Bad to the Bone Race Report

Well, I made it through another event, one step closer to my 100 miler.

Had a blast at the Bad to the Bone, especially as it was my first Duathlon.

I was a little concerned that I would get sick coming up to the race since both my kids have been dealing with stomach viruses and I felt bad most of the day at work on Thursday. Fortunately I was able to go to bed at a decent hour and get some sleep.

After running four miles and getting a 30 mile ride in on Wednesday I felt in pretty good shape for the race.

Got up in plenty of time on Saturday and found that it was probably one of the coolest mornings we've had starting out in the upper 50's. I still struggle with eating a good breakfast on race day so downed some ensure and V-8. Drank a cup of coffee on the way up and ate a banana. I know I should be eating more/better but I had a hard enough time getting up at 5:30 and out the door.

Not knowing much about the course I debated about footwear pre-race and brought a couple of pairs of shoes. In the end I wore a pair of Inov-8 trail shoes that probably weren't the best idea. While the shoes were light and responsive they don't have nearly the support as my other trail shoes and road shoes. I'll get back to that later though.

Got to the race in plenty of time to get my race packet and walk back to the car. Spent most of the morning in a sweatshirt trying to stay warm and went back to get my gear. After getting my transition set up still had plenty of time so was able to wander around, go to the bathroom and get some pictures. Fortunately, a friend of mine from church was racing also and I was able to hand the camera off to his wife to get some shots of us which was kind of cool since I generally never get around to this or my wife is too busy with the kids to focus on waiting for me. Thanks to Kristin for the great shots!

While listening to the pre-race meeting I was hanging out at the back with a t-shirt and wasn't paying close attention. Almost immediately after the meeting the race started with little warning so that I had to go pitch my t-shirt with my stuff and play catch up from the start. Now I wasn't planning on hitting it too hard anyway since I've basically been doing no speed work but I still hated to be towards the back of the back. In a short run (5k) that initial burst can usually at least get you through a pretty fast mile I've found. Instead I wound up getting stuck behind several runners slower than myself when the race turned to single track. My shoe choice kind of caught with me also as my shoes, while responsive and light provided little protection to ankle roll since I hadn't been training in them regularly. I could feel it while running and was a little sore afterwards but no big deal. I laughed when I came around the corner just before the end of the run and a volunteer was calling out places. I was 70 out of 120. Oh well, I promised myself I would at least be in the top half of finishers so decided to make a goal out of pursuing on the bike.

Had a quick transition and felt great starting out on the bike. I had heard all these warning about the severity of two climbs shortly into the race so tried to pace myself early on. My goal was to pass 20 people so it definitely gave me a goal to shoot for and something to occupy my mind when I saw other riders up ahead. Going into the first of the "evil twins" I got some good information from a fellow racer who knew the course well. He told me that while the first climb was longer, be ready because the second twin was steeper. I found that much of my riding in town was easily as steep if not steeper but not quite as long. I dropped it down to my lowest gear and just tried to keep a decent cadence throughout the climbs. I probably passed another 5-6 people on the first climb which gave my confidence a big boost. The downhills were a bit scary as I'm usually not too aggressive. It made me a bit nervous when I had both the brakes engaged and was still doing 35 around the curves on an open road. The second climb was steep but didn't seem too bad and was over quickly. After this, mentally I was in a position to just try and push the pace, stay in my aeros as much as I could and reel people in. The last 15 miles were really beautiful especially the good bit of road that followed the river that was rolling, wide open and provided ample opportunity to pass.

The last five miles seemed long and had a pretty strong headwind. Still I was probably able to pass several other folks and came pretty close to my goal.

Coming off the bike I felt like I transitioned well and got back to the run. I was surprised at how heavy my legs felt, but did push it pretty hard (for me) on the bike. My other goal was to have a negative split on the second run which at first I thought would be impossible as heavy as my legs felt. My new goal was to run everything and not walk any of the hills. I think I was passed by one guy after I dropped a gel wrapper and went back to pick it up and wound up passing another 4 or 5 myself. To my surprise, after about ten minutes my legs felt much fresher and had some spring the closer I got to the finish. Imagine my surprise when I rounded the next to the last turn and was informed that I was now 31! I can't figure it out but somehow I moved up almost 40 places from the run to the finish. I finished strong and overall, felt like I had a great race. My buddy Chris came in shortly after and I was able to get several good photos of him coming in at the homestretch.

All in all, had a great day and learned a few tricks for next time.

Overall numbers as follows:

Run: 32:04

T1: 43.70

Bike: 1:25:31

T2: 1:02

Run 2: 30:59

Overall: 2:30:21.80

31st overall, 5th age group