Riding Uphill Fast, Du Worlds, Impromptu 3k's Hurt!

Today was kind of an exciting day in the world of sports for this girl! It started off with a ride up to Jamestown, where I set a new PR from stop sign at the bottom to restaurant in Jamestown (for those familiar with the area): 31 and change! yes I had a riding partner, but I still had to do the work! It burned a bit, but I am starting to learn to push through that. We were going to do a second repeat but then I got the bright idea of jumping into the West End 3k tonight. Plus it was starting to get windy and rainy, tehe. So we cut our ride short by 30 min but still ended up with almost 50 miles.

When I got home later I finally saw the e-mail I'd been looking for all week: The final selections for the Duathlon World Championships in NC this September. I had sent my resume in for consideration a while back and 3 spots were still to be filled for the team. Today I saw my name on top of the list of those selected! Yay! I am pretty excited to be representing at the World Champs as an Elite for the sport of Duathlon! I don't think it gets all the respect it deserves, and it is such a tough discipline! I will be getting more details soon, but in the mean time I need to find a) a road bike! (no TT bikes in draft legal racing), b) some rides with people around me (practice drafting, which is super foreign to me) and c) run, ride, run like I stole something! It will be an all out race from the gun I am sure, consisting of a 10k run/ 40k crit style bike/ 5k run. Oh boy, more time to be had in the pain cave!

Following through with my earlier plan, I did head out to Pearl Street for the race, met up with Morgan, a pretty fast runner (used to run for CU) and couldn't help but smile when I saw myself surrounded by so many other runners. It felt just like old times, when I "only" ran! PLus it had a sense of familiarity to it as Barry and Jodee from 5430 sports ran it for the final time this year.

By the time I did my warm-up I could feel the heat (85 degrees), I was dripping after just 10 minutes. Still, I wanted to get a good warm-up in as I knew my body was going to receive quite a shock with the pace I was trying to run it. After what seemed like forever, our "elite" wave, which had about 35 people in it, took off. I was up front. What? I wasn't planning on leading, and certainly wasn't running a super fast pace. After about 20 seconds, people started passing me and my body was starting to protest, as this is not the pace it is used to! I kept myself in about 7th position for the first lap, which consisted of an out and back, which was repeated for the second lap. I was hurting bad! I haven't run a 3k since college, and then it was on a track, at sea level! And I wasn't so crazy as to do it for my second or third workout of the day...

Lap two I actually started passing a few girls and found myself in 5th place meters from the finish. Completely filled with lactic acid in every ounce of my body, I crossed the line. 10:49.9. I stood folded over a table for a few long seconds to try and catch my breath. It took a while. My throat was so dry it felt like it was bleeding, whew. What a shock to the system, but what a race! For some minutes before the start I doubted my abilities to keep up with these runners, especially since I can count my track workouts this year on one hand. Nonetheless I am so glad I did it because I know it will help my longer runs get faster, and who wouldn't want that!? The course was lined with people cheering, I even ran into my neighbor was was having dinner and thought she might see me racing. She did see me, but not racing:-)

Colleen De Reuck, Olympian and super athlete (she is 45!) won the race in fine fashion. For a slow course with 3 180 degree turns, I'll take my time. Especially during long course training.

Happy training and even happier racing!