To Have a Good Time

XTerra:  What you do when regular triathlon isn't enough of a challenge.
Duathlon:  What you do when either the weather or the area isn't conducive to swimming.
XTerra Duathlon:  What you do when you have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder.
(Long course: 6km trail run, 20km mountain bike, 3km trail run)

Today was my first ever XTerra duathlon.  When Chris and Rhonda first mentioned that they were hoping to put one on this year, I was so excited.  I had met some XTerra triathletes down at training camp in the States, and loved the idea of it.  They chose to go with a du rather than a tri because a tri would require two transition areas (because of the area set-up), which would be too complicated, especially for their very first time putting the race on.

It's possible that at some point, someone somewhere has done an off-road tri or du in Manitoba.  In fact, I think I heard about one up at Grand Beach in years past.  However, there has been nothing lately, so this was a brand new experience for many athletes.  Triathletes are generally not seen off-road.  Mountain bikers tend to avoid running.  We were all (or at least most) about to embark on a new adventure.

I stayed out at my parents' last night, and during the hour long drive to the race site out at Birch Ski Area, I realized that we were going to encounter a good deal of rain.  Add to that cooler temps.  But thankfully, next to no wind.  The rain, though, can make very rideable trails vey unrideable.

I arrived, got marked, hid under the shelter until we got a brief break from the rain, and then ran back and forth to my van a gazillion times because I was always forgetting something.  (As it turned out, this was our only break from the rain, but thankfully it was never a downpour.)  During the pre-race meeting I took a look around at the other athletes.  There were quite a few I didn't recognize and...um...only two other women.  And I guessed that neither of them were doing the long course.

As we lined up at the start line right after the meeting, I found out that I was right.  Me and 14 guys.  Kate Okany looked at me and said (with a hint of surprise in her voice), "You're doing the long course, Terri?" "Yup. I figured if I'm going to pay for it, I may as well get the most for my money.  Besides, I'm here to have a good time, not to get a good time."  And off we went.

It didn't take long for the guys to drop me.  No big surprise.  I'm not a strong runner at the best of times, and there were some pretty good hills.  The short course athletes started just before I finished my first lap, and I actually almost caught one of the women on the run.  However, as I tried to pick up my pace coming into transition, I experienced a feeling I had never had before - tight IT band.  It didn't hurt yet, but there was a distinct tightness.  Since I knew I still had over two hours of racing to go, and I wasn't really competing against anyone anyway, I backed off.

As I rounded the corner into T1, I was pleasantly surpised to see that my bike was not the only one on the rack.  Almost.  But not quite.  There was, of course, the woman who was right in front of me.  But there were one or two others as well.

The bike was supposed to be easy to moderately technical.  Rhonda told me before the race that she had ridden the whole course, and had done it in under an hour (one lap), so I should be fine.  As I started the bike, it dawned on me - she hadn't run 6km before doing it.  Suddenly hills that would be comfortably rideable were very tiring, and the tiring hills had me walking up with my bike.  And you couldn't make up a ton of time on the downhill sections because it had started raining, which made them quite slick.  I saw a couple of places where someone in front of me hadn't quite made the corner.  Now, I'm sure that for those who had better mountain biking skills, and for those who know the trails at Birch well, the trails weren't too bad.  But since I am not in that situation, it was a tough ride.  I loved it, but it wore me right out.

The description of the course as easy to moderate was a fair one. There was very little flat riding with a few steep hills (they wouldn't have been as hard if it was dry, but they still would have been tough), but very little switchback. There were some sections that were freshly cut for this race.  When I saw Kevin Miller after the race, he had a big smile.  He was very pleased with the technical level of the course, as he had been somewhat worried going in that it would be too easy.  It was definitely doable.  But not easy.

I was really hoping that I would not get lapped on the bike.  I am a new mountain biker, and my skills are desparately lacking.  Still, I figured it was pretty unlikely, since it was a 10km loop, and I was right.  In fact, I managed to pass one of the short course athletes. 

The second loop bike loop was more painful.  Not only were my legs extremely tired, but my IT band was now complaining quite loudly every time I got off my bike, especially the couple of steep downhill sections that I opted to walk my bike down.  I figured for the amount of time I lost not riding (not much due to the braking I would have had to do to stay safe), I made up for by not crashing.  (I did have my bike slide out from under me on one of the very rideable corners, which kind of made me happy - meant that I was pushing my envelope.)

As I ran out of T2, I knew my second run would not be a good one.  I should have been able to come in under 3 hours quite comfortably.  As it was, running on the flat was painful, and running on the hills was virtually out.  I contemplated walking the whole thing - I was in first place regardless - but figured I would run as much as I could, while at the same time trying not to push too hard.  By the end of the run, either I was getting used to the pain, or it had eased slightly, but it was still definitely there.  I'm going to have to do some serious resting and working on that if I'm going to be running the half in Niverville in a month.

The best part of the race?  The post-race food.  Of course, when you are hungry for the last half hour of the race (misjudgement of fueling on my part - I should have had 1-2 more gels during the race), pretty much anything will taste good.  But it was still very good.  And LOTS of food.  Unfortunately for the race directors, there were only 22 racers.  There were several reasons for the low turn-out, the mountain bike provincials tomorrow being one of them.  Fortunately for us, they had made sure there was food for many more than 22.  We left well-fed.

I ended up crossing the finish line in 3 hours, 1 minute and 8 seconds.  I was the very last athlete across the line, something which I am very proud of.  (There have been several times when my kids have asked me if I ever came in last in a triathlon or duathlon, and I had to say no.  Now I don't have to.)  As it turns out, there were three guys who DNF'd.  And even if you just cut my time in half, I would have beat two of the short course athletes.  I'm ok with that.  I did not only have a good time, I had a great time.  And I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Just not today.