On day one of the Gloucester CX Grand Prix, arguably the biggest race event in New England, I elected to race in what may be the smallest event - The Eliot Duathlon. Billed as a 3 mile - 17 mile - 2.6 mile event, this was my last chance of the season to try another straight up duathlon, so I got up early and headed to Maine. Fortunately, Eliot is the first town, and in fact the race is held on the picturesque little area you can see below if you look north off the bridge crossing from New Hampshire. The race was promoted by the First Congregational Church of Eliot. What I don't know about religion could fill a library, but from what I've seen of congregational churches, they seem to have a better plan than most. As far as I can tell, they congregate, and put on things like duathlons. Not just an ordinary duathlon, but one with more volunteers than racers, and extras like t-shirts, prizes for half the field, and a full buffet with deli sandwiches and hot pizza after the race! Yes, they had the orange slices and bananas too, but even the bagels had something like five kinds of cream cheese to choose from. Amen brother!
There were about 70 individuals and five teams that lined up. The run started fast, at least it seemed that way to me. In fact, I got friggin' blown off in the first half mile. I didn't know what was up, but I checked my HR and it was 165, so I knew it wasn't my imagination. I settled in and tried to keep pace with the lead woman and another guy in a tri-suit, but soon they were gone too. The distance was suspect, probably a little short of the advertised 3 miles, and I came into the transition with an official time of 18:18, about 4 minutes behind the fastest. I got changed into my cleats reasonably quickly, but fumbled for a few extra seconds putting on my gloves and sucking down a gel before heading out on the bike. My avg. HR for the run was 161, right at LT, and I timed myself for the transition at 1:28. I started passing riders right away on the mini loop (which also served as run number two), taking at least ten before even getting onto the main part of the bike course, which we would ride twice. I found my rhythm here and picked off more riders one by one. The course wound along the bay for a bit before heading back inland on rural roads. On the second lap I picked it up a bit more, as now I had seen the course and knew there were no major climbs, just a few shallow grades. I was riding my regular road bike with the Shimano aero wheels and a pair of Vision Tech mini clipons installed the night before the race. They are a little short, but OK for this as the course was not bumpy.
I caught more riders on the second lap. The lead woman took the longest to reel in after coming into view. She was fast and smooth and must have been a real triathlete. Nobody passed me. I rolled into T2, forgetting that I had cleats on, so I initially tried to do a cyclocross dismount at the mandatory line, but quickly thought better of it. My bay was was on the far end, and at first I tried to trot across the parking lot, but that was dumb and so I stopped to pull my shoes off, at which time my right calf started to cramp. I made it to my space, racked the bike, pulled on my shoes and headed out after just 44 seconds. The official times don't break out the transitions, so T1 is included in the bike split, and T2 is included in the second run time. My Polar showed the bike course at 27.5 k in length, and my average speed at 37.3 kph.
I'm no duathlete, and so I wasn't fully prepared for the shitty feeling I got when I tried to run out of there. I'm not totally clueless, and I realized that since I only saw a couple of bikes in the racks, I must be doing OK. I had to suck it up and deal. But man did I feel like shit. After less than half a mile, one guy came running by me like I was standing still. Well, maybe that was because I practically was standing still. Forget him, keep going. Another guy comes by me a bit later. This one is not going so fast, and I am feeling a little better, so I try to pace off of him. He still pulls away, and it later turns out that he will win my age group (40-49). I manage to keep him in sight, and going into the last mile I am feeling like I am really running again. One more guy comes by me, but he is absolutely flying and must be part of a team, or so I tell myself. He is that last one, and I make it to the line with a run time of just over 19 minutes, and an official total of 1:23:14, the 8th individual, and about 8 minutes behind elite duathlete and winner Corey Boilard. He was over 9 minutes ahead of me at the Rye Duathlon earlier in the year, so I guess this is progress. I went for a little cooldown spin on my cross bike, then picked up my neat trophy and a nice base layer jersey that I got for second in my age group. After a little post-race nutrition at the buffet, I thanked the crew and headed down to Gloucester to spectate and see what awaited for Sunday. Thanks for reading.
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