This Sunday was my first race of the season and my first venture out of adventure races, road races (running) and mountain biking into Duathlons and Triathlons.

The Shamrock usually attracts about 400 people but it started to rain about 6:30 in the morning and I believe a lot of people decided to stay. Anyway, on to the report.

Shamrock - 5k run, 28k bike, 5k run,

As I mentioned, a slight drizzle started the morning and never stopped until the race was complete (the sunshine gods apparently slept in). I was bit apprehensive as I have only ridden my road bike outside 3 times (lots of times on the trainer) and I have never ridden in the rain. I received two pieces of advice from other, more experienced racers. I either heard "go fast, its a race, stop being a wimp" or "take it easy, its not worth it". Well, being a MTB'er, I have little fear of crashing and it is always worth it. That being said, my forced bravado was tempered quite a bit on anything resembling a turn.
The race started with a two lap 5k on a very flat and fast course. The splits have not been posted but I believe I came through in about 20 minutes. I should preface by saying that this was purely a fun race for me, C level I guess. Though I raced hard, I did not take any days off beforehand. Therefore, my goal on the fisrt 5k was to stay relaxed and feel good getting onto the bike.
I was in and out of transition pretty quick and took off on the bike. This was the 1st non-draft event that I have done and I was being very cautious about positioning. Apparently I was the only one as there was drafting going on everywhere. The coarse was pretty hilly and it rained the whole time. I was passed by a few very fast cyclists but I also managed to pass several people. My hope was that I could regain a lot of these folks on the run (if I still had any legs left).
A few miles before the transition, I realized my toes where completely numb. This was confirmed when I jumped off the bike and had to look down to see if my feet where actually touching the ground.
So I racked my back, attempted to tie my shoes with my frozen fingers and headed off on the run. It took me about half mile to get into my stride but I slowly started to pick off runners. About halfway through, my shoelace came untied but with only about a mile and half to go, I didn't bother to stop. If my shoe fell off, I don't think I would have noticed.
I ended up finishing 34th in a time of 1:41 and change. I was pretty happy with the race and felt pretty strong even with all the training up until race day. My legs are pretty sore today. This is a step back week so I can slowly recover.
Next up...my 1st tri.

Stone