Race Report: Oseola Duathon

This duathlon was in Oseola, WS about 35 miles from home along the Minnesota Wisconsin board. I really beautiful area with rolling hills. Nice to look at, not so nice it bike on - more on that later. The distances were 3 mile run, 22 mile bike, 1 mile run. Usually the runs are the same distance but the longer bike followed by a quick run would be good for me.

I had to get up at 5:30am to get there and get set up by the 8:30 start. Way to early for a Sunday morning. I always pack everything up the night before so a) I don't have to pack in the morning, b) I don't forget anything or at the very least have the whole night to think what I haven't packed. We didn't have any milk for cereal so I had a hot dog!

At the race they had everyone preassigned to a rack spot. WTF? I always rack close to the exit but this time I was about half way back. So it wasn't terrible. The other bad thing was that the racks were set up in a grass/sand area of a park. Walking and rolling the bike covered them in sand. Not good.

The start was in 5 waves with me in the 4th wave. The first 3 miles went without much excitement. I was running well. Unlike last weekend we had to pass a ton of slower runners from the first 3 waves.

I transitioned fine, opting to carry my bike out instead of rolling it so as to keep the tires clean of sand. They sent us out out onto highway 35 that had a narrow shoulder. They had a lot of pylons that were only getting in way as I passed more and more people. I had to stay sharp not to hit one. It was far easier, and safer, to just ride out in the road lane. After 3 miles we turned off the highway. It's at this point that the race got interesting. We were into the hills.

I had seen the altitude profile on their website. I knew what to expect - sorta. The first climb would be the toughest with some nice descents after them. So I stayed aero and hit them hard. At the top of one I was caught by a guy. He said "this is not very fun!". He was right. I put him behind me after another mile or two.

More hills, more descent. Some at up to 40mphs! According to my GPS I was nearing 18 of the 20 miles so I started to add a bit of effort. Then I saw a big sign saying - 15 miles. Huh? Oops, I forgot that my GPS had recorded the first 3 mile run. Lucky for me the last 5 miles were mostly down hill so I was in good shape and really flying. Caught a few more people in the last 5 miles.

The second run was only 1 miles. I scanned the transition area and could only see maybe 10 bikes. Excellent. I run out with a guy on my heels. I stayed ahead of him for most of the run but he caught me as we neared the park and the finish. He jokes with me about finishing together and I asked if we should hold hands across the finish line. But he sprinted away in the final 100 yards. No problem, I noticed he was in the first wave. In race time I was actually 3 minutes ahead of him.

I was 10th overall. 1st in my age division. My bike time, which is always the most important for me, was good enough for 8th fastest. A very nice finish to my 2008 racing season.

Here is my surprising large and slightly cheesy trophy.

Race Report: Fall Classic Duathlon

Finally, a race other then just time trialing. This is the exact same coarse I've done several times including last Spring. It was a beautiful Fall morning for a race. As I racked my bike in the transition area I noticed that the transition area was about half the size as in the spring. I guess a lot of people were done with multisport racing for the year. I'm just starting!

The race started out fast with me being in the leading pack but sadly watching the others pulling away fast. It was hard to concentrate on my own pace instead of trying to pace with them. I'm just not a fast runner. After the first 3 miles I figured I was in about 18th place which I was happy with. 

I had a little problem with mounting my bike but basically the transition to the bike went smooth and fast. Out on the bike course I was able to catch 5 people in the first 3 miles which contains the mostly challegening hills of the whole 13 miles. It took a while to get comfortable as my legs were still feeling the 3 mile run. But by about midway I felt like I was up to speed. I caught a few more people that I knew were going to be reeling me in on the last run. I needed to add a lot of time on them.  By the time I got back to the transition area I was able to see the race leader heading out on the run. That meant he was only about 3-5 minutes ahead of me. Believe it or not I considered that great. See, the guy is a friend of mine as well as teamate on the Now Sport triathlon team. It also meant that I had pulled myself up to 5th or 6th place. Cool. I think I said "Hey Derrick" as we passed. Like we just happened to passing on the street.

I transitioned to my running shoes smoothing but I was not striding well. I was now paying for that extra effort on the bike. I was quickly caught by a couple guys then later on by 2 more. They just sprinted by with nothing I could do. Frustrating. By the last half mile I was completely alone on the park path. It a weird feeling to be by yourself like that in a race. It's always better to have someone to pace against even if they are creaming you.

I sprinted in alone for a 1:18 finish.

I finished 9th overall and was 1st in the mens 40-49. I turned in the the fastest bike time of the race, beating the overall winner by over a minute (he was the second fastest). That's great and all but both his running times were 4 minutes faster then me! Wow. A good race for me however I actually was faster on this course in the spring. I was hoping to better that mark.

Clearly I need to work on my running this winter. Which is fine because I really enjoy running more then biking. How ironic is that.

Here is a photo of my teammates in the race, Derrick Podratz (overall winner), Mike Davis, and me. Derrick will be heading to Italy to compete in the Duathlon World Championship. He's wearing his USA team jersey. All three of us won our catagories so we're holding up our gold metals.

26.11 mph

photo taken by Clifton Hull.

The final Withrow time trail of the year was a good one. I recorded my best time ever on the course (30:51) but also my fastest ever average speed in any race - 26.11 mph!

The last race was also the largest of the year. Almost 90 riders. My result was good enough for 5th place which I was more then happy with considering the company of the 4 ahead of me. The interesting observation of the top 10 finishers is that only 2 of them were younger then 40. The fastest rider turned 40 this year and one of the top 5 is over 50! FYI I am 43

Take that you whipper snappers!

Little League All-star Game

My one and only nephew, Mathew, was named to the Farmington All-star team. I made sure to get to the game. It started out looking like a blow out by the other team. Something like 8-0 after the 2nd inning. It was painful. But then Farmington started to come back and they were holding on defensively. Truth be told I was not convinced. But I'll be damned if in the last inning, as the sun was already fading on the horizon, Farmington was only down 1 run. Matt was up to the plate with 2 outs, and 2 on the bases. We could barely see the ball and just knew they were going to call the game soon. My sister was freaking out and wishing that it wasn't Matt that had to face this pressure. She had to walk away.



Whack!! He hit the ball just fair enough to get to first and drive in the tying run. It was then that the coaches decided to call the game. A tie was a perfect end to that All-star game. It turned out to be a really fun game. My nephew played really well and I was very proud of him. Let's hope he has a better career in baseball then his uncle.

A tip To All Rebel Fighters

The best time to make your escape from stormtroopers is when someone asks to take their pictures. They can't resist hamming it up for the camera. Simply bust free of their grip and sock them with a upper cross. Works every time.




More stormtroopers photos and other pics from Siggraph are on Flicker. Siggraph is the big annual conference for all things computer graphics. On Thursday night they had a special showing of the new Star Wars: Clone Wars movie.

Star Wars Exhibit

The Science Museum of Minnesota is hosting an exhibit of props and costumes from the Lucasfilm's archives. Linda and I took in the exhibit on a early Saturday morning in the hopes of avoiding the crowds. It worked. They add some displays about real robots, etc.. to rationalize the inclusion in a science museum. Whatever - its Star Wars!



My favorites were from the orginal 3 movies. Sure I have a 30 year connection to those movies, but really I thought the models were more interest. I could see a lot of the hand of the artist in the creation of the models. By the time the final 3 films came around, manufacturing processes like vacuum forming and stereolithography made creating spaceships of any shape and concept cheap and easy. In the 70s they mostly used plastic airplane and tank models in a process called kit bashing. So if you get a chance to looking really closely to the Millineum Falcon you can prehaps recognize a part from your favorite model.



It was on the Falcon that I made my favorite discovery. Right at the very front of the right side loading arm (yes, I know what it is) is a tiny Champion spark plug stick! Awesome! Who knew Han Solo used Champion.

Backyard Beauties

Sorry, I'm talking about flowers!

Linda has done a great job this year whipping the yard back into shape after 2 years of minimal effort while she was in grad school. It's really paying off with all sorts of blooms. I don't always know the names of them. As the sun sets in the evening we get a great shot of the golden hour of which I've been trying to take advantage. The light hits the flowers just perfectly. While I have done some color adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, really, the colors were pretty spectacular right out of the camera. I shot everything from a tripod at fairly low speeds - 1/60th of a second and less.

Now that doesn't mean I didn't play around with the photos! The lead photo was heavily manipulated to get the strange moody look. The orginal is basically like the one here.

Here are a few more but there are more on my Flickr webpage.