Epic Sports Marketing starts off their multi-sport events every year with the Wildman Triathlon Festival. For the second year in a row our founding author John Will Tenney entered the Olympic Duathlon. Here is his race report:

“I always choose the Duathlon on this one, since I hate swimming in that lake anyway, and this early in the year it is freezing cold so no excuse is needed.

The Course: The Duathlon consists of a 5K run, a 40K bike and a 10K run (two laps of the 5K run). The actual lengths are a bit shorter, but the transition running to and from the courses makes up for it.

The Run: Part trail and part paved road, it is almost always in the shade, which makes for a very comfortable run. Very pretty, and basically flat, it’s a really nice run course.

The Ride: In and around the Lake Mary Jane neighborhoods, there are a few spots with rough roads and some sand, but the main road has recently been repaved and is smooth, flat and fast. There are a few 180 degree turns which slow things down a bit.

Weather: It was a perfect day for a duathlon. Temperature started out around 55 degrees and warmed up to 72 by the end of the race. Sunny and clear with very little wind.

I got out of the house a little late and didn’t arrive until nearly 7am, with a 7:36am scheduled start. Elton Mancilla and I wandered down to the lake to take pictures of the start, which can be seen on the Orlando Runners and Riders Facebook Page. After a couple of waves went off I headed back to the transition area to get ready for the start of the first 5K run.

I realized I was going to be late and started jogging to the start line. I arrived and heard “15 seconds, get ready!” I still had sweats on. I had not even stretched yet. So, I ran to my bike, dropped the sweats and ran out with no warmup. I think I gave the field a 30 second head start. I know I saw Elton already running down the road to the right, as I was still on the grass running to the first turn.

Last year I started in the back and was the last finisher on the 5K. This year I was surprised to find myself catching (and passing) people. I didn’t feel I was running faster, so maybe there were just some slower people this year? I ended up finishing around 28 minutes, which is 20 seconds slower than last year, so given the head start I guess I improved!

Transition went well, and I actually ran with the bike out to the start. Unfortunately, my Garmin had not reset so I noticed that I was over 4 miles by the first turn. Oops. That will look weird on the first run. I was passed by a girl moving quickly out of the start, and I decided to try and stay up with her. She was doing 22 to 23 mph. I kept her in sight all the way through the first lap but lost her after the 180 turn to head back out. I don’t know where she ended up but she was a good pacer. Together we probably passed 50 riders. Only one of the leaders caught me before I made the 2nd lap turn, so that was good.

Mental things always mess up my race. The power meter, which I had gone to great lengths to use for this race, was not registering. My Garmin is excellent at picking up other people’s power meters and then totally ignoring mine. Typical. This was messing with my head a little, and may have contributed to reaching Lactate Threshold way before I thought I should. It limited me the second lap, as my legs just plain hurt. First lap was 32 minutes, second was 36, as I just couldn’t keep it much past 20mph. Several times I had to dip down to 18 or less just to rest my legs, and my butt. Still sore from some early season saddle sores.

Still, I started the second run well before 1 hr 45 minutes in to the race, which was my goal. Even though I stopped to use the park bathroom on the first lap, I kept my pace on target. I finished the 10K in 1:05:32, which is a personal record for me on that course, by 27 seconds (last year’s Wildman.)

It was great to have my wife and daughters waiting for me at the finish. My overall time of 2:50:22 beats last year’s time of 2:51:24 so I am happy :).

Summary: The bike was not as good as I had hoped but surprisingly my time was right up there with all my previous times last year. The second run was my best yet, so the long distance running I have been doing really helps. Disappointed about the power meter, because I really wanted to see how that looked. Well, the Spring Fling is next month!”

First Run – includes part of the bike in the map – I edited times.

Bike leg

Second run – 10K