So two weeks after the Boston Marathon the City of Rochester was putting on their annual Flower City Challenge. The weekend consisted of a duathlon and paddle triathlon on Saturday, as well as a 5K and half-marathon on Sunday. With the weather finally improving (i.e. it stopped snowing) and my rapid recovery from Boston (thanks to e21 Recovery) I could not resist the opportunity to bring out my TT rig and race the duathlon.
One of my buddies from the University of Rochester, Travis, was also racing so I was looking forward to a solid race between the two of us. On race morning we met up in transition, did a quick warmup to get the legs moving, and headed to the start. Heading to the start I bumped into one of my e21 teammate, Ryan Joyce. It was great to see another athlete out there flying the e21 flag!
At the starting line Travis and I got prime position and once the gun went off we surged to the front. Within a quarter mile the group at the front had thinned down to 5, Travis, myself, and three others. I was running strong and felt great; it was almost as if I was floating through the miles, my legs were turning over with little to no effort at all. At mile 1.5 of the first 5K run one of the runners made a surge and opened up a 25 yard gap on the chase group. I moved to the front to make sure we kept him within striking distance but made no immediate effort to run him down even though my legs were feeling amazing. We ticked through the next mile and I noticed that his lead was stagnant and if anything he seemed to be slowing coming back to us. At this point my competitive instincts kicked in and I pushed the pace and began closing the gap. My legs responded, and it felt like no time, and with no effort, I had brought the leader back to us. With my legs feeling great I wasted no time in attacking and quickly opened up a 20 yard lead of my own as we closed in on T1. As I approached transition I glanced at my watch and it read 17:15. I would end up running the first 5K in just over 18min at a VERY conserved effort. I was feeling amazing.
I was the first athlete back to T1 and as a result of relatively mediocre transition (stupid shoe laces) I was the 3rd out on the bike, Travis had surged back and was now in the lead. Immediately I noticed how fresh my legs felt, and as we rolled out I wasted no time blowing past the 2nd place rider and soon found myself behind Travis. I pulled up along side him and we quickly exchanged remarks about rolling in first and second before I pulled to the front. I felt amazing on the bike. We stuck together through the first 4miles of the 20mile course, but he fell back as we made our way through a series of rolling hills. By mile 5 I was clear out in front and loving life. The legs were turning over beautifully and I felt great. As the miles ticked by my lead slowly grew. I continued to remain in the lead as we approached T2 and it finally struck me that I was going to be leading the race off the bike (something I had never done before); I was pumped. Having averaged just over 23mph on the bike, I was very happy with my performance.
The calamity of transition errors continued as I made my way through transition the second time; again, stupid shoe laces. But I was out on the second 5K run before the second athlete even entered transition. Unfortunately for me the second place athlete was quickly gain ground. It was Eric Grimm, a Rochester local who is notorious for crushing the bike (25mph+) and running a blistering pace off the run. He had started in the second wave (3min behind us) but had gained time on the bike. As he closed the gap I made my best effort to fend him off, but he made the pass at mile 1.5 and there was no staying with him. Shortly after another athlete from wave two passed me and put the pressure on Eric for the overall win. As we ran through mile 2 of the final 5K run I was caught in no-mans-land, no one within striking distance in front of me and no one immediately behind me (Travis was about an 8th of a mile back). I still held a steady tempo and crossed the line in 3rd with Travis taking 4th. As it would turn out another athlete from wave two would displace both of us so I would finish 4th overall but win the M19-24 age bracket with a final time of 1:31:49. I was VERY pleased with the way I raced and given the perfect race conditions I could not have asked for more!
As a side note the Rochester news was on site to capture the race start and a video made the channel website. If you go to this link you can see me in my e21 race kit at the front around 0:12 seconds into the main broadcast.
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