Last Minute Entry

As you know, on April 17th I did an off road Duathlon called the Fredericksburg Offroad Duathlon. The FORD1 was a lot of fun. My friend Mario and are were competing against each other with the loser buying the winner dinner. That was the bet. You also probably know that Mario beat me. But not by much. The results of the race were posted on the FORD website. Mario ended up beating me by 1 minute and 45 seconds. I tried to post the data below but it does not seem to be showing up correctly. Once you finish reading the blog, you can come back to this link to see the Overall Results. http://fredevents.org/Results.htm

Place	Bib #	Team Name	First Name	Last Name	Age	M/F	1st Run	T-1	Bike	T-2	2nd Run	Finish

33	245		Mario	Kepus	42	M	0:25:38	0:00:57	1:02:44	0:01:10	0:25:28	1:55:57
34	243		Jim	Rosen	41	M	0:25:12	0:02:02	1:04:05	0:01:28	0:24:55	1:57:42

As I mentioned before, I thought I did pretty well considering I had not been running hardly at all to prepare for the race. I had been putting in some miles on my bike though.

As the next weekend rolled around, my only plans for the weekend were to go support Melissa who was running a 5k on Saturday morning. We got up about 6:30 AM on Saturday to prepare for the race. I was the designated jacket holder and picture taker. I got up and made myself an egg and cheese sandwich while getting my things together. There was a slight drizzle going so I dressed warm and grabbed the umbrella. As it turned out the rain petered out and I did not need the umbrella.

Once we made it to the race venue and Melissa got checked in, we ran into a coworker of mine who was also running the race. This would be Goran's first race ever. There was a pretty small field of runners for this charity event. There are lots of such charity 5K events every so often during race season.

Melissa ran well and PR'd. It was only her second 5K and she ran the first mile very fast. The rolling hills made it more difficult running than the Monument Avenue 10K but since it was shorter, going out too fast did not hurt her too much. Goran also ran well. And he placed third in his age group. Not bad for his first ever race. Next up for Melissa is a hilly 8K in May and Goran may have been bitten by the race bug and may do some more races soon.

As we were driving home from the race, I was thinking what I wanted to do for my workout. The previous weekend had been so much fun and a great workout. I was wondering how I could have a similar workout this weekend. When we got home, I got online and decided to look one more time at the National Duathlon web site. The previous day, I had toyed with the idea of doing the race but I found out through the message board that credit cards were not accepted on race day registration and I was short on cash because it was the end of the month. But when I checked the site again on Saturday morning about 10:00 AM, I found out they did indeed take credit cards. I thought, "what the heck" and decided to eat some more and gather my gear together and go race. Another smoothie was on the menu along with an orange and another banana.

I got down to the venue about 11:15 and got all registered and got my body marking done. Instead of just wearing a number on my jersey, helmet, and bike, we also got our race numbers written on our hand. We also had our age inked onto the back of the calf. I am not sure why they do it like that but it is a nice feeling to pass someone with a 26 on their calf. And then humbling to be passed by someone with a 50 on their calf.

After getting all registered, I got my bike all racked and started eating some food I had brought with me. I had another banana, a granola, and a small can of tuna. The tuna is convenient because I just eat it right out of the can and it seems to sit well enough with me. After fueling up and going through some other pre race rituals, I made my way down to the start. I ran into my doctor down there. He was working the medical for the Saturday off-road duathlon and would be racing the on-road even the next day.

There was a much bigger field this year for sure. The last two years I did the race, I was amazed at how fast the runners burst into high gear from the very start. This year, they did not seem to take off quite as fast. Perhaps because the run course was different and would prove to be a much more difficult course than in previous years.

I was actually looking forward to the 11K run because I knew the trails very well. After running over the Lee bridge, we descended a spiral stair case to down to the river. It was 70 steps down to the river. We then ran along the river on the flat gravel path until we reached another set of spiral stairs that was also 70 steps. Once we got up the stairs, we ran up and down the trails, over the rocks and roots, over some creek crossings and down to the Nickel Bridge (no longer a nickel by the way). Once across the bridge, we ran some more trails including a very steep climb that led us up to another neighborhood. After running several blocks on the road, we dropped back into the woods for the up and down technical North Bank trail.

At this point in the race, we were all pretty spread out along the trail. Some runners were suffering through the run. I was pushing it pretty hard too. This first leg would be the most I had run since I stopped running last year before my surgery and slightly more than I had run in the previous week's duo. Over the years I have found that I am pretty good at running down technical trails. As runners would start to gain on me, we would get to the downhill part and I would fly down the trail with a hippidy hop, floppidy flop. The downhill portions allowed me to gain on people in front of me and lose people behind me. And since I was so intimately familiar with the trails, I felt great pushing the envelope.

Once I made it back to the transition zone, I popped off my running shoes and put on my bike shoes, helmet, riding glasses, and gloves. I downed a few gulps of Gatorade and headed out of transition. A quick steep climb got me out of transition and onto the road where we once again went up onto the Lee Bridge. It was a little windy on the bridge but not too bad. I started warming up and was actually gaining on someone in front of me. I managed to pass someone before getting across the bridge and back down to the first spiral staircase. As I was carrying my bike down the stairs, I heard a distinctive sound coming down behind me. Some nut job was actually riding down the stairs. Nut job is probably not a nice thing to say about an expert rider who has the talent and strength to ride down 70 steps that spiral down about 6 to 8 steps at a time. But seriously, how does one work up to being able to do something like that?

I hurried down the rest of the way so that I would not impede this guy's progress. As I was mounting my bike at the bottom of the stairs, this guy went flying by. He was really crunching it, legs furiously pumping but arms and elbows in tight helping him stay as aerodynamic as possible. It struck me as odd that someone with this talent was somehow behind me. I did not think much about it and continued down the path.

After a few minutes, another rider passed me. He was also pushing hard, riding the big gear with his arms tucked in tight. Then I realized what had happened. The race course had a section that looped around and covered some of the same ground. These guys had already done the first loop. I was not really being lapped but they were significantly ahead of me. But I did not really care. I just wanted to finish better than last year.

Suddenly, I started to get calf cramps. They were quite painful and forced me off the bike. I really had only been on the bike for less than 10 minutes and already I was cramping like mad. I chugged my Gatorade and ate a Power Gel and washed it down with plenty of water. I also did some stretching and massaging of my calves. A bunch of riders went by. Someone asked if I was ok and I yelled that I was fine-just cramping.

I managed to get on the bike and continue down the path to the 42 street stairs. I had already climbed these stairs once during the run. I hoisted my bike onto my shoulder and headed up the stairs. After another 70 steps, I was at the top and ready to head back into the woods on the bike.

During this next portion, I cramped again. I got off the bike one more time and did some stretching before continuing along. A biker came up behind me and I asked him if he wanted to pass. He said no that he would just "hang out." So he followed me through the woods for a while. At one point he asked me how I was doing and I told him I was cramping in my calves. He said he was a doctor and he could help. He told me to drink as much water as possible and also to keep my heals down as much as possible. And since I am good at following directions, that is what I did. I drank more water and I sat back on my seat and forced my heals down as I pedaled. Boy did that help! After a while, I felt much better. I wanted to thank the guy but i was also in a race so I took off.

I continued on the technical trails feeling better and better. I had to carry bike bike down the 22nd street stairs once again and then up the 42nd street stairs. In case you are counting, I had run down the 22nd street stairs once, carried my bike down the 22nd street stairs twice, and climbed the 42 street stairs 2 times-once running and twice carrying my bike. Given that there are 70 steps on each stair case - well you can do the math. I will just say it was a lot of stairs!

Once I got to the Nickel Bridge again, I knew I was going to be able to finish the race pretty well. I still had one super steep climb but I also knew that I probably would just jump off and push up the hill. And that is what I did. Pushing my bike up the hill actually helped stretch out my calves. I managed to pass a few more people on the last portion of the trail and rolled into transition feeling pretty good.

In transition, I drank some more Gatorade and changed into my running shoes and then took off for the final 3.5k. After an 11K run and 26K mountain bike, I was glad the second run was short. And it was an easier course too. I felt pretty good and managed to run the whole second run leg at a decent pace averaging slightly less than an 8.5 minute mile.

At the end of the race, I gave it my all. I did have a kick but it was not as fast as the previous race kick had been. I was pretty out of breath when I crossed the finish line. Not so tired as to neglect reading the ingredients of the Gatorade they were giving away at the finish line. Luckily there was no High Fructose Corn Syrup in the beverage so I went ahead and took one.

Here are my results. Again, they did not post well so you can always come back to this link if you like. http://www.pigmantri.com/jmsracing/results10/ndufest10f.html.

  OFF ROAD SPORT RACE                                                             11K Run, 21K Bike, 3.5K Run  TOT DIV                                                               RUN            TRAN        BIKE           TRAN        RUN2        TOTAL PLC PLC    NAME                    CITY           ST CTZ AGE S  plc   time   pace    time  plc   time   mph     time  plc   time   pace TIME

36  10/16   Rosen James             Bellevue       VA USA  42 M   41 1:10:24 10:18    2:10   38 1:40:10   7.8    1:44   25   18:19  8:26 3:12:46

So overall, it was a great race. I was 36 out of 64 riders in my division which was much better than last year. 

The following weekend, Melissa and I went out of town and so I got behind on my blogging. Next time, I will tell you about our trip which was very active and very fun.