Yesterday I had the option of driving 5 hours and doing a 2:45 hour road race (Ottawa Bicycle Club Grand Prix) or driving 30 minutes and doing a 1 hour sprint Duathlon (5km run/22km bike/2.5km run) in St-Lambert. After years of chasing races everyone weekend, and a few full weekends of racing in the last month, I decided to take the lazy option and went for the Duathlon.

Fortunately this was a sprint duathlon with less than 8 kilometers of running, because I had not been running for more than one month since Mont-Tremblant duathlon. So last week I did two small runs for a total of 1 hour to remind my body what it feels like to run.

Since I had finished first in my last two duathlons (St-Sauveur in September 2007, and in Mont-Tremblant this June), my game plan was to be agressive and try and take the lead from start. We'll that didn't work out, the pace of the leaders on the first 5km run was way beyond my lactate threshold. I finished the first run leg fourth, 1 minute behind the leader. So my plan changed. I had to use my bike strength to pass three racers, and build enough lead to hold them off on the final 2.5km run.

My first transition, run->bike, didn't help. I had 20 seconds up on Fr?d?ric Chenard following me coming into the transition, but he passed me in the first few hundred meters when I was still tightening the straps on my shoes. So that gave me a little motivation, and I gave it a strong effort on the bike. After 2 laps of the total 5 lap course, I was finally leading the race. But I new, this was not going to be a free lunch, especially in the last run leg.

My second transition, bike-run, was terrible. Usually this is very simple, like put your bike back on the rack, take off your helmet, put your running shoes on and run! But the elastic shoe lace on my left running shoe was too tight, and I had to try three times to get my foot in. When you are out of breath and your heart rate is still in zone 4, trivial things like snapping your helmet strap on, or loosening up a shoe lace resemble a baby putting a spoon in its mouth for the first time.

So when I started the final run, I noticed Fr?d?ric was about 30 seconds behind me. So I have no buffer, and experience a stitch within the first few hundred meters. Not good! I controlled my pace while keeping it as high as possible and looked back every 30 seconds or so. Finally the finish line appeared and I took first place.

It was a tough race, and that is what racing is about. If it's a free lunch it is not a race. All this effort was worth the real free lunch to replenish that muscle glycogen...

Here is a picture of the podium with Fr?d?ric Chenard and Jason Lacombe in 2nd and 3rd place. Jose Fernandez, a friend that has trained with me at the Parc Avenue Montreal YMCA triathlon club, had a great 4th place finish.