when I warmed up.  Nobody was really sure where the start line was, but people were now seriously going up and down running and I grabbed the metal rail to do the belated active warm up. 

Suddenly the organizer announcer appeared and claims that where he is standing is an invisible start line.  So everybody lined up.  I made a point of lining up around in the middle knowing I will get passed by a lot of people, but it worked pretty well at 5 mile run race recently.  I spotted a lady wearing pink jersey of Coach Todd’s team.  I started Garmin and then double-checked and thought I didn’t turn it on, so I pushed the button and then I later realized I had stopped, so I had to restart.  So in the data, I must have missed possibly about a minute.  By the time we got into the track and turned the 1^st corner, I realized there are not whole lot of people behind me.  Nothing new.  But when I was finishing up my first lap, I didn’t see very fast guys exiting the run course last time.  I could see what seem to be first ones on the bike when I was on the second lap. 

While I was in T1, I looked like I am in a good company as I heard mounting and dismounting instructions and directions to go.  I got on bike and immediately passed one lady, but I was fooling around with Garmin (again!).  I didn’t see my usual display, so I kept turning on and off until finally realized that I have to scroll.  Thank goodness this time I had my Camelbak and I had new FTP set up.  My heart rate was about 170 bpm to start and my Normalized Power stayed about 170 watts.  It was windy.  Thanks to my new Giro Road Aero helmet and aero bars, I could FEEL the wind, but straight road bike people were visibly suffering especially at the combo of head wind and slight climbing.  There was not a sign for the loop to start and I thought I passed where I came in too early for the first round and started to think the distance on Garmin was not right.  I kept passing people and really fast guys with tear drop helmet with solid aero positions passed me, too.  I was confused about the distance and one guy turned at a corner.  After a while, I ran out of people I could pass and maybe I slowed down a little bit.  Because I was confused with the distance, I unconsciously followed a guy to turn and looked at Garmin and the distance was 10 miles.  So I turned around and kept going hoping to remember that was the turn.  I started to seeing more people ahead and told myself that if I wanted to pass anybody, I had to do it on bike course and this is the last chance.  Luckily a couple of people were ahead of me when I REALLY had to turn so I followed.  When I came into bike in, looks like there was a winner coming in and the announcer sounded excited and loud.  I heard Tony yelled and caught him saying, “Big time, big time.” I got off the bike and my legs were noticeably wobbly.  So I consciously walked until the timing chip mat and then started to run.  

 My heart rate was still hovering around 160 bpm and I was thinking, I should be able to run at 180 bpm or so from recent training.  A lot of people passed me and they looked like they were all good runners.  Some were exiting while I go on to the 2^nd loop.  Tony was there cheering taking picture and I took a cup of water and walked passing the water station for a while.  Then I went on to the last mile.  When I came in to the finish line area, I headed mistakenly to the transition direction and I could hear Tony yelling, “KEIKO, OVER HERE!” and volunteer were pointing to the right directions.  Eventually I located the timing chip mat and looked at the time.  I thought I maybe made 1:38.  Tony gave me a big hug and got me the change bag.  I cleaned myself and Tony took the picture of preliminary results.  I was a little disappointed to see my overall number is around 100 again, but Tony was saying people are still coming in.  He thought maybe there were around 140 people and very fast people from November were not there and possibly the windy condition made the winner 9 minutes later than November.  When I looked at AG results, I was 5^th, so I decided I am content and we headed misty, foggy Ft. Worth out to go home.

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I will update with official timing company results page, but so far I am 94^th and 1:38:02.  AG 5^th. And looks like I passed 47 people on bike.  That should make Coach Todd’s day.  Thank you for cheering, friends and being a great Sherpa, Tony.  Remember when you sign up a bike race (not a rally), you will get Giro helmet, too!

Garmin data:

run 1

bike

run 2

official results