Rev3 Venice DUATHLON

Duathlons hurt. A lot. I only have two data points, the other being the 2008 San Francisco Conti Cup turned 5K-40K-10K (where I spent the evening post-race curled into the fetal position on the floor). Rev3 Venice was equally painful, and this picture says it all:


Why am I sitting in this chair? Because I can barely walk. In other news, Andrew Russell wins the contest for the sweetest sunglasses.

The extra suffering was probably brought on by hauling through the initial 1.5 mile run at just under 3 min/km, then compounded by chasing Jesse Thomas/Ben Collins/Starky for 15 miles at 40k effort (to no avail). A chase group formed up of about ten athletes, including the usual suspects (Viktor, Richie, Kyle) but also the unusual suspects (the non-swimmers). One person flatted, another dropped his chain, Kyle got a 2 min stand-down penalty, and eventually we were only six. Around mile 40 Viktor surged to the front, followed by a short surge from me, and another from Richie, and when I next turned around nobody was there! We finished the bike as a group of three, nine minutes back from Starky, six from Thomas, and a little less then three to Ben Collins.

I set the early pace on the run and Viktor quickly matched it. Kaleb Van Ort joined up around mile three and that’s when I started to suffer. I lost some calories on the bike when a gel flask fell out of my pocket, but I figured that since the race was ~20 minutes shorter than a normal half (no swim), and I generally carry an excess of calories on the bike, that I would be fine with what I had. I was wrong. The hot, humid, windy conditions punished me for my incorrect assumption. I got dropped by Viktor and Kaleb and my pace slowed to what felt like a jog. The last two miles were all about survival. To give you an idea of how much I faded, I came within 21 seconds of catching Ben Collins around mile 10 of the run and he ended up beating me by 2:10. Ouch! In the final half mile I felt like I could barely get one leg in front of the other and came through the finish in sixth. This is not how I hoped to finish the 2012 season, but a few positives emerged: my cycling is at a level I didn’t expect until next year, and despite blowing up I still ran the third fastest split behind Viktor and Kaleb. So it wasn’t all bad, but frustrating to know I could have done better.

So now I get a couple of weeks off and then start it up for 2013.


The turn-around point of the initial 1.5 mile run.


T1 was a bit tight. Photo by Eric Wynn.


Kaleb about to join up to Viktor and me. Photo by Eric Wynn.

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