Tulsa Chris Brown Duathlon Race Report

Today was the Tulsa Chris Brown Duathlon, a 5K run, 30K bike, and another 5K run, all based over at the Westside parks and trails. I had pretty good expectations going into this race other than I haven't done a lot of speed work lately. I am just two weeks off of doing the Leadville Marathon and have been in a recovery phase. I felt as though my speed would still be good and that I could easily do a sub 20 5K on the first leg and maybe a sub 21 5K on the second leg. I was not for sure about the bike as that is something I feel like I am still working on. Weather was typical for late July in Oklahoma, hot and miserable. When I woke up this morning at 5:21 am it as already 76 degrees. About the same as last year.
Here we are lining up on West Jackson before we head out on the trails. I was standing next to and talking to Trani Matthews who was doing the run portion as a relay. He is a real good runner and I knew if I could keep up with him, I would have a good starting pace. I am in the dark blue suit up front towards the left.
And we are off! Kyle Brady sprinted out to the lead, but was followed closely by Tom Brennan. Tom is 2X winner of the Arkansas Traveller 100 mile trail race and he is a great friend. I felt good going out and was on pace for a sub 20 first leg. I felt good through the first 2K, but reality started to set in and I knew it was going to be rougher than expected. I knew Rob James was in my age group and I kept him in my sights. At this point I was still in the top 15.
Here I am finishing up the first 5K and headed towards transition. I ended up with a 20:23 5K, not bad, but I wanted to be a little faster than that. Some of my competition was close on my tail and they ended up in transition not too far behind me.
Here we are heading out of the first transition with me on the far left. The two guys in front of me were behind me on the run, but passed me out of transition. I felt pretty good on the bike and ended up passing several people and just bided my time around a few others. One by one I started passing some pretty good athletes, Tom Brennan, Kara Cassel, Steve Lee, and some others. I stayed well hydrated and did not feel as though I was pushing myself too hard. I passed some people on the bike and they were breathing pretty hard, but I felt in control. I am still not for sure how hard to push myself on the bike in order to save some for the run. I ended up averaging 22.4 on the bike, my best average time and by far the best in how I felt. I still need an aero helmet.
It was time for the second run. I knew I was ahead of Tom Brennan, but I did not know how far. He is faster than me on the run and I knew I had to go hard. I went out in the first 5K in about 4:12, but I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain it. We had a turnaround at halfway so you could see your competition and I saw Tom coming. He ended up passing me in between 3 and 4K. I still passed some more people and managed a 21:53 5K. Not bad, but not where I wanted. This put me in 11th place overall with a time of 1:33:53. I thought I had a great chance at 1:30, but with the heat and my speed legs not being there, it didn't happen. This is me with Tom after we did some cool down running.
I ended up with an award for 2nd place in my age group and an overall great day. I have struggled with the bike in the past, but today I really enjoyed the bike and the run was a struggle. Kyle Brady took the men's overall with a time of 1:24:35 and Kara Cassell took the ladies overall with 1:35:53. I still have some work to do, but I had fun and I love going out and competing hard early in the morning, enjoying the fellowship afterwards, and then spending the rest of the day with the family relaxing watching movies. It was a good day! Results can be found here.