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FLPT triathlete Garen Riedel blogs about his experience racing the Brooklyn Duathlon.

Posted in Blog, News, Triathlon.

May 2nd, 2013

Brooklyn Duathlon Race Recap


Brooklyn Duathlon: April 14, 2013
[My internal thoughts expressed in brackets]

There are some races that you train through and don’t taper for and then there is what I did for this du. After a 105-mile ride the day before, some unforeseen personal events led for little chance at recovery and about 4.5 hours of sleep. I was up at 5 am to pick up my gear, install my race wheels, and bike the 20 miles to the start. [Let’s do this!] Additionally in my morning flurry of activity, I didn’t really have a chance to eat breakfast, so… this all led to a distinct possibility that I might actually “bonk” in a race that takes less than an hour [which would have been sad/comical to say the least]. And of course I brought zero food with me to the race. [Crap] So I did what every triathlete does after picking up their goody bag at check in: I ate every product sample provided. [Nothing new on race day, am I right???]

Run 2.1 miles – 10:44: My goal here was to not do anything stupid in the first 1/4 mile then work my way into the lead and see what happens. [Gun!] Whoops, plan failed. I went out way too fast over the the first quarter with everyone else. I never understand why everyone always does this, yet I always seem to follow along. [Who’s more stupid, the fool? Or the fool who follows the fool? Answer: Garen] After about a half mile I found myself in second place feeling good then came up on first place and saw the he was breathing hard. [Fist pump!] So I increased the pace a bit to create a gap as I wasn’t too sure how my bike legs would fare.

T1 – 0:33: I have never done a du before so the act of taking off running shoes to get on the bike was a bit foreign. I also had the absolute worst transition location. [Likely karma for having such a good one in Miami.] I literally had to do a U-turn from the entrance to get to my bike. In a race this short transitions mean everything, so if it had come down to 10s I would have been peeved.

Bike 10 miles – 25:16: I set out of transition and… flying bike mount fail! I had the ugliest mount of my life. [I knocked off a bike shoe, came to a complete stop, nearly dropped a chain…] I’ll blame it on the lack of sleep, but really it was just stupidity. My goal for the bike leg was to not have my legs fall apart from the ride a day prior I set off on the bike. Not much to report, except that my legs felt awfully sad on the lone Prospect Park hill, and I felt as though I biked nowhere near as hard as I did in Miami.

T2 – 0:37: I came off the bike still in first, and as I was running out of transition I actually ran into the guy in second place who was coming in with his bike. [It’s on!]

Run 2.1 miles – 10:33: I raced out of transition with about a 150ish-meter lead and a nice lead escort bike. About 1/2 mile in the run the lead escort bike informed me that the guy behind me was gaining on me. I was really hoping to coast home at this point, but plans change. [Time to drop the hammer.] I really poured on the pace over the last 1.5 miles and only let up when I realized I had a decent gap.

Final Result: 1st ever du, first ever du win. I’ll take it. [This whole not swimming thing is great!]

Post race: Ran 14 more miles, then ate a million chocolate chip cookies. [For recovery, you know…]

Let me know if you have any race related questions regarding preparation, pacing, nutrition, life advice, etc… I am happy to provide whatever insight I can.

Also, my friend Sarah has organized a 5k as a fundraiser for LLS this Saturday. I hope to see you all out there!

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