Friday, December 11, 2009

Trip Lee @ Duathlon TMS

2nd annual bronda's run/bike duathlon at the Texas Motor Speedway on november 19th.
 
 so i woke up at like 5:30 and left my house around 6, after my customary prerace meal of a bowl of special k with strawberries. my dad drove to TMS and i slept the whole time. we pulled in around 7:10 and parked. i got out and checked over my bike, aired up the tires, and generally wasted time. i even practiced some transitions mounts and dismounts to eat away time. then just before 8 i set up transition, iwas pleased to find that my seat has a lip on the back that is great for faster transitions. i went and warmed up running, and then came back for the prerace meeting. 
 after jack did his usual rant, he talked about the race being dedicated to Bronda Starling, an active member in triathlon in the dallas area. we all lined up and they sent us off in 2 waves, one 40+ and one sub 39 wave 4 minutes later.

start/first run. the gun went off and we started running around an infield track at the motorspeedway. we ran 2 laps around the track and went back into transition. all while we were runnin the first time, cars were going around the motorspeedway at like 150 mph. they were extremely loud and really cool! 2 mile run in 13:56. 6:58 mile.


transition one. transition was set up between 2 garages which was pretty cool. it was just a customary ironhead transition. 0:51 transition.


bike. got on the bike, stuck my flying mount and i was off. took a right after going under the north tunnel, right into a headwind from the northeast. crap. there was a headwind for 2/3 of each lap, and that 2/3 was also uphil. the last 1/3 was a gradual downhill, and the track blocked all the wind so it was dead calm, great for going fast. at the beginning of my second lap around the track, i stretched out my cramping left calf. then my let foot came unclipped, i quickly unclipped on the right side as well and was able to catch myself before i fell over doing 25. i skidded on my speedplay cleats for the next 30 yards before i braked to a stop. my cleats are metal on the bottom and they were fine; i clipped back in and finished the second and third laps without incident. i had a good dismount back into transition too, and i was pretty happy about that after the bike turned out crappy. 53:35 on the bike at 17.9 mph.

second transition. i caught my breath a little here. i had trouble getting my shoes on cause i made the yankz so dang tight. oh well, i'll know next time. 1:04 transition

second run. ran out of transition and immediately knew i was in for pain. i cramped some on the bike and new it would come back on the run, it certainly did. i stretched out my hamstring and calves as i got onto the infield track for the first lap. i then ran the first lap as fast as my lead filled legs would allow. second lap was worse. my quad cramped halfway thru the second lap and as i went to stretch it, my hamstring and calf cramped up. it hurt and i almost fell over. i kept running and saw someone ahead of me who i had battled with the whole itme on the bike, but she beat me into transition. i pushed it to catch up with her, and had to sprint the last 150m. i beat her. she gave up. as i passed her i said something about her just giving it up after battleing with me on the bike. i finished and fell down, legs cramping badly! woohoo! 2 mile run in 16:29. 8:15 mile. 

after, there were no bananas. they had run out by the time i got to the table. they did have cookies though. my family, who had come to watch, and i went into another garage and looked at the NASCAR cars in there. they are pretty awesome and extremely loud. then we stopped at IHOP on the back so i could refuel. 

great race, i would definitely do it again, it is an extremely flat course.

Trip, "Mr. Ripe"

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