Last Sunday was Duathlon day. I’ve been pretty ecstatic about the race ever since I got my own bike and I’ve been dying to see how well I would do. I’ve been running really hard and biking harder.  It was a very humbling moment for me last Sunday. I knew I could run hard and I knew that I could bike fairly well but when you put the two together, it all just gets messed up very much like a fruit salad gone wrong.

I came into the race last Sunday with a plan for running hard because I always thought that I could take a “break” while spinning on the bike. At the back of my head, I always knew that bike part of anything would be the easiest because you could just cruise along. This was a big misconception that would eventually hit the wind out of me, literally and figuratively, in a few minutes.

The race started off with a very easy 6 kilometer run. It was a 3k loop that we had to do twice. I wasn’t too hard but it had some inclines that we needed to climb. Nothing serious because I was able to compete the 6 kilometers in 31:51 minutes. It was a very good sub 6 pace. I ran hard and it felt great and exhausting. I went into transition panting and huffing and puffing like a mad diesel engine on steroids. I knew I had a good time but I feared that all that effort I put in might haunt me in the bike ride.

I took off my shoes and put on my cleats; strapped on my bandana and wore it under my helmet and I was out of transition.

I started off my 30 kilometer bike ride gasping for air and it was like that until the end. The thought of resting and catching my breath on the bike was no where to be seen. I started of with a steady speed of 25-30 kph. I could barely keep it up but I tried to. Even at that pace, a pace at which I thought I was doing well already, a multitude of bikes zoomed past me and left me in their dust. I could feel them zooming past me even if I was already doing 30 kph. I was a big humbling moment for me. I never thought biking was going to be as hard as it was last Sunday. It was a 6 loop course that was 5 kilometers long. The loop had an incline and it owned me. The incline owned me real real hard. Imagine Mckinley hills but a few degrees lower, and you’ll get to imagine how the incline was that we faced last Sunday. It was pure torture. Part of me wanted to go down and walk up the incline with my bike but that would have been the easy way. It was a struggle to finish the last 10 kilometers on the bike. I crawled to a 20-25 kph pace and it was disastrous. I ended up finishing my bike ride at 82 minutes. It wasn’t a good time. It wasn’t the time that I wanted because I wanted to finish the bike run at under 75 minutes. This just goes to show how much more saddle time I need to cover to make up for my lack of experience on the bike.

When I got back into transition, I racked up my bike, put on my shoes and started my run. The bike rack was arranged to have the age groupers beside each other and it was disheartening to see that when I got back, most of the guys from my age group were back already. The sight of a full bike rack was like seeing a free buffet on a full stomach. It was heartbreaking and hard to fathom.

I started out the 3 kilometer run easily. I am glad to report that the dreaded jello-legs did not haunt me but my run was slower than the first 3 kilometers. It must have been because of all the exhaustion. I kept and easy pace of around 6:30-7 I believe. I walked every water station. It was the longest 3 kilometers of my life.

That’s me crawling to the finish. Had it not been for my amazingly poor bike, I would have finished stronger.

It was a day of learning for me last Sunday. It was a lot of lessons learned the hard way.

• As cliche as it sounds, respect the bike. I never knew bike riding could be this hard. I grew up riding my bike all the time around our village and never did I think that biking would turn out to be as hard as it was last Sunday.
• I should practice transitioning more. I almost burned myself out in the first 6 kilometer run. I got a good time of 31 minutes but that left me all out of gas come bike time and I was lucky to even finish at 82 minutes. If I could manage to complete the a little bit slower at around 40 minutes, I might have enough energy come bike time to complete it at under 70 minutes. Slow but albeit fast and more respectable.
• I should call out my number when I cross the finish line. I was marked as DNF in the final results. Yes. It is heartbreaking. I don’t mind it as much because the thought of me completing my first duathlon and learning a lot of stuff is already enough. It will be just icing on the cake if ever the results ever do get corrected.

Here’s to my next duathlon and here’s to hoping I do better next time. See you on the road!