Virginia Duathlon Men’s Relay

Last year, in atrocious weather conditions, I was fortunate enough to team up with a great biker and pick up first place in the Men’s Relay. All I had to do was run 2 x 5k’s while Chris battled the elements and the road conditions for 23 miles.

About a month ago at one of the local races, I asked Chris if he’d be interested in teaming up again to defend our title. Despite not having logged too many miles in the last couple of months he didn’t need much convincing to race again – after all, the weather would never be as bad as it was in 2008.

According to the event web site, KaleRunning decided to make the run course more interesting [read: challenging] this year. After a brief warm up, I found myself lining up with the other teams in the 2nd of two waves, which also included men over 40 and the female competitors.

Several of the guys got away pretty quickly. I settled in for the first 100m or so and then set my sights on chasing down the 2nd wave leader. The first mile included a nice downhill where I could open up my stride and pick up a bit of speed. Of course, the downhill was closely followed by a nice sharp little uphill – not a problem though, as I love running uphill. I probably caught the leader at about the 1.3 mile mark. As I drew level he asked if I was on a team and if so, was it a co-ed team. I shouted back “No, men’s team” at which point we both realized we weren’t in direct competition any longer. I may have mentally relaxed a little, but physically I surged on and enjoyed picking off some of the slower runners from the first wave that had started five minutes before ours.

Miles one and two were both pretty quick (5:32 and 5:42), but the steep little hill in the third mile ruined my momentum and made me huff and puff to the transition area where I handed off to Chris. 5k split – 18:12, although my Garmin read 3.17 for the first leg.

I figured Chris would tear up the course and complete the 23 miles in just over an hour. I chatted with the co-ed team runner for a while in transition, but decided to head back to the car for a drink and to put on some warm clothes. Time passed pretty quickly so I headed back to the bike racks to wait for Chris’ arrival……I didn’t have to wait long!

My legs had stiffened up a little in the hour since the first 5k, but after another fast timing chip swap, I darted out of transition and focused on reeling as many runners as possible. Of course, all the runners ahead of me had already run 5k, biked 23 miles and were battling it out for a top 10 slot in the duathlon. I found it quite amusing that several of the runners asked if I was on a team (I guess my running shorts and hairy legs were a giveaway!). After I’d replied “Yes, the men’s relay” I could almost hear the sigh of relief that they didn’t need to worry about me in their race.

My Garmin had gone into standby mode as I waited for the hand off, so I don’t have splits for the second 5k, but on checking the results after the race I was pleased I’d stayed under 19 minutes (18:53 to be precise). I’m also pleased to say we defended the Men’s Relay division and came in first of three teams by a fairly comfortable margin. Thanks Chris for another great bike leg!

The Virginia Duathlon is a quality event in a great location at Chippokes State Park on the James River. One of this years sponsors was my favorite endurance fuel supplier – Hammer Nutrition – and it was great to receive several of their products in the event goody bag. Can’t fault free Endurolytes and Hammer Gels! The race “premium” was also pretty neat – a rather loud lime green windshirt featuring the Virginia Duathlon logo, which will come in handy on some of my early morning runs to help keep the chill out.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable morning and I even bumped into another Welshman who was shooting a film for the DC company he works for. Small world…