I wanted to give you all a race report from my first race of the year, as well as my first-ever multi-sport event. This weekend I raced in the White Sands Duathlon, held at the White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is a race in the Southwest Triathlon Racing Series, the oldest series of multi-sport racing events in the US. The race had a wide range of age and ability categories, and there were some strong early-season racers to contend with. Racers from El Paso and western Texas, Albuquerque, and southern New Mexico participated in the event. The race consisted of a 5K run on a rough dirt road with some sandy sections, followed by a 30K bike on nice paved military base roads: flat to rolling terrain. and some crosswinds.
I got into a steady rhythm on the run, since I had no previous experience running and biking together in a race. I was the top female finisher on the run, and in the top ten of the men. I definitely held back on the run to save some for the bike. When I hopped on the bike, I felt at home, since that is what I have been doing for the last several years! I started flying on my gorgeous new time trial rig, and started reeling guys in. I ended up finishing first overall for the women, and third overall. Only two guys placed ahead of me. Not bad for my first multi-sport event!
I learned a lot about how to pace myself in multi-sport events and will make a few changes next time. But I think I am off to a strong start to the season, considering I am just now starting my more intense training. This race was my first intense cycling workout so far. So things will only go up from here in both my running and cycling fitness.
The multi-sport crowd was very friendly at the race. I had a handful of guys approach me after the race, asking me who I was, since they had just been "girled." I found out this means a girl put it to them in the race, and left them in the dust
. I also had a few people after the race ask about my Fuji Aloha CF1, and want to know what I thought of it. Of course I could honestly answer that it is a great, fast bike!
Hopefully there will be many more successful race reports to come.
Cheers,
Brooke