Milton Sprint Duathlon

– Date – 6/1/08
– Description – Duathlon (2k/30k/7.5k)
– Location – Milton, Ontario
– Race Name – Milton Duathlon
– Sport – Duathlon
– Race web site – http://www.trisportcanada.com

Race two on the Subaru Triathlon Series brought an eager group of duathletes to the great venue at Kelso Conservation Area on the outskirts of Milton. As the cool, windy spring conditions continued to add even more difficulty to the already challenging course, I was well aware of the effort I would need to post a strong race time.

Our race was to begin with the final wave of the triathlon so I watched a few sections head out into the cold, choppy water before taking the little jog up the gravel trail to our starting line. Up here out of the craziness of the triathlon, 142 athletes put in their final preparations as the race director blasted out course direction from his hand held loud speaker. He counted down the last few minutes as the field settled into position awaiting the anticipated horn to send us down the 2k trail through the gently flowing terrain of the busy park.

I quickly found my pace out of the gate, running in third spot along the tree lined service road, just a little off the lead runner who seemed to full tank of gas to burn early in the race. I allowed him to stretch out his lead, not wanted to overextend myself on the first run, happy to stay tight with the fellow sitting in second. I hit the first kilometre marker in a normal split but knew we had to go a little further up the road to get to the turn around sign due to the starting line in comparison to the transition zone. The bike lead continued to pull the leader, and pack of chasers, along for much longer than expected when I finally heard a group of volunteers yell out that we should all have turned.

They were late to lay down the sign and five or six of us had past the marker and had now served us with a huge disadvantage. Cursing this unbelievable turn of events, I scurried to catch the others but was now more than 15 athletes down from the lead. Thankfully, my anger supplied an extra bit of adrenalin and I swiftly made my way back through the field. My frantic effort to get back into contention had reclaimed many of the lost positions from the error and I was able to hit the bike rack in 4^th place.

Calmly changing over into my cycling gear, I pulled my ride from the metal pole and made my way out to the mount area. Although, not usually the best portion of my races, I was able to get rolling in pretty smooth fashion on this day and started to get up to speed through park driveway. After a cautious left onto Tremaine Road, I headed north into the wind making my way to the famous 6^th Line hill. The hill is a 1.4k steep climb that gets the heart pumping and ready for our main racing of 20k on the escarpment top. Unlike last year on this course, I controlled my ascent making sure to save a little extra for the rollers up on top. It seemed to pay off as I made great time on the rest of the riders around me once I pushed off from the crest, keeping my followers at a safe distance.

I was now hammering hard on the bike and battling back and forth with a hill specialist, trying to keep up with his pace as he seemed to be moving nicely through the masses. I was not sure at the time if he was a triathlete or duathlete (although I found out on the last run he was a triathlete) so tried my hardest to keep him close by. We moved along the rough, patchy asphalt roads trying to keep the other in striking distance. I had him on most of the flats but he always made back the deficit in time on the up slopes. I led my racing mate as we approached the huge downhill section and tucked in for an extremely fast decent (over 75k/h at one point). My speeds felt impressive enough to me but I was soon overtaken as his bike was moving even faster and he reached the bottom a few seconds before me.

We now had less than 4k back to the park and my legs were excitedly pumping as I had a great feeling that I was in contention for the podium. A couple hundred metres through the conservation area and I was back to home base but feeling a little spent from the first two sections of the race. Was I going to have enough to fight off any of the speedsters coming in behind me?

With 7.5k left on foot, I was hoping to get up to a respectable pace right out of the t-zone but my legs were not responding. The first couple of kilometres presented a few minor uphill testers that I was not making my usual gains on. I approached the faster pavement of Appleby Line and turned right out from the park to see a long line of athletes (mostly tri’ers) spread along the last run. It was a slow incline leading up to another park that had us fighting the breeze making the first half of the run much tougher than I remembered from last year.

When we finally got into Hilton Falls, we followed the tar and chip driveway to a cross country loop in the bush where we started to reap the rewards of our hard work. Downhill with a tail wind, I was finally starting to feel my legs come back to life and really got moving past a bunch of the other athletes heading to the finish line.

During this entire run I had stayed in check with my cycling friend (now knowing he was in the triathlon) as we offered each other encouragement, taking turns out in front of the other which was draining every last drop of energy in my body. With 1.5k left he pushed past me for the last time but had helped me make back some time lost during the first 3.5k. I had held off all challenges from my direct competition and was feeling confident now that I was up among the duathlon leaders. A final boost of energy down the back stretch and I was now on the final hundred metres along the fan lined path to the finish line.

Soon after the race, I headed down to the post race gathering area to check out my results and snag some nutrition to replace all the energy I had left on the course. My third place finish was my first solo overall podium on the Subaru Series and good enough for 2^nd place in my AG, picking up some nice duathlon series points. Next up is Muskoka and the long course for my new longest multisport event.

Thanks for reading!