Sweet Pain Alabama

Race report 1: Powerman Alabama aka USA Duathlon Championships aka ITU SC Duathlon Qualifier This season’s issue of Powerman Alabama may have been a lot of things, but true to all great PM events one thing it was not… EASY on the legs. Perhaps it was the early season race effort and/or lack of man hours on the bike, but man, I was sore from that “experience” for the better part of a week. With its third course in three years PM AL relocated from the urban commando racing of 09 to the serene, picturesque, and leg mashing course of Oak Mountain State Park. Undoubtedly the deepest field ever assembled for Alabama, this season’s event boasted just shy of 30 elite Duathletes. Leading the way was Belgium’s LC World Champion Joerie VanSteelant and the returning 08 and 09 Champ David Thompson. And with 4 automatic qualifying spots up for grabs for Du Worlds the racing went hard from the gun. The first 10k run was a blitzkrieg event as Adams State grad, Dereck Yorek, led the first run through in just over 31 mins, a smoking time on the perpetually hilly course. Knowing the 60k bike was going to be my crux, I chose a much more subtle start to my season and ran a very controlled 32:11 into the transition.The 60k bike featured a three loop course and was riddled with punchy little 30-60 second climbs. Typically this riding style suits me well, at 6’0” and 144 lbs, power to weight is much more often than not on my side. As I got into the bike I was soon passed by Matt Russell and David Thompson, who both had excellent days. After the first lap I was just finding my rhythm and beginning to put out the prescribed watts when I began received the itchy warning signs of; twitches at the plate, cramps on deck. Hence I commenced to cut the power to the engine room by about 20%, chug some CeraSport, and focus on getting to the last run. As I quickly found out the tough course and fast opening run was reeking carnage on others athletes in the field, soon I caught two of the early leaders, Yorek and Josh Merrick who were both looking a little hazy on the bike. I rolled into T2 feeling less than chipper in 6th place overall and 4th American. Basically I just had to hold the rivets together for an auto qualifier and a trip to Endinburgh. The last run starts w/ a 500m hill, thus was a deathmarch , as I was about a millisecond away from a cramp. To my surprise at about 2 miles I started to feel almost good and even started to have thoughts of possibly catching some sorry lost soul out on the race course. Final place 5th overall (4th American), final run time of around 35.53 min, the slowest, fastest run of the day. When the soreness goes away…I can’t wait to race again. Next stop Duathlon Nationals Offroad Expert race 04/23, then Mooseman 70.3. A big thanks to our new team Seaside Tri, and to Seaside Cycle for hooking me up w/ a sweet Specialized Transition TT rig.