This last weekend was the Atomicman duathlon. A 4K run, 15k bike, 4k run. This is my second favorite race of all time. The only race I've done that I enjoyed more was the 5430 half iron.
This was my 4th year in a row doing this race. Last year I busted out with one of my top three performances finishing 1st place AG 30-34 & 9th place overall in a time of 1hr 9 minutes.
This years race was bitter sweet. I started out the run chasing a guy who looked like a fellow Clyd, only he was tall & lean. I was struggling right off the bat. I never felt tired, much less exhausted. But I just couldn't force my legs to go as fast as I wanted them to. I finished the first 4k averaging a little over 8 minutes per mile.
The Clyd I was chasing had at least a 60 second lead going into T-1. Coming out of T-1 his lead had shrunk to about 20 seconds.
Right out of T-1 there's a long and gradual hill. At my current weight I'm not a very good hill climber, but I had put on an 11-28 cassette to help me out on the uphill & make up time on the downhill. That plan worked well. I'd lose the Clyd I was chasing on the uphill, but make up a ton of time on the downhills.
This course is a very mountainous course on both the runs & the bike. But the bike in particular is brutal. The ride is in & out of these huge canyons. I was constantly riding around the 40 mile an hour mark on the downhill of those canyons. At one point of a fast decent a cross wind hit hard & out of no-where. I came dang close to wiping out. The good news is at forty miles an hour I wouldn't of felt much pain. I'd of been knocked into unconsciousness or killed immediately.
The last decent on the bike was about 3/4 of a mile long and came right up to T-2. Most people slowed down a lot coming down that last hill. I didn't. I kept the speed up until the last second. Dismounted & made up another 20 seconds on the guy I'd been chasing all day. Now I was only 40 yards behind him & my legs still felt fresh.
Apparently his legs felt pretty good too because he averaged just over 6 minute miles on the last run. I was able to keep my 2nd run of the day within a minute of my first run. It's not that I am a grwat pacer, it's that I still have great endurance from my Ironman a few months ago & am able to hammer all out without my legs getting fatigued.
Thankfully the Clyd I was chasing wasn't a Clyd at all, he ended up being an AG 35-39. I finished in 1hr 14 minutes & first place Clyd. I finished a little over 2 minutes faster than the next Clyd. Despite being 8 minutes slower than last year, I still added another year to my unbeaten streak at this race. 4 years in a row I've finished the top of my division. All in all a decent day at a fantastic race!
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