2009 Navy Triathlon(Duathlon)

Under cloudy conditions,very early in the morning and labeled in permanent black ink with a 559 I participated in my second duathlon,the first for 2009. We had an early start at 7:30AM so I was at the venue,the Shearwater air base,at 6:00AM.

After the pre race meeting and my first surprise of the day we started the race with a listed 3KM run but I suspect it was,in fact,longer as the distance included a hill climb not mentioned on the website. Ouchie! I suffered on the run,even with a good warmup,as is usual for me. I am a slow starter and until I fall into a tempo I suffer. Finished in the bottom third on the run with a 21.17 time as per my watch`s chronometer on,what I suspect,was a 4km+ course.

The bike portion fell great after a typical lousy transition that added time to the cycling leg. My ITT bike was comfortable after a tweaking of the bar height yesterday as Triathlon Nova Scotia does not have the stringent bike setup guidelines like UCI/Bicycle Nova Scotia. There was a climb to the airport tarmac and some meadering through gates but once on the loop it was flat and fast.There was some wind but nothing to serious so I pushed the big gear to try and make up some placings.According to my cycling computer I finished the 23km bike leg with a 30.8 kph. My actual time will reflect the first transition which will bring down my total time and speed for sure.

Having cleared the timing sensor I did not hurry through transition. Running in cycling shoes suck and since I have neither the experience or skill to remove my shoes on the bike I just walked to my station and switched over to the final running leg of the event. Unlike last October in Riverport I actually felt better running after the bike and immediately fell into a nice pace(for me anyway) and regreted I was so tardy in transition. I guess it is a sign of improvement that I was able to switch from the bike to the run so smoothly. In Riverport it was misery but today it felt OK.

I saw my result but can`t quite remember all the details. I think I placed 7th out of 15 duathletes but was last in my age category.Since my motivation is to see improvement over podiums I think the day was a success althought it is a work in progress.(wink) Once the results are posted online I will edit my post. I finished and then got the camera gear out and spent the rest of the morning getting some shots. I`ll post up a link to my Picassa web albums once I get the photos sorted.

Postscript;
According to Running Map.com the run distance of the loop was 3.84km and if you factor in the run to and from transition and to the finish it was close to 4KM. There was some changes made to the results as well.....here are my stats based on a field of 30 competitors..

17th 1:25:21 George Henley(Halifax) 5/6 (M4049 559) Run - 23rd 20:00 6:40 Bike - 15th 43:34 27.5 Run- 25th 21:48 7:16