Darnd'st Du Report

Most of my previous race/ride/run reports this summer have started out with how the weather in Austin has been great and much cooler than usual. Well now it is August and it is back to business as usual with Texas being a blast furnace. Hot, hot, hot.

Carri and I woke up at 4:30 this morning so that we could eat breakfast, get some water in us, and be out the door for the 30+ minute drive to San Marcos by 5:30. This is just an obscene hour, and since I could not fall asleep until 1:30 and then was up again at 2:00 and 3:00, it was a very quiet car ride to San Marcos.

We got to the race site at about 6:00 and began getting ready for the race at 7:00. We met up with some of the other members of Team Affliction, set up our transition area, ran a bit to get a sweat going and then it was time to race.

The race plan was to go out really easy. I thought I had done this until I looked at my watch at mile one and realized I was running a sub-8 minute mile. Even though I was feeling great, I backed down to stick with the plan, since I knew that you cannot win the race in the first 5k run but you sure can lose it. Finishing the first run and coming into the transition area, I felt really strong. I had an okay transition, could have been faster if I had not dropped one of my gloves and had to go back and get it. Oh well, I was still in and out in under a minute.

The bike felt great today. Just cruised along the course. The pre-ride I did last week was very beneficial as I knew where to turn it on, where to take it a little easy, etc. Also going out the first 4 miles easy provided great dividends later in the race. The goal for the bike was to stay strong, get lots of fluids in, and get some calories into the system for the second run. I feel I accomplished all of these while getting the fastest bike time for Clydesdales for the second year in a row (This year by almost 3 minutes over the next fastest big boy).

Second transition was uneventful and it was time to get out for the final 5k. The plan for this run was to go out at a pace that was maintainable and then have enough in the tank at the end to "fire your guns". As I headed out I was feeling fine and settled into a nice rhythm, and thought this is gonna be an easy finish. Of course I think that is when Dante opened up his gates of Hell and brought the true heat to the course. For a few minutes I was just miserable but kept telling myself I only had about 10 more minutes of misery. After the turnaround I thought about "firing those guns" but when I reached into the holster I realized I only had blanks so held off on kicking in the afterburners. With about a mile to go I grabbed a bottle of water at the rest stop and took a few drinks and poured the rest over my head. This really revitalized me, and I charged up the final hill. This only left a nice downhill to the finish. This time when I reached for "the guns" they were cocked and loaded and I ran full out to the finish.

It was an amazing day in San Marcos today with Team Affliction really kicking butt. Congrats to Kris, Glenda, and Triscuit for winning their respective age groups. Congrats to Carri for finishing her first duathlon, you are awesome babe. Congrats to all the other Team Affliction members who participated in the race. Thanks to Shorey, Erin, Phil, Michelle, Tim H.(who is explosive), Suellen and everyone else for their support and encouragement during the race. Thanks to Panther for the great coaching this summer and helping me reach both of my goals for this year's Darnd'st: a faster time than last year (1:55:15) and being in the top 3 in the under 40 Clydesdale division (3rd place).