Short Course Duathlon World Championships-Gyor, Hungary
-by Tina Weiler
When I signed up for the Virginia Beach Duathlon, it doubled as a chance to try a larger Duathlon and to visit my family, who live nearby. I never dreamed I would win my age group or qualify for Short Course Duathlon Worlds. With support from family and friends I decided to give it a shot. I had five weeks to train, make travel arrangements, and resolve loose ends at work to allow the trip to occur. While the race is considered “short course”, the 10K run, 40K bike, 5K run sounded long to me. I hadn’t “raced” a 10K in five years due to the never-ending collarbone saga and figured if I suffered on 5K, 10K would be three times worse (I factored in the synergistic effect of suffering).
Two friends/talented duathletes and I flew into Budapest, met up w/ other Team USA members and took the hour and a half bus ride to Gyor on Wednesday. Since the race was Sunday, I naively thought that this would give ample time to sight see and shop. Silly me. The week was filled with assembling bikes, readjusting bikes, fitting in training runs/rides ( I did combine sightseeing and training when I got myself horrifically lost in a country where I don’t speak the language). They also closed the roads so we would have opportunity to pre-ride the course and learn that the road conditions were terrible and that the course was flat but uber technical (fifteen 180degree turns total).
I spent the first part of the trip fairly relaxed and excited to be there. Friday night was the Team photo, Parade of Nations, and Opening Ceremonies. The moment I put on my Team USA parade shirt and saw my fellow 109 teammates, I realized that this really was something big. The parade was impressive and the town was receptive. The only team to outnumber us was Great Britain and it was just a sea of red, white and blue.
We checked our bikes into the transition area Saturday night and my poor bike had to spend the night outside (carefully monitored by security). The transition area felt like it went on forever (~ 300 m). We were all careful to find our landmark and I was thrilled that I don’t own a Cervelo P3, as there were often 15 in a row.
I awoke on race morning, did final preparations in the transition area and tried to relax until my 11:00 am race start time. By the time we lined up, it was 33 degrees Celsius, which translates to hot. It was also too humid for my liking. The run started on some narrow side streets, which made moving up through the pack challenging. This wasn’t all bad, as it prevented me from imploding too early. Soon the course straightened out on the main road, I found my pace, and moved up some. There was a left hand turn up an exit ramp, which was the most significant hill on the course. Not bad the first two times but torture on the last lap of the final run. I felt goo on my run and wished I had a fancy GPS system to tell me what my pace was. The course twisted and turned up and down some side streets into a warped sort of loop that constantly allowed you to see not only how many women were ahead of you but how far ahead they were. I refused to be discouraged and just concentrated on how I felt. The first run was two loops of said course and was clearly short of 10K b/c I don’t run a 37 min. 10K (yet). Found my bike in the sea of bikes, ran forever down the transition area and mounted my bike. The bike course started out on a riser over an overpass and proceeded down a small hill, which would have been fun if one were not constantly avoiding bike swallowing pot holes. At the end of the road was the first 180 turnaround, which covered 4 lanes and was easy to navigate. You then had to power out of the turn, back up the riser, over the bridge, and a fast right turn onto the main drag (again littered w/ pot holes). This section would have been fast minus the headwind. Then for a quick left hand turn, which was plagued with not one but two massive, yet invisible bumps in the road. I am convinced that the corner marshal was exposed to a plethora of colorful words in a wide variety of languages. First time through, I hit the bumps so hard, I thought I broke my pelvic bone and the mesh lining of my aero water bottle was catapulted from my bike. This was problematic, as every subsequent bump resulted in a tidal wave of fluids splashing over myself and my bike, leaving me fluidless and thirsty by the end of the bike leg (and detrimentally and wretchedly dehydrated on my final run). This section of the bike course included several “fingers” resulting in tight right hand, gravel invested turns with short distances to really really tight 180 turns. This may have been World Championships, however not all multi-sport athletes are created equal in the bike handling department. I watched women ride off the rode, into corner marshals, and my favorite was the Brit who unclipped, slammed on her brakes, and shrieked that she can’t do this. I calmly advised that I can and requested that she get out of my way. There were some long, straight stretches of road back, past the crowds and transition area w/ another turnaround to start the bike loop over (3 loops total).
For the transition off the bike, I took my feet out of my shoes and cruised in w/ my leg over the seat (all you cross racers would have been proud). I leapt off the bike w/ a grace I rarely possess and went to run seamlessly into the transition area. Unfortunately, the two girls ahead of me were not as graceful and came to complete stops in the center of the transition matt, resulting in a minor collision based on my momentum.
I started out the last 5K run feeling better then imagined. The first mile had me in a groove and feeling rather pleased w/ myself. Then I hit that uphill ramp and for the first time ever hit the proverbial wall. I bonked bad. I went from feeling confident and pleased to empty and depleted. My confident comfortable stride was reduced to a painful shuffle and watching all the women ahead of me began to demoralize me. Good thing I am stubborn by nature and I refused my body’s repeated request to walk. I just tried to hold my position and while I was passed by a couple of women, I passed some as well. I was grateful to not be the woman ahead of me, who pulled over to puke her guts out. I gave her some encouraging words and continued my painful shuffle to the end. Our team manager was screaming at me (in a supportive manner) to pick up the pace, however one second per mile faster and my quads would have locked up and made me fall on my face. I finished the run and took pride in completing despite how spent I was. I limped my way to the mist tent and popped water, coke, and oranges until I felt better. Despite the agony of the second run, i held my position and did not lose places overall.
All in all, the race was challenging but rewarding. I met great friends, saw beautiful places, and have found a new fire and desire to improve. I got to answer lots of questions about bike racing and hopefully inspired a woman or two to give our wonderful support a try. While I couldn’t walk down stairs painfree for several days due to extreme pain in the quads, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. I only wish I had my hot teammates there to share the experience with me.
Upcoming plans, Master’s Nationals Tandem Time Trial Champs (w/ captain, Derek Powers), Short Course Duathlon National Championships, Powerman Ohio (my first attempt at long course du) with a goal of trying to qualify for Long Course Worlds in Richmond this October.
More Diaries>
