Running with Eric

With temperatures barely above freezing and the Genesee River moving quicker than usual, the kayaking was canceled and I ended up in my first ever Duathlon. I finished the run/bike/run in 2:30:57.

I ran the opening 5k in 23:33 which is a little slower than I have done in the past, but a fairly decent time given that I didn’t feel like I was pushing myself.

On the second stage it felt like I hadn’t ridden a bike in half a year, mostly because I hadn’t. This proved problematic on the third hill when I touched the front derailleur for the first time and my chain fell off. And after fixing it, it fell off a second time five seconds later. After finally getting things sorted I finally gave up any pretense about worrying about my finish time, and was able to simply enjoy the rest of the bike ride. I finished the bike portion in 1:34:51, which while slower than my 2016 time it was also inexplicably three minutes quicker than last year.

For some reason run/bike is easier than bike/run and this showed on my final run which took thirty minutes. While my pace was steady, it felt slow. However given the running is inherently quicker than kayaking this is still the fastest I have ever finished, even if it was in a different event.

On Saturday I competed in the Flower City Paddle Triathlon for the fourth straight year. I finished in 2:55:40, which unfortunately is slower than my time from last year.

The running part of the race went well. I ran the five kilometers in 22:05, which is only four seconds off my pace from the 2016 version of the race.

The bike is where this race fell apart for me. Going into the triathlon, I was aware that I hadn’t put in enough practice on the bike but hoped that I wouldn’t lose too much time. Instead it took me 1:37:36 to complete, which was 13 minutes slower than last year.

At 54 minutes, the kayak portion of the race also took longer than last year. However, given that I am always out of practice with the kayak, this probably had more to do with the change in river conditions. Not only was the average flow rate was higher than the past two years, and a wind storm from March has left the river filled with an usually high number of downed trees, that provided additional obstacles and unpredictable currents.

On Saturday I completed the Flower City Paddle Triathlon for the third year in a row. This was my quickest finish in 2:37:17 which was good enough to finish 53rd.

The 5k run started off very fast in 22:01, over a minute quicker than I was last year, and within a minute of my quickest standalone 5k in the past decade.

I felt good on the bike, but was a bit disappointed by my time. While my time of 1:24:26 was two and a half minutes quicker than last year, I had really been hoping to break 1:20 so I still have some additional practice required before my next triathlon.

I was incredibly under prepared for the kayak (not using it since last August), but my time was still a few minutes quicker than last year so I really can not complain.

Saturday’s race was the paddle triathlon portion of the Flower City Challenge. I finished with an overall time of 2:47:20, which put me in 59th place. As a member of the first wave with events ordered from my strongest to my weakest, most of the morning was spent with other people passing me by. Ten feet into the run, I was solidly in second place, and while I held off the rest of the field for the first half mile, once I started getting passed it literally did not stop until I reached the finish line. Against my pre-race expectations I did great on the run, and poorly on the bike.

The run went very well. I finished the 5K in 23:03, which was almost a minute and a half faster than I did last year, and represents the fact that running is the one part of the triathlon that I am actually good at.

The biking portion was a disappointment. I finished in 1:26:51 which is actually slower than last year. The gears on my bike, mostly don’t work and I desperately need a new one, but that still really doesn’t excuse the fact that I was unable to match last year’s time.

The Kayaking portion of the race was longer than it was last year, which makes a simple comparison a bit more complicated. While the extra distance made my time of 55:33 slower than before, I placed better compared to the rest of the field. The paddling was still the weakest part of my race, but I feel that it has improved since last year.

The secret portion a triathlon is the transitions, which went well for me. I spent a total of 1:51 in transition this race which as 24 seconds less than it took me last year. Overall, I am pretty happy with how I did with the first half of the Flower City Challenge.