Du State Du Duathlon-Loud Thunder Park

Yesterday I competed in my second duathlon this year and this was my second year to do the Du State Du. The weather was ominous with the weather channel predicting a 70% chance of thunderstorms all day. Even with the bad weather forecast we had 131 participants.

This race comprises a 2 mile run, a 15 mile bike ride and then the 2 mile run again. The transition area is used for the changeover. During the first transition your running shoes are taken off and biking shoes put on as well as your helmet. Then you take the bike off the rack that is provided and run out to the transition starting place and get on your bike. This is reversed during the second transition. Last year my times were 0:59 and 0:49 respectively for the two transitions. This year I shaved a little off and had 0:36 and 0:40, which gave a 0:32 second improvement overall.

I also improved in my running all so slightly. Last year my times were 13:47 and 14:40 for the two running legs. This year I had 13:25 and 14:59. Adding these together my running improved by :03 seconds.

Then there was the biking leg, which I didn't really want to talk about. Last year my time was 44:21 (average 19.9 mph). This year I did a disappointing 46:13 (19.1 mph). For me the wind this year was a big factor. It was blowing out of the south at 11-13 mph. I also had a bad leg cramp (right calf) during my last hill ascent about 2 miles from the finish line. I had to slow up to work the cramp out and this cost me some precious time.

Overall my time last year was 1:14:31. This year it was 1:15:55, which was 84 seconds slower. It was still good enough to get me 2nd place (same as last year). Even if I had rode as well as last year I still couldn't have caught the first place finisher (from Sterling, IL) in my age group. He was nearly 6 minutes ahead of me and finished 10th overall. I ended up finishing 32nd overall. Another factor in my slower times was not being fully recovered from my 5k race that I did the day before.

Well the rain held off for most of the finishers and began in earnest as we were gathering for the award ceremony and lunch.