Unfortunately, I did my first ever duathlon this past weekend. Did anybody else do the Steelhead 70.3 Duathlon?
I was looking forward to getting another half under my belt, but it didn't pan out. Mother nature had other plans. The water was pretty choppy, 3-4 foot swells which caused the swim portion to be canceled. The water the previous day was perfect! Event organizers quickly scrambled to turn thing around and put on a duathlon. They replaced the 1.2 mile swim with a 2 mile run. It was a good decision, they didn't have enough water support out there for the 2500+ of us (only one coast guard boat from what i could tell and lifeguards in kayaks or on surf boards). I never made it all the way down the beach, I was in the porta-potty when I heard the sad news. I swim like a fish but don't run like a rabbit, so I was bummed. What did you think?
Getting things quickly set up delayed everything by an hour. I was worried that the sun that was already out was going to get HOT, but it was OK. It was a bit of a mess at the start of the duathlon getting all of us off the road for the initial out and back portion of the run. What did you think?
It looked like drafting was awesome out on the bike! I did my VERY best to avoid it at all times and was pretty successful. Marshall's where out-and-about but giving warnings for the most part. I'm guessing I lost a few minutes by zig-zagging around people. At times we were 4 bikes wide in the traffic lane, which can be scary not knowing how other will react when you pass by them. Another time I had to pass 10 to 12 bikers while the marshal was riding next to me on the motorcycle. There just wasn't an opening for me to drop into. I'm just glad that occurred on a flat part of the course. We were sheltered from the wind for the most part by the tress and the tall corn crops. The bike was a bit short but understandable because of the last minute re-route, i had 53.6 miles on my bike computer.
The run was good, great support along the way and plenty of ice, water and gatorade. The running we did in the sand dunes at the end of the race was a bit different. We had to do that twice since we ran twice. I was just hoping I wouldn't twist an ankle the first time through, which I didn't.
Overall it was an OK duathlon.
In general I think it would help if there was less participants, then people wouldn't complain about drafting...
Unfortunately, I did my first ever duathlon this past weekend. Did anybody else do the Steelhead 70.3 Duathlon?
I was looking forward to getting another half under my belt, but it didn't pan out. Mother nature had other plans. The water was pretty choppy, 3-4 foot swells which caused the swim portion to be canceled. The water the previous day was perfect! Event organizers quickly scrambled to turn thing around and put on a duathlon. They replaced the 1.2 mile swim with a 2 mile run. It was a good decision, they didn't have enough water support out there for the 2500+ of us (only one coast guard boat from what i could tell and lifeguards in kayaks or on surf boards). I never made it all the way down the beach, I was in the porta-potty when I heard the sad news. I swim like a fish but don't run like a rabbit, so I was bummed. What did you think?
Getting things quickly set up delayed everything by an hour. I was worried that the sun that was already out was going to get HOT, but it was OK. It was a bit of a mess at the start of the duathlon getting all of us off the road for the initial out and back portion of the run. What did you think?
It looked like drafting was awesome out on the bike! I did my VERY best to avoid it at all times and was pretty successful. Marshall's where out-and-about but giving warnings for the most part. I'm guessing I lost a few minutes by zig-zagging around people. At times we were 4 bikes wide in the traffic lane, which can be scary not knowing how other will react when you pass by them. Another time I had to pass 10 to 12 bikers while the marshal was riding next to me on the motorcycle. There just wasn't an opening for me to drop into. I'm just glad that occurred on a flat part of the course. We were sheltered from the wind for the most part by the tress and the tall corn crops. The bike was a bit short but understandable because of the last minute re-route, i had 53.6 miles on my bike computer.
The run was good, great support along the way and plenty of ice, water and gatorade. The running we did in the sand dunes at the end of the race was a bit different. We had to do that twice since we ran twice. I was just hoping I wouldn't twist an ankle the first time through, which I didn't.
Overall it was an OK duathlon.
In general I think it would help if there was less participants, then people wouldn't complain about drafting...
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