Black Bear Long Course Duathlon, Waterville, New Hampshire

So the black bear long course duathlon was today, 10k/60k/7.5k, lets just say, the run and bike were hard, the bike mirrored Lake Placid in a very scary way ( but good since I'm doing IMLP in 8 weeks) the climbs were insane and the run had a good mixture of flats and some off road trails with some punch little hills in the right places. The course was beautiful and the race was very well done, it was unfortunate that not many people came out for this well run event ( of which they put on the Black Fly in July, the Trifecta), this is an event that people should travel too and train on, hard but really fun. So the down and dirty is:

Drove up yesterday early evening, met up with my friend keri from WEllesley, also coached by my favorite Coachie, JRM, and we met at the race site, got our numbers and went out to dinner. LIttle did we know that most restaurants in Waterville weren't open unitl July, but fortunately we found the Mad River Glen ( ski it if you can) Tavern and got our meals. We were both starving, she opted for the buffalo style chicken sandwich and I for the cheesburger. I told her she better not stink me out later that night. After chatting a bit and laughing a ton we headed to bed, ( I watched the Celtics a bit but by 10p I was done). We got up at 5:30a for our routine poopie doop and eating frenzy pre race and got our shit together and biked to the start. WE met up with Bob, also another JRM athlete and started our prep, What we found interesting was that only 34 people registered for the long course and 70 or so for the short course, just crazy given how well run this event was, clean, beautiful, tons of volunteers, it was crazy. Whats more crazy was that there was only 7 or 8 women in the long course ( I had a decent shot of doing well in my age group, huh, hee hee).

Anyway, the weather was amazing, we knew it was going to get hot on the 2nd run and there was only 1 water stop on each loop, I debated on wearing my fuel belt but I didn't. We got to the start of the first run ( 10k) and I knew I needed to be conservative, I always get nervous and think I"mgoing to blow up if I run my 10k place, I still had 40 miles of biking to do and another 4.75 miles of running. We got to the line and Keri, Bob and all the other ladies were off in a shot. I immediately went into my ( man my run sucks mode) but I just remembered to stay the course and run my race and be comfortable and knew I would rane them in on the bike. The course was challenging and hot already but I felt very fair and super fun with the trails and off road running, I got into transition and I don't really know why my transitions were slow today but I lost a ton of time in both, both were 1:49, I'm usually out in under a minute so I really lost time there. I averaged 8:13 for the first run, I was hoping for 8 flat so already behind.

Got on the bike for the 60k and lets say, the climb is really a climb, it was hard I was definitely in my 28 and working hard, it wasn't an easy climb, but we had a nice downhill after and some nice road to ride for about 6 miles were I was averaging at least 25mph, then just like placid it was a 10k gentle climb back to the second loop to do it again, crazy, but the roads were nice and not too much traffic. I was able to pass all the ladies and a few men on the bike except for my lovely friend keri who I knew probably had me by 4-5 minutes on the run, I did manage to have the fastest ladies bike split and gained 2+ minutes on my friend and went into T2 with the second place lady. Unfortunately my bike average was only 18.6 mph but given that only 8 men had a better split I was happy given the hills on this course.

We both went out of T2 together, she looked strong and she was ahead of me until we went into the second loop were I started to get my legs to turn over and I passed her and finished second female. I waited for her to cross the finish line to congratulate her and to thank her for pushing me, I definitely had some negative thoughts out there on the course and having a rabbit for awhile really kept me going, I didn't give up. She told me that she saw me coming on the bike and she knew she was screwed, I took that as a compliment.

At the finish I saw Keri who took first by almost 7 minutes over me ( my dam run) and Bob who took 3rd place overall male, amazing given some of the talent that showed up on the guys side. So proud of both of my friends.

Anyway, we took off right away to go home and made it back by 2:15p to play with the kids, make a homemade swordfish, corn on the cob dinner and now to watch lost.

On reflection I'm okay with todays race, not great, I knew I was on some tired legs but I really have to work on that run. However, based on my average run of over 10 1/2 miles I averaged 8:23 pace, okay. I hope to be back to this race next year and I will highly recommend it to all my friends for an early season race and prep