Today I participated in my first duathalon! It was a lot of fun and it may be the beginning of multi-sport events. I liked the pacing and strategy behind planning a fun but competitive performance. So here are five tips from a completely unqualified amateur.
- Train for the race. Yes, because I like to say obvious things! I’ve been working out a fair bit lately and I just went out for the fun of it, but this may be something I train a little more seriously for in the future. Today, it was a hot, sunrise race that I really had no business participating in since I haven’t run a lot since my Memorial Day marathon and I just hopped off the couch and ran 10 K- biked 20 K- ran 5 K. Phew!
- Winning a medal is awesome! I won 3rd place in the 30+ women’s age group. Yeah! Also, it was cool that all of our times were better than the respective placers in the 20-29 year old age group. Old ladies rock!
- Hydration is important. I had a little handheld bottle which I’m really glad I had. It was 80-90 degrees during the race and again, I’ve mostly been an air-conditioned gym rat this Summer. We were all so sweaty!
- If an iguana ends up on the sidewalk and scares the shit out of you, causing you to jump and scream, “AN IGUANA!!!” someone in her car will see you and laugh. Loudly.
- Know how your bike works. I rented a bike and didn’t realize until I was going up a hill that I didn’t know how to shift. This was a problem. Fortunately, a very nice woman who I was trading places with during the run stopped and helped. She ended up not doing well because she rented a mountain bike and not a road bike, so she was way slowed down.