Race Result

Racer:	Jeff Wolfe
Race:	Flannery Duathlon at Sugarloaf
Date:	Sunday, May 15, 2005
Location:	Poolesville, MD
Race Type:	Duathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	1:44:51
Overall Place:	58 / 163
Age Group Place:	12 / 23
Comment:	2005 off to a good start

Race Report:

Race Report:

Flannery Duathlon (5K Run, 30K Bike, 5K Run)

Splits:
Run 0:20:41
T1 0:01:21
Bike 1:00:50
T2 0:01:10
Run 0:20:52

This was my first multi-sport race of the year and I have been spending a lot of time running and swimming but not a lot of time on the bike. I don’t think I got on my bike until the end of March and I have not ridden further than 40 miles in a single ride this year. I did do a marathon earlier this year and several 10 mile races. This is my 3rd time doing this race so I know the course pretty well although the bike course last year was shorter due to some traffic conflicts. The run course is fast and I am sure is slightly short but I can compare my times from year to year.

I was hoping to due Columbia next weekend but my wife’s cousin is getting married so I decided to enter this race again. Its only about 40 minutes from Herndon so its not a bad morning ride. My family decided to come with me, which is always fun but it meant I had to get up earlier to get the kids in the car.

The weather was overcast but not too bad. I was in the 3rd heat which I like since it gives me more folks to catch on the run and the bike. The 1st heat was men under 40, 2nd heat was women and the 3rd heat was men 40 and over and relays with a 3 minute gap between heats. The first run felt smooth. I always find it amazing how many men over 40 run so fast since I felt like I was in the middle of the pack and I was doing 6:45 miles! I started to catch some women after the first mile and some men from the earlier heat towards the end of the 5K. Overall, my first run was 58th best out of 163 but more importantly 40 seconds faster than last year.

The bike ride in Poolesville is hilly but lots of downhills to make up for the uphills. The last 3 miles of the bike are steady uphill so I was trying to conserve energy for that. I got passed by the real bikers (but not runners) during the first 5 or so miles of the bike. I was passing some bikers from the earlier heat. My bike computer stopped working during the last few miles but I finished in 1 hour and 50 seconds. That was 10 seconds faster that 2 years ago but I was okay with it since I had not been biking very much this year.

The final 5K felt good. I wanted to try and run negative splits like last year but I had only done one brick workout so my legs were stiff getting off of the bike. I was able to keep picking up the pace and passed a good number of folks. I ended up about 10 seconds slower than the 1st run but still a few seconds faster than last year. Overall, I beat my time from 2 years ago by 7 minutes (mostly on the run) so I was pleased.

The rest of the day was spent coaching one soccer game and watching another and trying to explain to the othe soccer parents why I had numbers written on my arm and legs.

Good luck to all in Columbia next week.

I signed up for the Reston 2 mile swim this morning. I have never swam more than 1.5 miles (Monday was the first time) and my longest open water swim was 1.2 miles about 2 years ago. Look for me in the back.