Saratoga Duathlon, Big Win at Home!

If the first races of the season in Ocala and St. Croix were long and hot, the Saratoga Duathlon this Sunday was blistering fast and bitterly cold. For whatever reason, despite it being Memorial Day weekend, temperatures plummeted from the 70s and 80s to a high of 45 for the morning of the race. When the alarm went off at 5, it was time to bundle up and get some hot coffee in my belly. At the race venue, I had plenty of time to get a solid warm up ride and a quick run on the course. What I love about this race is that nearly every local within the multisport community shows up to test their early season fitness. Racing strangers is fun, but racing with friends is an absolute blast. At the starting line I saw a few familiar faces from the year before, including Kevin, a very fast recent high school grad bound for West Point this coming school year. At last year's race Kevin came in second, beating my fifth place finish by roughly a minute. If you were to bet on the race outcome, the smart choice would have been Kevin.

At 8 am, the gun went and the race started with the first 5k run. Like any 5k run, it seemed like everybody forgot how long 3.1 miles actually is, and if I had to guess, I would say there were 30 runners in front of me for the first half mile. Of those runners in front of me included Kevin and star runner Brian, who is always a serious contender in local 5 and 10k races. Biding my time a ways back from the leaders, I patiently let the vast majority of the runners drop like flies around the second miles, keeping the race leaders in sight. Brian finished the first run in the lead, with Kevin just seconds behind him. Roughly 20 seconds back from the leaders, I clocked a quick but controlled 17:50 for the first 5k, fast enough to give me the fourth fastest split.

Transition was uneventful. Shoes off, bike shoes on, helmet on, grab the bike, go. Now the fun part, cycling. I caught two of the three guys who ran ahead of me about 3 kilometers into the 30k bike course, including Brian, but Kevin had already broken away from these guys, so the chase was on. It wasn't long before he was in sight, with about 15 seconds on me. I spent the first loop of the 3 loop bike course reeling him in, and by the second loop I was right on him. I settled my pace just enough to go back in forth sharing the lead with him on the second loop, but knowing he runs faster than I do, it would have been foolish to try and come in with Kevin. When we started the third loop, I laid down some extra power and made a break at the first hill to put some distance between us. A few miles later at a turn I got to look back, and the move had worked. I came back into transition with about 50 seconds on Kevin, averaging 23.7 mph.

Unsure how far behind me Kevin was, I tried to get out of transition before he was in, successfully. On the second 5k run, there was an out and back turnaround, where I got to estimate my lead. Kevin came running at me strong, and it looked like I had about 40 seconds on him, meaning the race was far from in the bag. Running on fear, I moved as quick as I could, realizing that Kevin was obviously the only threat to my lead. The second time I saw Kevin, around 2 miles in, he had cut my lead down to only about 30 seconds. This was going to be close! Gritting my teeth and digging for every ounce of energy, I pushed and pushed and pushed some more, until I got to a turn with about 200 meters to the finish line. Knowing Kevin could have been right on my shoulder, I kicked it in and tasted victory! Just 23 seconds later, Kevin came in for second. That young man has some serious potential in the triathlon and duathlon world, and I cannot wait to see him grow and mature as an athlete at West Point in the years to come. My training partner James finished in 4th, dropping some serious time from his run splits. My friend Shaun won the relay race with his cycling partner, Jaime.

The weather has been terrible for every single race so far this year, and the duathlon was no exception. At first I though bad weather sucked, but I'm liking it more and more as the season progresses. Rain, cold, heat, wind, it doesn't matter. Bad weather doesn't ruin races, but rather gives you the opportunity to be positive when most people are going to be negative, a realization that can always be turned to your advantage. The next stop is Cambridge, MD for Eagleman. With any luck the weather will have cool temperatures and low wind, but if it doesn't, I'll still be ready to throw my best effort at the course. Anything that slows me down is going to slow down everybody else. The duathlon was a big win for me, but that doesn't guarantee success for the rest of the season. It's time to get back to work and be ready to hammer, no matter what the weather brings.