Lakeside Sprint Du – last of the season

Race Report

By Roger Hospedales, Team Running Free

Race:  Lakeside Sprint Duathlon (5.28 km run, 17.5 km bike, 2.9 km run)

Date:  September 18, 2010.

Website: http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/

Lakeside Sprint Du (Sept. 18, 2010)

Run (5 km) – 26:01, 5:13/km ??

First of all, the run was longer than the posted 5km. I was not going that slowly. According to my Garmin the run distance was 5.28 km. Not much extra but the avg. pace does now drop to 4:55/km. Regardless, there were a lot of fast runners out there, either that or people just went out too hard. I recognized some of the faster contenders and unless the bike was 40 km, there was no way I was going to make up the 4-5 minutes I would be giving up to those guys. This was as fast as I was willing to go given my relative inactivity over the past 2 weeks (gained 7 pounds and worked out 3 times for a total of 96 minutes), and my left hamstring was still aching). Despite being passed by almost everyone, I was pleased with the run. 30^th best/worst.

T1 – 34 seconds. Made use of some old fashioned toe clips (since my Pedal Platforms are now banned for whatever asinine reason) so my transition times are back down to being among the best again – I use my running shoes for the bike ride.

Bike (17.5 km) – 30:45, 34.1 km/hr (2^nd best bike)

I did not think I had a great ride. Those toe clips are not comfortable, and my feet were numb. I also installed new aerobars since my other ones snapped during my last race. Things were not feeling too smooth, but maybe my foot discomfort made me ride harder because I ended up with the second best bike split. When I reflect back I don’t even remember there being hills on that course – there are. I zoned in on getting that bike ride done ASAP and did it. I was hoping for a full 20 km (even more actually) but the course was cut short by 2.5 km. This sucked for me because I needed more real estate in which to catch the faster runners, and hopefully get some kind of lead heading onto the final run. 17.5 km (my gps said 17) was not enough for me to get the job done.

T2 – 26 seconds. Fastest of the day.

Run (2.5 km) – 14:12, 5:41/km ??

I was in no man’s land. With the bike course cut short, the faster runners were too far ahead of me, and I was far enough ahead to not get caught. Once again the run was a bit long (2.97 km), I actually averaged 4:50/km pace and not the 5:41/km as the posted results say. With no one to catch, I just ran steady to the end and challenged myself to run at sub 5:00/km pace. My brand new Mizuno Elixirs felt great though.

Total time – 1:11:56 (9^th overall)

I was happy with my effort. I did what I could given my broken down state and extra weight haulage – thanks KFC. With extra distance on the run, and less distance on the bike, this lessens my chances of making the podium. By the way, my day started with another flat. I was loading the car up in the morning and I hear a hissing coming from my rear wheel. So I had to hustle big time to make the repairs and hit the road. I got to the race site with just 15 minutes to get registered, racked, etc.  Now it is time to rest somewhat (still have pacing duties at the Scotia Half this Sunday, and Run for the Toad 50km in a little over a week), and I’ll start getting ready for the 2011 season by November.