leading up to this race i went away for a week in panama for a friend’s wedding. i had to adjust my training schedule quite dramatically because i knew that my week in panama would be a week of excessive drinking, excessive eating, and late nights. before leaving for panama i pushed myself hard on all of my workouts, getting in at least two a day for the entire week leading up to the trip. by the time that my plane left
once i was back home and had a chance to settle back into reality, i tried to get my training back on schedule as quickly as possible. i had to be careful because i wanted to recover from my lack of sleep from panama, get one or two hard workouts in, and then taper for race day which was only five days away. i got in one intervals workout and one tempo run before backing off, and as the race approached, i was worried that i wasn’t ready. i wanted to beat my previous 10k time from a month earlier but was concerned that i wouldn’t be able to because i’d taken so much time off over the two weeks leading up to the race.
i was nervous and didn’t sleep the night before the race. i showed up at the start along with the rest of the almost 13,000 competitors, did my warm up, and made my way to my starting corral. i’d never competed in a race that big before. there were about 20 professional athletes with their toes on the starting line, me and the sea of competitors on their heels. i knew that my nerves would settle as soon as the race started and, although i didn’t feel strong that morning, i was prepared with a solid race plan. learning from my mistakes at my previous race, my plan was to go hard for the first kilometer, settle, then have bursts at the 7k, 8k and 9k marks, and then sprint to the finish. if i could do that, i thought, then i should be able to beat my previous 10k time.
sure enough, as the gun went off and the race began, my nerves calmed. the athletes had already thinned out by the 1k mark and i settled into my race pace. my race plan quickly went out the window because there weren’t any kilometer markings. the only reference points i had was that i knew that there were water stations at the 4k and 7k marks. otherwise i was running blind. i felt strong as the race went on, my heart rate staying at a constant of about 98%. i also had a lot of fun out there. bands were playing every couple of kilometers and spectators were scattered in groups the entire way. i kept looking closely at all of the spectators because i kept expecting to see someone i knew, out there to secretly cheer me on.
i ended up with a time of 36.16, more than two-minutes faster than my race from a month before. the course was mostly downhill so my time probably would have been better no matter what, but i felt so much stronger at the finish line, i had energy to spare and i felt like i could have gone even faster. with no reference points on course i was running the same pace the entire distance, my only burst a sprint to the finish which snuck up on me around a blind corner.
Feeling great about my time and my fitness level, i got lost in the mass of thousands of athletes as we all made our way to the post-race area. Clearly i’d made huge improvements to my running, but to be a successful duathlete you also have to be strong on the bike. My first duathlon of the year was only a week away, which would be my opportunity to see if my cycling had made the same strides as my running.
