Race Report: Peanut Butter Duathlon

Peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly peanut, butter jelly with a baseball bat.

This morning was the Peanut Butter Duathlon in Rockford, IL. 2 mile run, 14 mile bike, 2 mile run. I was hoping for one of those great spring days, but instead I got 45 degrees and rain. It was one of those days that make you wish you hadn't preregistered. Oh yeah, the run was a trail run.

Remember when I posted about my bright yellow Zoots that looked like this?




Now they look like this:




First off, I have to say I don't understand triathletes and why they refuse to dress warm. It was mid 40s and raining and some guys were wearing shorts and a short sleeve jersey. At the very least you have to put on some knee warmers to protect your knees. Anything under 70 degrees and your knees should be covered. Anyway, I was bundled up so I guess it doesn't matter.

Also, you can call my aero helmet goofy (because it is) but it's not as goofy as doing the run with your helmet on....which someone did.

Run 1: The first run started really fast. The official results haven't been posted yet so I'm not sure how many runners were there, but I would guess around 100. At the quarter mile mark I would say I was running at about the top 25% mark, which really surprised me since our pace was 5:55. I knew that was too fast for me so I backed off a bit and let a few guys get by me figuring there were a lot of people who headed out too fast. I finished the first mile at a 6:30 pace and started picking off guys who had gone out too fast. Then the mud got deep, ankle deep in some spots. It was slippery and really tough to keep your pace up without slipping. Unofficial time: 13:01.

Transition 1: I practiced transitions this week and was ready to do a fast transition with my shoes already clipped in. However, with the weather the way it was I didn't think that would be a good idea. The start of the bike was downhill with a few turns and wet and raining and I was wearing a thin pair of gloves which would make slipping into my shoes while riding more difficult so I opted to leave my shoes off the bike and play it safe. The Zoot shoes are really easy to get out of so I got those off really fast and got into my cycling shoes. Then, as many times as I've practiced putting my aero helmet on, I still screwed it up and I forgot to pull the ear flaps out and I smacked myself in the head with the helmet. The local news had some cameras there and one of them was in the transition area so maybe they'll show me smacking myself in the face with my helmet on the news tonight. Not smooth, but my first transition was still pretty fast. Unofficial time: :59

Bike: The bike was 3 laps around the park and had a lot of rolling hills. There was a guy that finished the run right in front of me a few yards in front of me on the bike so I pushed hard and passed him...then he passed me back and pulled a bit of a gap. Both of us then settled in and held that pace for the next 2 laps while working our way through some of the faster runners. Being a 3 lap course, we passed a lot of riders on the second and third lap and I spotted quite a few Schwinns. Good to see we were representing. Anyway, I had made up a little time on him on lap 2 and passed him early on lap 3. I was hoping to pull a gap, but figured he would get remotivated when he saw me pass and stay with me...and he did. Coming into T2, I slipped out of my shoes and that slowed me down enough for him to get by me again. He didn't get out of his shoes prior to the transition so I was anxious to see if I would put some time on him getting out of my shoes early. He had to come to a complete stop to get unclipped, and I came into transition riding side saddle and ran into transition getting by him while he was getting off his bike. Unofficial time: 40:52

T2: Not much to say. It went pretty smooth. I unclipped my helmet as I was running to rack my bike. Then I slipped into my Zoots, pulled the cord to tighten the laces, grabbed my number and hat and was off. I put about 7 seconds on the guy I came into transition with by not having to take my shoes off. Unofficial time :39

Run 2: The second run went pretty well. I checked back a few times to see if he was closing on me and I noticed about the 3/4 mile mark that I was putting a little more time on him so I stopped worrying about him and focused on keeping my pace steady and not slipping in the mud. Unofficial time: 13:19

Unofficial time: 1:08:12. I took 7th place overall and 6th in my age group. I would've liked to have had a faster bike leg, but I'm really happy with my results today. The hard training is paying off. However, I am a little disappointed I finished 7th overall and didn't place in my age group.

But I'm not going to let that get me down. I had a good race, had some fun despite the weather, and ended with my best finish in a multi-sport event. A good day, I'd say. Now I can't wait for the Beloit Duathlon in 2 weeks. That was my first ever multi-sport event so I'm looking forward to improving on last year's time. Hopefully the weather will be a little nicer...warmer at least.