Getting Fit: Dirty Du Duathlon

Well, I finished my first ever off road duathlon and it was TOUGH. My time was 1:52:38--not that it will mean anything to most people. I mean, I don't even know if it was a good time. What I do know is this was the hardest race I've ever done and that includes all of my marathons, half marathons and sprint triathlons. In conjunction with the difficulty of this course I'm sure the altitude was also to blame for the sheer hardness of this race. The 3 mile run was so steep and rocky and it was bad enough to do it once but twice was definitely overkill. It was a total scramble up a 45 degree angle up the mountain. Then if that wasn't bad enough the three laps on the bike were challenging. I thought I was tough but the other more experienced riders were surprisingly fast and fearless. The biking course was not for the faint of heart. It took guts, great balance, lots of endurance and technique to get up and down the rocky scrambles. There were a few real technical spots that required some fancy maneuvering. It's good I have been riding that kind of stuff. The end was a bit scary as I flipped over coming down the last scramble of rocks. My handlebars hit a bush and over the handlebars I flew. Luckily I didn't break any bones and only damaged one of my front handle breaks. My leg was badly bruised and so was my pride but at least those things heal. One thing I learned from this race is that it is going to take me a lot more than a few months to get acclimated to this altitude.

First 5K Run

I was actually the second female to complete the first 5K with a time of 23:31. There were lots of teams racing today and very few individual competitors. In my age group there were only 8 female competitors doing it solo like myself.

Mountain Biking portion

I started the biking section real strong. I was fearless and went pretty fast down the first scramble and into the valley of loose dirt and lots of narrow turns. Still, there were plenty of men who were passing me and it wasn't long before I saw the first female pass me. There were a few other females who passed me on the first lap. That was a little discouraging. It was then that I realized what level of athletes I was competing against. I was definitely one of the beginners and that was ok. The second lap was just as hard as the first but I still had lots in me. It wasn't until the third lap where I began to feel completely exhausted. It was during the last scramble down that my handlebars caught some brush on the side and I flipped over my handlebars. Luckily I wasn't hurt too bad. I scrapped my leg and badly bruised my elbow but I got right back on that bike and rode the rest of the way to the transition area. It wasn't until later that I realized I had damaged one of the breaks.

Last 5K Run and Finish

With zero energy left my last 5K was pretty slow. I clocked myself at around 27 min from the end of the transition area to the finish line. It wasn't as strong of a finish as I would have liked but considering it was my first duathlon after only having ridden for a few months I suppose I was proud for just finishing the race. I ended up placing 6th in my age group. For the first two weeks after the race I was still a little nervous to get back on my bike after my fall. It was then that I enlisted two of my good friends to ride the course with me so that I could get over my fear. I took some pictures along the way of the course so that I could remember what it was like.

The first downhill scramble