Doing Da Du

Here I am zooming into transition after dealing with the bike course.

Nicely organized, flat out-and-back run courses, and a bike course that keeps you interested...that was the Du For The Parks duathlon (Arkansas State Duathlon Championship). About 121 individual finishers and 18 teams on a hot and sunny Memorial Day morning, starting from the old train station in downtown Hot Springs.

As much as I wanted to be the first Louisianian to do this race in about 4 years, I found myself joined by Richard Cottrell from West Monroe along with Curtis Scrugham and his son, Kyle, from Barksdale AFB. Kyle did the kids' duathlon. Other folks were from Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, and the expected large contingent from Arkansas.

The bike course didn't give us much of a chance to relax. Lots of curving roads, including an S-turn that you can hit 30+ mph on. It's also out-and-back but the thing is that the elevation drops as you leave town resulting in some fast speeds. The return is just the opposite...you have to gain elevation as you get back into town. Somewhere in the last three miles was a long section of road that was the most perfect false flat I've ever seen. I thought I was going downhill but was curious as to why I was struggling to go 20 mph! I thought my brakes were rubbing against my rear wheel but, nope, that wasn't it. I passed quite a few racers on the uphills which helped my position tremendously.

Mixed up in the middle of it all.....

My first run was fine even though my legs weren't feeling lively before the start (too much walking around downtown the day before?), averaging a 6:58 pace (6:40 first mile) and you could tell it was hot plus you were running into a stiff breeze during the return. My second run was lousy time-wise, totally opposite of the race in Opelousas last March, but I felt I was running faster...I passed two runners and nearly caught a third...and the wind was worse on the last mile, too. And one of the runners going the opposite direction as I was finishing yelled out "Go, Shreveport!" as he went by...don't know who he was.

I finished third in my 50-54 age group but got the first place "hat" because the two guys ahead of me and another in the 55-59 age group were placed 1-2-3 in the Grand Masters finish order. So I won my age group by default but I can say I was the 4th fastest Grand Master. I was 23rd overall, 20th male and finished with a time of 1:05:37 over the 2m run-12m bike-2m run distance. My bike average was 20.9 mph but it was the 12th fastest of the day...the bike return killed my average speed but I know I can improve on that now that I know the course. Fastest average was 23.8 mph if that gives you any idea. You can find all the results HERE.

My good pal, Paul...that's him at left posing as the Angry Photographer, came down from Little Rock to see the race and take his usual quality pictures. We had lunch with his parents and niece afterwards before we had to return home. There was no rest once we got back to Shreveport. Had to change and go to a small party for a couple we know who are going to spend the next two years in Saudi Arabia in connection with the Air Force's liason office. It was real nice and lots of food as well. Can't beat that!