Flying Pigs Duathlon-Washington, IA- Saturday, August 1st

The morning was beautiful when we got in the car at 6a.m. to drive to Washington Iowa from Iowa City. Jason and I both said almost in unison that we hoped the weather would be this perfect for the race in 2 hours.

It did warm up a little, not too bad, but enough that running was uncomfortable.  It could have been worse I guess.  Jason and I love this small town race.  It started back in 2010.  We raced with Brenden as a 3 person team.  Brenden did the 5K, Jason did the 20 mile bike ride, then I did the 1.5 mile run at the end.  The first year we placed 2nd out of all the teams.  Then we skipped a year and did the race again in 2012.  That year Brenden came along and we raced as a 3 person team again, this time placing 1st overall out of the 3 person teams.   This year Brenden wasn't able to be with us so Jason and I both decided to do this race by ourselves for the entire thing.

The first 5k went well for me.  I became hot around mile 2 but pushed through for a 28 minute finish.  Then the 20 mile bike portion began.  The wind was in my face and it seemed uphill almost the entire way out for the 10 miles.  I couldn't seem to do much faster than a 3:45-4:00 minute mile on the way out to the turn around.  Then it was like my legs warmed up and the wind was at my back, oh yes it was.  2:30 miles, 2:45 minute miles, 3 minute miles almost the entire way back.  That was nice.  AND it was downhill for most of it.  So great because I was getting tired.  I passed about 6 people on the bike which was good because I'm not a fast runner.  The 1.5 mile run seemed hard, but I managed 9 minute miles and finished the race in a respectable 1:57:01

There are bagels, bananas and cold water after the race.  I would do this one again.  Great small town race.

Jason and I before the race started.  

Had to get a race selfie.  We were ready to race!

Posing with the bike.

Jason with his bike.

Dubuque Duathlon 2013

One of my goals this year was to try and do harder races. I picked this one because I've never done an entire duathlon by myself. I had participated with a team in one and that was fun.   What is a Duathlon?  It means you Run some, Bike a bunch, then Run some more.  All duathlons are not created equal.
I wouldn't have known what a duathlon was 4 years ago.  In fact if you would have said to me that I would even bike further than around the block 4 years ago, I would have laughed and said NO WAY.

I've only really been biking about 1 year and 6 months.  I tried it a couple years back, but didn't have my own bike.  Last Spring I got my own bike and that made all the difference.  So if you are going to start biking, I recommend you go to a REAL bike shop that will fit you properly for a bike and get your bike there.  IF the bike shop ignores you or acts like you shouldn't be biking by taking a look at you, then turn around and walk out.  A real bike shop that wants you biking doesn't care what size you are and wants you to love biking.

To prepare for this race I would suggest you do hill repeats and lots of them.  Just like in running, if you don't ride hills, then you will not be able to complete this particular race.  I would also suggest riding about 50-60 miles a week or more and make sure you don't forget to do hills on one of your workout bike days.

Before signing up, I mentioned on Facebook that I wanted to do this race and asked if anyone had done this.  One lady said she had and it was hilly, but fun.  Ok, great, so I signed up.

For this race you had to run 1.2 miles, then get your bike and bike 15 hilly miles, then put your bike away and run 3 more miles.  My GPS watch at the end shows 19.14 miles, so the race was off by .06 miles, or my watch is slightly off, either way the race was hard.

The run portions were almost completely flat and for Dubuque, Iowa this is awesome and really unheard of.  The bike portion made up for that.  You started out by climbing small hills at first.  Then the big hill hit.  It was a mile climb of almost 400 feet.  Very steep.  I've never biked anything close to that.  Seriously hard.  Then it flattens out a bit and then you climb again for another 100 feet and then some more, then the sweet ride downhill for over a mile at a 6% grade and it's awesome. I achieved a new speed record of 40 mph on the downhill.  I almost screamed going down because it was so fast for me and I was a little scared.  Super cool.

The bad part is you have to do that loop twice, so back to the mountain.  Well by the time you get to the 2nd loop, you are a bit worn out.  You are on mile 8 by this point and ready to die.  Especially if you are like me and only biked small hills in Iowa City.  Now we have our share of mean ones, like on Rohret Road and on Benton Road, but seriously until you have ridden a bike in Dubuque over by Sundown Ski resort, then you don't know hills.

Here I am on the 2nd climb up this (I called mountain) large hill and I actually started praying outloud.  I asked and then pleaded  for help. I knew I couldn't do this by myself.  I was struggling.  My bike computer said I was only climbing at 5-6 mph and that my friend is slow, very slow.  I could have dismounted the bike and ran up faster, I think.

After the bike was over you put your bike away and run again, this time on some actual running trails and then some blacktop road.  Not bad and a great run.  There were at least 3 water stops on the final run.  The race was extremely well organized.

The weather ended up being perfect, like 65 degrees and NO humidity, so for July that is awesome and I'm not sure how I lucked out.  I would recommend this race to others.  I have a bunch of pictures:

Before the race.

My friend Deb and  I before the race began.  I was so glad to have
her there with me.  She was a great support and it was awesome to
have an entire morning to talk to her.  Also because she was there
and had my camera, she got some awesome pictures of the race in action.

First part of the race is running 1.2 miles.  Here I am finishing that and coming in to
get my bike.  I was happy to be done with part 1.

This is me after getting my bike, you had to walk/run it to the mount place.
Then off you went.

Me returning from the bike portion.  It was 15 very hilly miles.  I was so happy
to be done with part 2.

putting my bike away.

Me starting the final run portion of 3 miles.  I had
just put my bike up and felt sick for a second.  I was
moving quickly.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to run
very fast.  But ended up running less than 10 minute
miles, so that is really good for me.

My favorite picture ever.  Finishing is the best part.  I was so incredibly happy.
I felt that this race was just as hard as some of my half marathons have been.
During parts of the bike, I wasn't sure if I would finish or not, so to be completely
done and to this point was very emotional.  Super cool.  So glad Deb captured this moment.

I had the surprise of finishing 2nd in my age group.  I took a picture because I couldn't believe it happened.
Such a shocker and because that happened, I received a medal for my efforts.  Wow, it totally made my year.
Here I was just happy to finish this hard race, so the medal was awesome.

After the race was over, before changing into clean dry clothes
for the drive home, sporting my medal.

This is a picture of my Garmin GPS watch.  It shows the total
distance traveled which was 19.14 miles, my time of 1 hour
44 minutes.  I was a second too late in turning it off.  My time
was really 1:43:59 and the bottom number shows my running pace
as I was sprinting in to the finish.  I don't think I've ever run
that fast. I was trying to catch a guy that passed me in the very
last 100 feet.

2012 Flying Pig Duathlon--Washington, IA

Two years ago we found a race down in Washington, IA called the Flying Pigs Duathlon at the end of September.  A Duathlon is a run, bike, run.  We decided to do the race as a team with Brenden running the first leg, a 5K, Jason riding the 20 mile second leg, and Michelle running the final 1.5 miles.  It was 50 degrees and raining.  As miserable as it was, we had a great race and finished 2nd.  Last year, they moved the race up to the first weekend in August which conflicted with the Crossroads Triathlon.  So we didn't participate in the Flying Pigs race in 2011.  This year, Jason had planned once again to do the Crossroads Triathlon but a bike wreck during the Lake Geode Challenge prevented him from swimming because he has injured his shoulder so we thought that doing this race again would be fun.  I don't have pictures of Brenden during his 5K race because I was running next to him to encourage him to finish.  It was super hot and he was struggling at the end.  But he finished strong.  Jason did his 20 mile bike ride in about 57 minutes and then I took off for the 1.5 mile run.  I sprinted and ran as hard as I ever had in my life, it was hard, but it was cool to see my Garmin watch (GPS watch) telling me that I was running a 7.40 minute mile.  Now if only I could have kept that pace up for the entire 1.5 miles.  Either way I did the distance in a little over 12 minutes and that was good.  I felt we finished strong and was hoping to place in the top three of the team category.

Our team name was "Swine Flew" and it turns out we really flew because we achieved 1st place!  We Rock!  The medals were awesome and it was fun to be first.  Here are some pictures to enjoy.  If you want to see any of the pictures bigger you just click on them.

Jason getting ready to ride his 20 miles.



Jason riding in for a great bike finish.



Me taking off for the 1.5 mile run.  Scott was cheering me on.



Almost done.  It was cool to have Jason, Brenden and Scott
yelling for me to finish strong!



At the finish!



Brenden and Scott being silly after the race.



It was just announced that we won 1st place.  Here we are inspecting
our medals.  What an awesome feeling.



Scott our photographer captured this picture of us with our medals on.



After we were home and showered we put on our race shirts
for one last picture!