Carl Hart Mother's Day Duathlon Race Report

Gonna keep this brief as I hate writing these things. Here goes:

Race is a 2 mile run, 10.5 mile bike, 2 mile run. Short and painful. I was able to win overall last year, so this put a lot of pressure on me to perform good again this year. I had a lot of anxiety going into the day because of this. I've never had to defend a title before, so even though this is really more like a "B" (or even "C") race for me, it was still important.

One word for the day was "WINDY"! Forty to Fifty (that's right, 40 to 50!!!) mph wind gusts were going to make not only the bike tough, but the day rather cold on the whole (hahaha, I said "cold on the whole!"). Don't really mind it though as everyone has to deal with the same stuff and I actually don't mind cycling in the wind.

Start: The gun goes off and I immediately took the lead. I knew that there was a very strong cyclist in the pack, and that if I wanted to win I'd have to establish my position at the beginning. Also, I feel like in these races when you get out to an early lead you put some fear in your fellow competitors. Guys afterward came up to me and said they thought I'd either run away with the race or blow up. Either way, I made them think:). Though I had lead the majority of the first run, one of the relay teams runner's caught up to me going into transition-must be nice to run knowing you're gonna have a half hour break before you have to run again:) Seriously though, the kid was a great runner!

As I got to transition, my trusty TTX was right were I had left it, minus one thing-my freakin' helmet!!! Seems those 40-50 mph wind gusts had blown the damn thing halfway across the transition area and I had to spend about a minute finding it! Not to mention as I pulled my bike off the rack, my already clipped in cycling shoe decided to eject and I had to go back and pick it up. Must have looked like I was having a triathlon yard sale in transition! So, after picking up all my stuff and getting my sh*t together, I got out on the bike. So much for "establishing a lead" on the first run! By the time I got out on the bike the guy who had come in behind me to T1 was now ahead of me. I wound up catching him though, and lead for a while until the "good cyclist" caught me. I wasn't suprised as I knew it was only a matter of time before he would. He didn't pass me too fast, but still got up on me by a bit. I knew if I could keep him in sight, I'd catch him up on the run. Was able to keep him in my sights and got off the bike only about 45 seconds down on him.

The second run felt great. Transition went well (thank God!) and legs felt springy. The spectators were also great as they yelled "catch him!" and "you got 'em! he's only 30 seconds up!" as I ran out of transition. I was running well and wound up catching him a little less than a mile into the run. Came into the finish first and was happy with a hard fought win.

Two things I was really happy with today other than the win. One, and this is kinda funny, but here goes-is that I was able to beat who I beat. Not that I thought he was better than me, but because he was wearing the No.1 bib. Being that I won this race last year, I thought I should have rightfully worn that bib. I realize this isn't Kona (not even close!), but c'mon, if the returning champ comes to race again, at least give the dude the no.1 bib! This guy was wearing my bib and there was no way he was gonna win with it on if I was in the race-I would have run through a brick wall if that's what it took. Secondly, it was nice to get a win in front of my folks. This was the first race they've come to watch me compete in, and I'm glad I could give them a good show! No one yelled louder than my mom when I ran down the finishing shute, screaming "That's my son!" when I crossed the finish line. Very cool:).

So now that this race is ticked off the list, it'll be nice to devote some solid weeks of training to focusing on Rev3 in June. This is definitely an "A" race and I wanna put together a solid race there. I did this race last year and had a ton of troubles on the run. With my swimming finally getting good and my bike and run stronger than they've been in the past, I think this should be a good experience. Looking forward to it!:)