Monday, June 24, 2019

Baddeck Duathlon Weekend 2019

Year 4 of the Baddeck Duathlon has come and gone and it was once again a great event. Sure, it is a tough course with a dirt road run featuring steep climbs, and a rolling road loop of 22 km that has a few rough spots (and one way bridges), but the scenery is awesome, the venue quiet from most traffic (I saw maybe 4 cars the whole time), and the hosts once again proving how to welcome everyone. 

As usual we make a weekend of it and head up the night before. This time the drive was horrendous, with torrential rain and highway driving at 50 kph for long sections. We made it though and checked in this year at the Silver Dart. The weather meant we could take full advantage of the outdoor pool and other amenities, but we did have a great room with a stunning view. 

Luckily for the fourth year, the weather cleared and by race time the roads were dry and clear, the air temp cool and yes, a bit of a headwind, but it kept the bugs away!

I got to the race site early to get setup and took my bike out for a quick spin.  Then after putting it in transition, I did a short jog to warm up the running muscles.


We had a brief race briefing and headed to the start. The first 5km run as I mentioned is on a dirt road with the first kilometer going straight up, it reaches a daunting 16% grade for a brief time, averaging just under a 5% grade in total. So basically my kind of race.


Soon we were off. I took the lead. Last year I tucked in behind other runners and didn't run my own race. This year I decided to just give it my best effort. I made it over the hill (ha ha) and pushed through to the turn around, staying in first, my lead at that point not huge but there was a gap.
I finished the fast downhill section and ran into T1 with a time of 18:14, getting what I want in these races, the fastest first run and this year a nice gap to second place of 17 seconds. Add in my transition time of 33 seconds (Colin took that by 1 second) and I had a small lead heading onto the bike.

I wasn't sure how long the fast bikers would take to catch me, Ryan though made sure it was quick, zooming by a mere 2-3 kilometers in. Wow.  Then I waited. Colin came by next, but it was closer to 7 kilometers in and another few before Andreas passed me. Usually heading into the halfway point, the big guns have made their push and I get dropped back much faster. I guess my winter training had paid off at least a little bit.

It wasn't until kilometer 16 that Allan powered by me. I was now in fourth overall but knew that if I pushed hard enough to stay as close as possible to Allan I might be able to catch him in the second run. He did slip away a little more than I had hoped and by kilometer 18 Daniel just zipped ahead of me. Just hang in there! I glanced down to check on the distance again and to my surprise my bike computer was gone. I guess I hit a bump and knocked it off. No stopping to go back though!

Daniel never really lost me and we entered T2 together. I dropped a minute off of my best time on this loop. With the head wind near the end, I don;'t think that the weather helped significantly over previous years either. That made me happy.

Andreas and Ryan were long gone but I found Colin and Allan racking their bikes and switching to running gear. Off they went, but I pipped off right behind them.   


 As we hit the hill I could see Colin and Allan maybe 100-200 meters ahead. I mustered all I had in my legs. This run was short but was going to be intense.

I eased closer as my stride finally started to open up a bit. By the turn around I was right behind Allan and finally got by him. Now it was all down hill for a kilometer. I was inching closer to Colin and didn't know what he had left in his legs. Certainly in our last race he pulled away near the end. I could have played it safe and just ran behind him but opted to go for it. I averaged a 3:30 pace in that second kilometer, just slightly pulling ahead of Colin and speeding up to a 3:19 pace for the last 500 meters. In the end I took him by 2 seconds and wow, that was it. I had the fastest second run and that felt great. Third overall in a tight race from 2-6 against some fast guys.



I managed to jump back on my bike for another 12km of riding to find my bike computer, it was fine. Back at the event, we had a great bit of catering again this year and filled up before we packed the car to head off for more weekend adventures of hiking in the highlands.



The weekend never really warmed up, but we managed to avoid the rain. The Highlands never disappoint with so much to see.


And yes, we took the dogs.


Because Newt loves to explore.


And while our wet Spring has meant a lot of running in wet conditions, and a seemingly depressing grey skies, it also means awesome waterfalls. So we chased those all weekend as well.

No comments: