That Elusive Shamrock

This past weekend, Liz and I traveled back to our old stomping ground for the first big race of the 2005 season, the Shamrock Duathlon in Glastonbury, CT. The Shamrock is a typical road duathlon, which starts with a 5k run, proceeds with a 40k bike and ends with another 5k run. The run courses here are pretty flat, and therefore pretty fast, but the bike course is quite hilly, something which generally plays to my advantage. Last year, I took 4th in this race... one off the podium, and this year, I could think of no better way to start the season than one-upping my performance last year.

Arriving in CT a day early, I had the opportunity to pre-ride the course Saturday afternoon with my good friend Sebastian. During the pre-ride, the weather was very warm with plenty of sunshine, though there was a significant headwind which made the flatter sections of the course rather frustrating. Adding to this was the famous Connecticut pollen which was flying around like snow. Regardless, I finished up the ride feeling super fresh and then wrapped up my workout with a 2.5k run, just to keep things loose. Things were good.

That is until I woke up to 45 degree weather and pouring rain. Not the most ideal conditions when you weigh 145lbs. soaking wet (literally). Nobody at the race was really thrilled with this scenario, but hey, you never know what it's going to do on race day. So my strategy was basically to run at sub-threshold pace right up until the last possible minute and start the race as warm as possible. This actually worked pretty well, as almost immediatly after the gun went off I was able to ramp up to running at my race pace, picking people off one by one as I made my way through to the front. In fact, I was pretty warm throughout the entire first run, and began thinking things weren't going to be as bad as we all originally thought. But as soon as I left T1 and started along the bike course, the conditions really started to take thier toll. Between the winds, the temperature and the rain, it was a pretty epic ride for eveyone. After about 20k, my hands and feet were blocks of ice, my glasses were fogged and wet and my legs were stinging from the freezing cold water splatter... but still, I was able keep pace, putting the damage on at each of the climbs, gradually making my way into the top 20 overall by T2.

As I racked the bike in T2, I heard Liz cheering and telling me I was currently 17th. But running out of the transition with numb feet took some time out of my pace for sure. The entire first 2.5k I struggled to get my temperature back up until finally I was running somewhat normally. Though at one point on the course I heard Liz shouting "looking great Joe!!! Now open it up!!!" - It was here I recall thinking: "Ummm... it is open". Digging deep, I rounded out the rest of the run course at a great pace. However, during the last 100m, a runner whom I'd felt drafting off me the entire second half of the 5k suddenly started to get fiesty. Mr. Tough Guy who wouldn't take a pull or move off my shoudlers for 4.8k suddenly found some legs to start a sprint in the last 200m. So as the two of us ramped things up coming into the finishing stretch, he gave things one final push and wound up taking head-first digger right across the timing matt. As it turns out, we were given the same finishing time of 1:36:05 which earned me (us, I suppose) a tie for 3rd place (age-group) - I took 18th overall from 150+ finishers. Ironically, he was granted 17th place overall, perhaps for doing cartwheels through the finish in front of the USAT officials.

In the end, it was a phenomenal first race of the season. Given the race conditions and the stiff competition that I've come to expect from CT venues, I'm quite pleased with things. Special thanks to Sebastian for the pre-ride, espresso & malt balls and to Darin for the requisite pre-race Bertucci's dinner and for putting us up.

Thanks for reading.