Preston Biathlon today. This is one of my favorite races and the only race here in town that usually attracts some outside competition. In scoping out the crowd before the race I didn't see 2 of the fastest 3 guys that usually do the biathlons in Cache valley but I did see a few guys I didn't recognize that looked like they could be fast with fancy bikes and jerseys. When I got there I found out that the race would be done in reverse order of any biathlon I have done with the bikes going first and the run second. I didn't like the sound of that because I know any time I've ever gotten off my bike after a hard ride it's hard to walk let alone run. But in other biathlons, I can get on the bike after running a 5K or 5 miles maybe 10seconds per mile slower than all out race pace and not feel all that affected on the bike. In fact it feels good to switch the muscle usage around. The other problem is that drafting is not allowed and that's pretty tough to avoid in a mass bike start. There were 78 starting including teams. They started in 5 different waves using age groups to divide up. I figured my main competition wasn't going to be in my age group so it basically would end up a time trial for me. My main goal for the race was just to beat my best time from the race last time I did it 2 years ago of 57:41. My second goal would have been to beat my 5k time from 2 years ago but with the switch in the race order that was out of the question. My group started in the 4th wave and the 5th and last wave starting 5 min behind us was the 19 thru 30 age group which should be the fastest other than an 18 yr old ,Jesse Dunn, that has been winning all of the last few Biathlons in Cache valley. I took off in the lead of my wave but was surprised to quickly find myself 3rd place in my age group. By the time we were about a half mile in, they both slowed and I was picking up speed and passed them both easily. It didn't take long before I was catching riders from the wave that left 5 minutes ahead of us and then eventually from the groups 10 and 15 minutes up. It was kind of fun catching and passing so many people. I really had no idea how I should be pacing myself to leave enough in the tank for the run. I finished the 14 miles in 36:03 which is the fastest I have averaged in a bike race at 23.3 MPH. I felt like I hadn't used up everything and could have kept that pace another 10 miles. I got off and spent 1:03 min in transition switching shoes and guzzling some gatorade before heading out on the run. The running felt much worse than I ever imagined. I thought my legs would loosen up quickly and I would feel fine but it wasn't happening. About 1/4 mile in I had a 20 yr old kid go by me looking fresh. He was part of a team so he had just started fresh. This was the first person to pass me the whole race and it was frustrating because the pace was so slow and I just couldn't keep up. At around 1/2 mile my breathing was out of control and I almost felt like I could puke and I wasn't even running what I hope to be my marathon pace. Somewhere before the end of the first mile I finally started feeling not as bad and finished it in 6:49. Second mile I was getting a little faster but still not good and finished in 6:38. Around here I caught the kid that had passed me and went by him. mile three was my fastest at 6:30 which was my ave pace in my last 2 half marathons. This course is a bit long and I ran 5:25 pace for the last .17. Overall time was 57:58. That time was 17 seconds slower than my PR for this race but the bike course had a slight change which added 2 10ths of a mile which at my average speed would take 31 seconds. Also they moved the start/finish line for the run back a ways that added over 20 meters which isn't a lot but adds about another 5 seconds so I am considering it a PR by almost 20 seconds. I was second to Jesse when I finished but had to wait and see if anyone in the group behind would beat my time. One guy ended up close but not quite so I held onto second. I also beat all but one of the teams. I ended up with the second fastest bike time of the day. My pathetic run time was beat by several of the runners on teams but I was still second out of the indiviuals so I guess it was a tough run for them also. I have a new respect for people running a good marathon time after finishing a 120 mile bike ride in an iron man.
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