Race Report: 2011 CF Duathlon #1

My 2nd Duathlon was a great success, and a much better experience than the first one. It was also far better than my last triathlon in the same course. I felt really strong and had a blast. My goal was to finish in under 1:30, and I nailed it! All my splits were faster than I hoped for too. Let's break it down.

Overall Results

• chip time = 1:27:19
• age group = 2 / 5 
• females = 13 / 21 
• overall = 34 / 50 

Pre-Race
I woke up at 5 am, and got dressed. I opted for my green running skirt over tri shorts with my race ready singlet that has the built-in snaps for the bib and my "wanna race?" bondi band. We loaded up the car, grabbed a banana, and were on our way. We've done this race many times before, so we have the ritual down by now :) Packet pick up was quick and the swap nice enough. We got a tote bag and a nice t-shirt, though I wish they had the tech singlets like before. This was the 1st in a series of 5, and last year in the series some races had t-shirts and other singlets, so maybe there will be one in a future race.

Run 1 + T1 = 10:34

This is my official time, which includes T1, but this was clearly less than a mile because I am just not this fast. The time on my watch, from the start to the mat at the entrance of transition, was 8:33 + 2:02 for transition. The fastest I had ever run a mile before was 8:58, and I didn't feel like I was pushing that hard, even though I did push to run the whole thing to keep up with the pack while trying to keep my skirt from falling off. A friend logged it as .94 miles, which would mean a 9:05 pace. That's a bit more realistic, but still faster than I thought I was running. I guess the cool weather helped.

T1 = 2:02

Once in transition, I yanked off my skirt (was wearing tri shorts underneath), switched shoes, ate a shot block, shoved the gel I had in my skirt into my bra, put on my helmet and was off on the bike. A few things I could have done better at T1 was kick off my running shoes while I put on my helmet, and learn to run (rather than walk) with my bike. Mounting and clipping in also cost me some time, but it went relatively smoothly. 

Bike = 10.4 mi in 38:50 @ 16.1 mph

This is the time and distance I logged on my iPhone with Runmeter. I also mapped it on google, and this is closer than the advertised 10 miles (and also the distance I logged at the tri last year). The official results say 39:31 @ 15.2 mph, but that is based on a 10 mile route and includes the time it took me to walk from the exit mat to the mount line, mount my bike, and clip in. I started my app as I started moving, so mine is the average moving speed. Even though they only did top 5 overall, I had the fastest bike split in my age group, 8th fastest out of 21 women, and 24th out of 50 overall.

Bike Splits:

1. 15.13 mph 
2. 18.74 mph 
3. 18.25 mph 
4. 18.55 mph 
5. 17.97 mph 
6. 16.86 mph 
7. 16.91 mph 
8. 11.56 mph 
9. 12.49 mph 
10. 18.27 mph

Can you tell where the hills were? ;) Knowing that I would slow down at the end because of the hills, my strategy was to go out hard and push until I couldn't anymore. There was no sense holding back on a 10 mile ride. I'm thrilled I managed to average above 16 mph for most of the race. In fact, I averaged 17+ mph until mile 7 when the hills started and I began to lose steam, but I did even better than expected with those too. I just let loose in the downhills as much as I could then used that momentum to climb the hill.

The bike always makes me anxious because I fear of crashing into another bike while going so fast, but I always forget that we get really spread out on the bike, we have to keep at least one bike length between us, and being a mid to back of the pack I get the road to myself a lot. My training certainly paid off as I passed a lot people of people throughout the race and even on the hills when some had gotten off their backs and were walking up. I almost wish this course was reverse so we could do the hills at the start instead of loosing all momentum at mile 7 then trying to regaining for the last 2 miles.

T2 = 2:21

I'm a little surprised that T2 was slower than T2, but I think that's mainly because of the longer walk to rack my bike. Otherwise, I remember being in and out of transition pretty quickly.

Run 2  = 3.1 mi in 34:54 @ 11:15 m/m

This is the official time, which is 2 seconds faster than my watch. I didn't run with my iPhone since I had ditched the skirt with the pockets, so I do not know the actual distance, but the official results are based on 3.1 miles (not the 3 advertised). This makes sense and explains why my last mile was the slowest since it was actually 1.1. I took manual splits with my watch: 11:36 - 11:33 - 11:44 (1.1 @ 10:40 m/m). I negative split the run and I'm really pleased with the pace. I think most of my other duathlons/triathlon runs have been in the 12-13 min/mi range, so this is amazing for me. I initially planned to run with 3/1 intervals, but instead walked out of transition to get my legs back and drink some water, then ran until the first hill, walked up it, same with the 2nd, then ran except for the water stops. I really pushed hard during the last mile despite having a side stitch on each side.

Post Race

The post race food was great, even if I wasn't too hungry for it. In addition to the usual junk like cookies, donuts and chips (I did have some cheetos), they also had bananas, grapes, rice, and beans. I'm always really impressed with the support in this race, both during and after. I was a little disappointed that they only had top 5 overall for the duathlon, because I would have placed 2nd in my age group out of 5. That is significant for me, but it's ok because my amazing performance is reward enough. This was their first year adding a duathlon to the series, and they got a great turnout, so they'll be doing more with in the future. I'm thrilled to have another option right in my backyard.

Final Thoughts


This race was pivotal for me because it showed me how much I've grown as an athlete in the last 2 years. While it was not a piece of cake, because multi-sport events are challenging and cycling is not my strong suit, it was a lot easier than I expected and I exceeded my expectations. Riding with the Bike Bus has certainly made me a stronger and much more confident cyclist. I always feel amazing after doing these events because they are a bit outside of my comfort zone but oh so much fun. I just love the variety they bring to my racing schedule. I'm already plotting to do another one if I can fit it into my marathon training schedule.