Shamrock Duathlon Race Report

One week after Queens, I raced the Shamrock Duathlon in Glastonbury, CT.  The races are advertised as almost identical 3/17/3 duathlons.  However, the second run was longer than advertised at Shamrock, by almost a 1/3 of a mile – more on that later.  The major difference between the races was the course profile.  While Queens has a very hilly run and mostly flat bike, Shamrock was a more rolling run and hilly bike.  The idea is this would be a good prep race for Rev3’s challenging course in 2 weeks.  Shamrock is also a bigger event with 3 times the number of competitors that raced in Queens.

 

Run 1 – 3.1 miles - 24:19 - 7:48/mile

I lined up on the inside a few rows back at the start.

The start was downhill so I got up to speed quickly and had to dial back the pace to get into a more sustainable pace.  I was targeting a 8:00 flat pace and was holding that pace pretty easily on the flats.  On the rollers I had to work a bit harder to stay on pace, but with the large field it was easy to pick pacers to work off.

 

Approaching T1.  The red numbers were running a 5K, green numbers were in the duathlon.

 

Love this picture:

 

I wrapped up the first run just under my target pace, but well back in my age group – 14/18.  I was expecting to be well back in my age group as the prior year results showed some very fast times.  I was about midpack overall, 158/342.

 

T1 – 1:05

Had a pretty good transition.  It was a long run thru with only 1 rack in each row.  I made up 20 spots overall and 1 in my age group.

 

Bike – 17 miles – 51:58 – 19.63 mph

I was familiar with the bike course, as these are roads I ride frequently.  Lots of uphill in the first half, with a steep downhill then mostly flat to the finish.

The legs did not feel good coming out of transition.  I was really struggling to get up to speed.  The heart rate was high and the speed was low.  I think it was the false flats and the wind that was making it feel like I was stuck in molasses.  I figured once I got on the long hill at the 3 mile mark I would start to pass the riders around me.  However, I didn’t really pass anyone on the hill and even got passed by several more riders.  I just kept spinning my gears at a high cadence, as I knew there was a lot more uphill all the way to the 8 mile mark and I didn’t want to go over red line.

 

Sure enough, after a brief respite, I started to make some headway at the 5 mile mark.  We made a right turn there and I think it was enough of a change in direction to get me out of the wind.  I started to really get moving and my mood improved with every rider I passed.  Being familiar with the downhill I bombed down it, touching over 40mph.

 

Now on the flats, all my aero gear was taking over and I got into a good rhythm and was able to push hard.  I was holding a steady of speed of 24mph on the flats and was flying toward T2.

 

Based on my training rides, I thought 19mph would be a good target and I was slightly ahead of that.  I passed 9 guys in my age group and 68 overall on the bike which gave me the 3rd best bike in my age group and 43rd overall.

 

Approaching T2:

The support crew is taking some amazing photos this year:

 

T2 – 0:57

Another fast transition – top 6% overall - saw me make up 6 spots overall, but none in my age group.  The other guys in my age group were well up the road.

 

Run 2 – 3.33 miles – 25:14 – 7:35/mile

My goal for the second run was to run as fast as possible and try to make it inside 1:45:00 overall.  Based on my first run and bike I knew it was possible. 

 

Again I took off quickly down the first hill.  The downhill helped me get a nice stable heart rate quickly off the bike.  I felt pretty comfortable.

I started to get passed by a few runners, but I identified someone running a similar pace up the road.  I then just set off to catch this person but they were holding a very even pace.  It took me 1.5 miles to catch them but it provided a good carrot for me to use.  I was now at the 2 mile mark, and supposedly 1 mile from the finish line. 

 

I was running behind another guy with no one else really behind me.  Mentally I keyed on this guy as it seemed like it was the only person I could pass before the finish.  I ran off his shoulder for a little bit then put a surge on him for 10 strides.  I heard him groan and felt pretty good about actually racing someone on the run.  It was now a steady downhill to the left turn for the finish.  I just focused on keeping this guy behind me for the next half mile – 3.5 minutes or so.

 

What I didn’t know was that I didn’t have a half mile to the finish, I had 3/4 of a mile.  Somehow I was able to keep up my pace – I think it was the anger of the course being measured so incorrectly.  After the final riser (at the 3 mile mark), I held well under 7:00/mile pace all the way to the finish.

 

In the end I was reeling in this guy, who had passed me early in the run (if you look at the first photo for run #2 you can see him 2 runners behind me):

Final sprint across the park:

I was pretty happy with the second run.  Not only did I run it at a faster pace then the first run, but I accelerated thru each mile.  My run was 7/18 in my age group and 105/342 overall.  I lost 1 spot in my age group and 8 overall – not bad for me!

 

After the race my support crew was dying to try the race sponsor’s beer – Ten Penny Ale.  She reports it was very tasty.  Although these 2 ladies didn’t look impressed with 9am drinking. 

 

Overall I was pretty happy with the results.  I got the fast bike I was looking for and my runs were good for me.  I beat my goal time and stacked up pretty well in a big field.

	Time	Distance	Pace	AG Place	%	Overall Place	%
# Entries				18		342
Run 1	24:19	3.1 miles	7:48/mile	14	78%	158	46%
T1	1:05			4	11%	37	11%
Bike	51:58	17 miles	20.6 mph	3	16%	43	13%
T2	0:57			3	16%	22	6%
Run 2	25:14	3.33 miles	7:35/mile	7	39%	105	31%
Total	1:43:30			5	28%	72	21%

 

Here is the cumulative times thru each checkpoint for the final top 10 in my age group.  I am the red line.  Although I was the slowest on run 1, I moved ahead of 6 guys by the end of the bike, and was re-passed by 1 guy on the second run.