Desert Classic Duathlon

On Sunday I competed in my first Duathlon! I signed up back in December and was constantly counting down the days.  I live in a state where it only rains 10 days out of the year, Sunday was one of those days.  Most of the rain came on Saturday so I was hopeful that there would be zero rain on Sunday but I was wrong.  I woke up at 4:15 am on race day to prepare and get a good breakfast before hand.

We arrived at McDowell Mountain Park at 6:45am where the race was taking place.  I got my bike and gear into the transition area and was ready to go! The first wave of athletes went out at 8am which included the male and female pros.  Then the men age groups, then women and relays, then last the mountain bikers. My wave started at 8:20.  My first obstacle was a 3.5 mile trail run which was very muddy because of all of the rain the night before. I felt so amazing on this run and the views of the park were so beautiful.  It's hard passing someone on the trail because it was very narrow in certain parts.  You just have to scream "Left!" and it's known to get out of the way.  

The bike had to be the most difficult portion of this race.  I feel like I can bike and bike and bike until someone tells me to stop.  But this 21 mile bike was up and down hills the whole time.  Not little bunny hills, but gigantic straight up hills. The bike was also cold and windy.  There were people on the side of the road with flat tires and I was hoping and praying that it wouldn't happen to me. I thought about eating this amazing burger at our favorite restaurant called Daily Dose about 80% of the ride. Cody took me there later that night and it was the most amazing burger I had ever had.   The last 5 miles were so difficult but I pushed myself through it and jumped off the bike to transition into my last run. 

Once I threw myself off of my bike my legs resembled jello.  I started running with my bike into the transition and couldn't feel my legs at all but knew they were moving.  Such a crazy feeling! On the second run, a 3.1 trail run, it started to rain on me about a third of the way through. Cody was right there at the start of the run and was giving me so much encouragement, I couldn't have done it without him! I was really beating myself up in the last rain, it was so hilly and the rain made the ground so hard to pull my foot up out of the mud.  It's crazy how your body will just keep going if your mind is telling it to.  I hit the last water station of the race and there was only a mile left to go, felt like the longest mile of my life. 

 

I finished the race in 2hrs and 36 minutes.  I am very happy with this time, heck I'm just happy to have finished it! I would have to say the hardest thing about doing this was not having my iPod.  None of the athletes were allowed to have it, well let's just say I saw about 5 people with them and was totally mad that they were getting away with it.  I would have loved to have some Beyonce and GaGa pushing me through the bike.  Oh well, I had my thoughts and motivation to get through it.  I would definitley do another duathlon, maybe in California :)