My First Duathlon

This morning, Bill and I participated in the Carrboro Classic Duathlon. What is a duathlon, you ask? It is a race that follows the sequence run, bike, run. we chose to do the super sprint race, so our course was a 2.4 mile run, a 12 mile bike, and a 1.2 mile run. It was a brand new experience for me, but a second duathlon for Bill.


It was a gorgeous day for a race. It was a bit cold this morning, but the sun was shining bright. I ran the first part of the race in a light wind breaker, but quickly warmed. The route was pleasant, with a slight downhill at the beginning and mostly flat for the rest of the course. I decided to go ahead and run the 2/1 intervals for this part of the race, so I would not tire myself. It worked quite well, and I finished running an average pace of 12.01 min/mile.

I was through transition quickly on on my bike. The road race took place on the rolling roads (that's a nice way to say hilly!) of Carrboro. We were away from the highway and on nice country roads. We passed many a cow pasture, horse fields, and even a chicken coop right by the roadside. Combine the bucolic scenery with the gorgeous day, and it was a nice ride. Of course, I was alone for a good part of the road race. At about mile 8, I began to realize that I could easily be hit by a car and carried away to never be seen again. While I knew that was highly unlikely, I also feared blowing a tire and being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, that did not happen, and I safely returned to the transition area after 55 minutes, 17.75 seconds.

I was at the hardest part of the race - the transition from bike to run. I hopped off the bike onto very wobbly legs. I ran as fast as I could to put up my bike, running into Bill (not literally) who had already finished the race (he was very happy with his run, but feels he needs to improve on the bike). I just decided to keep moving. It worked. My legs were killing me, but I just kept going and stopped for only one walk break. I finished the 2nd run in 16:53.

I felt great at the finish. It turned out to be a great race and so much fun. The food afterward was out of this world, too. I really, really enjoyed my first du, and both Bill and I are already planning to sign up for next year's race.