Overal Team Champs
This past weekend Rudy and I won the Overall Team award at the Charleston Challenge Duathlon. Check out those trophies.
We raced as a team. It was a lot of fun and VERY challenging. In case you didn't know, southern IL is hilly, a lot hillier than we have here in the northern part of the state.
Anyhow, as a team, Rudy ran and I biked. It was a 2 mi run, 19 mile bike (20 according to a few other racers) and a 2 mi run!
We got into Charleston late Friday night. It was quite foggy then as well as when we woke up. Fortunately the race didn't start until 9AM so slowly the fog burned off. By the end of my bike, it was actually sunny.
The morning started well. Our hotel was close. We loaded the bike and headed over. Watched the kids race, which was very cute, did a slight running warm-up and got ready for the race. There were 2 other co-ed relay teams, 1 corp team, and 1 same-sex team. We had no ideas that awards were given until we went into the school prior to the race and saw all the trophies. We saw a 1st place team trophy and had something to aim for during our race.
The race started and off went Rudy. He ran a great 1st leg. His first 2 miles were a 6:40-ish pace which was great! The run route of the race is a fairly consistent incline. You go down a bit then just keep running up..up...up!
Team transition was at the very front which was nice. I was actually allowed to have my helmet on and bike ready when Rudy came in to tag me from his run. He had to remove the chip from his ankle, put it on mine and off I went. Let me just pause to say it was AWESOME waiting in transition. I got to watch several really great racers come through transition. They were so fast.
Once through, off I went having been warned that the hills are "lung scorching" I was pretty freaked. Oh yah, did I mention it's on country roads. I train on flat, city roads.
They were brutal but I endured. Here is a picture of me at the bottom of one of the toughest climbs. Once at the top of this, it's an immediate left turn. Scary.
I did not train well for hills. As I came upon this hill, I strained my eyes to see if anyone was walking their bikes up. Nope, no one was walking their bikes up so I guess I couldn't either.
Training on a flat road on your hardest gear or on a stationary bike with a ton of tension doesn't adequately prepare you for an actual climb...at least that is my personal opinion having just gone through this.
Anyhow, I climbed through the 19 miles-- some steep hills, a few long, gradual inclines, and a lot of turns.
The craziest part of the bike route was between mile 16 and 17 (I think).
I see this sign:
I thought, "Okay a few more turns. This course is ANYTHING but straight. No big deal." I was so wrong.
Here is a little video we took this morning. It's a downhill onto a small one-lane bridge to a straight incline. (hit mute on your computer, I didn't edit out the wind noise).
I came into transition in 1hr:18min. Off went Rudy. He had a strong second 2-miles. He was just over a 6:40 pace.
Once he came through the finish line we realized we had 1st place for the co-ed teams. What we didn't realize that the award we actually received was the Overall Team trophy. We were pretty excited about that. A little embarrassed. We hadn't expected to win anything, we hadn't trained that hard for it, but felt blessed to have been able to finish the race strong!
Now we know what to expect. The only question is, do we do it again next year or retire from that race as Champions. For now, we are enjoying the trophies!
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