Sunday, April 5, 2009

2009 Fast & Furious F1 Duathlon

I participated in the 8th Annual Fast & Furious F1 Windfest ... er, Duathlon this morning at Lynn Creek Park on the shores of Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, TX.  I believe the "F1" refers to the race format of 2 mile run, 11 mile bike, another 2 mile run, another 11 mile and then a sprint to the finish line (with your bike helmet and cleats)!  With a 24+ MPH average windspeed this morning, biking across the dam (especially on the return trips) was challenging at best and a little unnerving at worst.

Here are the stats from my Garmin Forerunner 305 (click to expand):


and these were very close to my official splits:
  • Run 1: 16:11.9 (a solid 7:52/mi pace to start off; Roberto, along with the other speedier runners, passed me early on, but that was expected so I didn't try to go too fast and blow up)
  • T1:  1:20.8 (a little slow; decided to shed my gloves and then had a little trouble getting on my bike shoes and my helmet and sunglasses had blown over; also took my normal extra time to down a SaltStick and AccelGel)
  • Bike 1: 30:46.8 (20.2 MPH is more than 1 MPH slower than my time for the Texas Motor Speedway Du, but not too bad considering the stiff wind during nearly of the ride).
  • T2: 0:53.6 (missed my bike rack - but just by a few rows - so overall a passable bike-to-run transition)
  • Run 2: 16:43.7 (still an 8:05/mi pace - not much a drop from Run 1; I'm very happy about that!; Lee passed me just before entering transition - darn, I'm now officially 4 minutes behind him)
  • T3: 0:59.0 (much faster than T1 even though I again took a salt pill and gel)
  • Bike 2: 31:41.8 (30 seconds slower than bike 1 - getting tired, wind picked up, or both!  Passed Lee about 1/4 mile into the bike - gotta try to get some of that time back ...)
  • T4/Finish: 0:19.6 (rack bike and then sprint to the finish line - just outside the transition area -- while still donning helmet and bike shoes!  I finished just behind the 1.4 seconds behind the guy in front of me - who placed second in the Clydesdale [men over 200 pounds] division - no wonder he was pushing so hard at the end. :-P)
  • Total Time: 1:38:57.4
I placed 42nd out of 150 finishers and 7th out of 18 in my age group.  Lee took 28th place overall (about 2 1/2 minutes faster than me) and got an award for 3rd place in his age group.  I believe this is his first multi-sport award.  Way to go! Roberto was there with his friend Nick(?) and ran a solid race (top third) as well.

After the finish, we grabbed a (rather Spartan) post-race breakfast of Gatorade, bagels and bananas (Ironhead Jack said that the caterer didn't show up - not sure if that was a joke :-P) and waited near the beach at Lynn Creek Park for the awards ceremony.  Overall, it was a good event and a great course.  And the F1 format is interesting (and I heard that it used to include a third 2-mile run leg at the end).  I look forward to doing this race again in the future (especially if it is without the wind).

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