ITU LD World Duathlon Championships

I had qualified for this race way back at the beginning of my season at the Long Course 3Sports Duathlon. In terms of preparation, I was a little shaky.... a couple weeks were weak after IM Louisville, and then two weeks before this race I got really sick for about 4 days, so training for that week was pretty much shot.
I was confident that I could still compete well though. The morning of, it was COLD (well at least colder than it had been all year). The race workers didn't let athletes into the transition area until 630 for a 730 race, so I was already put behind schedule. By the time I got my bike ready, it was 650, and I had to rush my warm up and preparation.
At the start I was in the second row, which was fine with me because I wasn't preparing to sprint right out of the blocks. It was going to be a long morning, and I would have plenty of time to get in the position I needed to get in. The race started, and immediately I felt like I was in a xc race..it was a great feeling with so many guys around me. It sorted out pretty quickly, and after a K I found myself in about 15th position. I stayed very relaxed, running side by side with Corey Scott. Around 3 k, a runner from Great Britain made a strong move and strung everyone out quite a bit. Jeff Miller also made a strong move to the front,and the pace quickened a little bit. I was still in no rush to get to the front, so I stayed steady and kept relative contact with the leaders. Lap one was very relaxed and I came through in around 8th place. Not too much changed for the first half of the second lap, but right around halfway, Ryan Rau made a strong move to the front, and I was able to pick off about half the field as they faded just a bit. I came into T1 in third position with a 52:02 split (5:35 pace for 15k), a great run, especially considering how I felt.

My T1 was awful. I had left mt sunglasses on my helmet because it wasn't that sunny at the start. Turns out there was a ton of dew all over them, and it was very difficult for me to clear them up. Then I fumbled around with my helmet..ahhhh! It was just a mess. T1 was 1:19.

I got out In about 7th or 8th place from T1, and immediately lost my aero bottle sponge. Great. Drink is spilling all over the place and I'm just getting started. Now I also notice that my gel flask holder is a little loose, and the gel flask is slipping to the left side of my top tube. Double great. I tried to fix it up, but I couldn't get t while riding. I figure it will just stay there, so I let it go. The first loop was good, I got passed by a couple guys,but then what do I notice? No gel flask anymore! Crap. There go 4 gels that I was planning on. At last I still have 2 taped to my top tube and some gatorade. On the second loop I finish my aero bottle of gatorade, and try to keep steady. Corey put about 3:00 into me on the first loop, but he seemed to be staying there on the 2nd loop. At the end of the loop I look down to get some gatorade from my down tube and what? It's popped out! Geez. That is NOT good. I ration out my last gel and get some water from the bike aid station. On the third and fourth loops I pick it up a bit and re-pass some of the guys that had passed me earlier on. Of course by this time I had no idea what place I was in because we were lapping tons of cyclists. As I finish, I catch the guy who took the lead on the first run. My bike was 2:09:35, 21.9 mph for 76k

We dismount at the same time, and his bike rams right into my left leg and cuts it up pretty bad. We raced through T2, and he got out 3 sec faster than me. He was zooming on, but I stopped at the aid station because I knew I need some serious nutrition if I was going to thrive in the final run. I down a cup of gatorde and 2 gels, and took another gel on the run, eating that before the 2nd mile. Rau had gained about 50 m on me in that time, and I was not feeling great for the first mile. As I kept going thoug, I started feeling better and better. I had a good rhythm and kept the turnover high. Right around 3k, I noticed I was coming back on Rau hard. Before we got to the canal I caught him and passed him hard. There were two more guys up ahead, one from the US and one from GB. It took me another K to catch both of them, but eventually I got them, pounded another gel, and started thinking about finishing strong. There was no one too close once I passed the guy from the US, so I kept it steady and tried to put a little time between myself and the uS guy. As I was coming up to the finish, I was rolling up on another US guy, but I ran out of room before we reached the finish. My final run was 27:47, top amateur run split. I won my age group and finished 9th overall for amateurs. 33rd overall for pros and amateurs, which I was also happy with.

It feels cool to be able to say that I am a world champion!

This was an unbelievable way to end a spectacular season. Now time for some rest and then on to 2008....