2013 Duathlon Series Race 1
What to say? First race of the season and I was hyped all day the day before. I was feeling fast since I started my new training program after Christmas and I wanted a quality race to see if the training was helping.
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of me before the race and the setup, but I'll upload any photos that people have taken of me as soon as they've been uploaded by them.
Weather:
Conditions were ideal. Not too cold, some wind and moderate sun coverage during the race. Temperatures hovered at about 13*C when the sun wasn't out but rose back to 15/16*C when the sun was out and about.
The Race
My course was the long course of all the events today. (3.2K run, 20K bike, 3.2K run)
Start time was at 0800 but got pushed back to 0815.
Leg 1 (Run 3.2K):
My category (Male Junior; 16-19 years old) started off with the Junior Elites (HK National Team), Male AG 19-24, Male AG 25-29. It was an intense start as all the elites could maintain a sub 3:30/km pace and it was really hard for me to control my speed (which I did eventually) to slow down and keep to my own race plan. I kept a 4:05/km pace according to my 310XT....but my original plan was to go for a 4:30 pace. Oops.
Leg 2 (Bike 20K):
As all the triathlon/duathlon races in Hong Kong are draft legal it was crucial that I exited transition quickly to catch up with the main pack. I exited T1 and quickly moved up to my big chain ring and settled quickly into my TT position to try and catch the first pack. 3 other people ended up drafting me and we rotated till we got lapped in the 3rd lap by the lead pack. We joined up at this point and held a steady pace of over 36km/h against headwind and 38-40km/h when we had tailwinds. Alas, the person who was in my AG that had cut in front of me at one point slowed and couldn't maintain the pace and kept me from the pack. I put out a burst of speed after the turning point in the 5th lap (and hit a peak of 50km/h) and desperately tried to catch up with the main pack. I didn't want to burn everything and since he was drafting me, I let him lead hoping that he would accelerate to mid 30's to catch up the final 50ish~ meters. I was wrong. He cruised in the 31-2's. Bastard. Ruined my bike leg. I decided to try a breakaway on my own but the winds started whipping up at this point. Some adults with TT bikes joined up behind my breakaway and we shared the effort in the remaining 2 laps.
My time for this bike leg was ok; could have been better..but most important of all I gained more valuable experience for future races.
Leg 3 (Run 3.2K):
Got off the bike with my legs feeling like jelly. I increased my cadence and lowered the length of my strides to quickly get my muscles adjusted for the 3K run ahead. My calves threatened to cramp up but they held. I relaxed my pace slightly during the first half of the first lap before speeding up. I pushed for as much speed as I dared without cramping....with the finish line in sigh I sprinted the last 25 meters~ and it felt great pushing the stop button on my Garmin and seeing the my final time of 1:07:35, well within my goal time that I set before (1:10:00).
Link to Garmin Connect
Update 15/01/2013 **Stats and times**
Official Finish Time: 01:07:35 (hh:mm:ss)
Not including transition times~
9th out of 16 in my AG (Male Junior; 16-19)
Amendment: 10th in my AG. One of the guys got labelled as DNS because he lost his chip during the first run. They used the manual records to get his final time. As a result I've been bumped won by 1 place.
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I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed by my bike leg because I got blocked. I should have sprinted away to the back of the pack as soon as I saw the guy in front of me start to falter. But, now that I've experienced that I dare say I shall not make that mistake again. Looking forward to my next race which is on the 3rd of February...back to training!
Final time
Yes! I know my bike is the other way around and that there's a sports drink in my 2nd holder...I only put it there after the race and I wasn't arsed to move my chain to the big chain ring for this quick picture!
PS: Pictures will be uploaded to this blog when they're available! Unfortunately there were no pictures of me this race caught by the photographers...which is a first for me! Nonetheless there were 2 photos; 1 for pre and post race.
Post Race Pre-race chatting and preparations
