Twinsburg Duathlon Race Report

The morning of the race I woke up at 3:45 am not feeling really hot.  The past week has given me a new symptom - vertigo with a side of nausea and it had woken me up for the past few nights with the feeling like I might throw up.  I sat on the couch contemplating whether I should do the race or not - well I paid $50, I have to try.  I looked at my favorite quote:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." --T. Roosevelt, 1910

Reading it always reminds me that trying is better than giving up.  "Suck it up" I thought.

Heading up to the race with my dad it poured on us, and not your typical rain, it was torrential with the threat of golf-ball size hail until noon.  Shit!  I cannot see without my glasses, but if it is raining, I cannot see with them either.  I was going to start the race and if it was raining when I got into transition, I could make my mind up if I would stop or not.  Sucking it up does not consist of being stupid, the last thing I need to do is not see and fly over my handle bars on a pot hole.

7:30 am the race started, I was still feeling kind of sick so I started the run really slowly.  I watched as the crowd flew past me. "Oh well, just keep plugging along."  I finished my run in 18:52 and was out of transition in 20:00 flat.  At this point the weather was still holding, in fact the temperature was nice and cool and VERY breezy.  I felt really good on the bike, I had only one person pass me and I passed at least 40 people. There seemed to be a headwind no matter which direction you turn, but I still was enjoying it.  I came in from the bike at 41 min and out of T2 by 42:57.  Of course on the run I felt slow again and many of the people who I had passed on the bike, passed me on the run...but hey, I am slow.  I came into the finish with a time of 1:23:47 (final run time was 20:50) and good enough to be 4th AG, missed third by 30 seconds.

I have decided that it is funny that I continue to run, I am such a better biker - but it was a good race.  I felt fairly good, my nausea went away during the race and for an hour after, so that is good (some weird quirk of the MS).  My father and father-in-law placed, it never rained, it was a fun course...what could be better?

As for my performance, I owe it all to the cooler weather and no rain!  Yay a positive race report.