Carolynn thought I was crazy when I told her I was going to race both the Buffalo Trail run and the Grote Prijs Cyclocross race on the same day. But hey, it is basically base building time and I need the extra miles. Plus, it is hard to find an off-road duathlon that I get to race without promoting it :-)
First up was the 5th Annual Buffalo Trail Run. If I am in town I always participate in this Rusty Collins produced event held at the Parkville Nature Sanctuary. Always a good time and this year was no different. Conditions for this years event matched the 08' version when we had snow and bitter cold temps. Only this year there was a heck of a lot more snow.
I lined up towards the front of the field in hopes of staying out of trouble and getting to the packed down trail in the front. The course was about half packed trail and the other half was deep snow. Very hard going for this guy. I handed the packed section much better than the deep snow. At times it was a foot or so deep and some sections were nearly knee deep when there was a snow drift.
First two miles I kept the leaders in site, but after that I just ran my own race and tried not to run too hard and save something for this afternoons cycling leg. I was glad to see the finish because my legs were toast. Running in that deep snow really took its toll on my quads due to high steeping through the stuff. I ended up doing well still and earned a cool award and frozen chops.
After a quick cool down I headed home to eat lunch, pick up Carolynn and head to Shawnee for the second leg of today's Duathlon. Another snow packed course awaited me which was fine with me. I usually do better in muddy conditions, but I am
not that bad on ice. Before the race I was "feeling it" in my legs and very lethargic. I needed some coffee or something. After a little warm-up things started to come together, but it was going to be a hard race especially the road section. No power in the ole legs for anything needing power today.
Cat 3's were off at 2:30pm on time which I was very thankful for . Nothing worse than standing still in below freezing conditions.
I got off the line well, but had nothing much for anyone going up the climb. Today was going to be about riding my own race and staying within myself. For the first lap I regretted running today's Buffalo Run, but then I remembered one of my goals for 2010. Just have fun racing and do not worry about results. They will come in their own time with enough hard work.
Fun course today in the snow. I enjoyed it even with a few mishaps. Crashed twice and dropped a chain when I went i
nto a snow drift. I kept driving on and had some good battles throughout the race. My main problem was that darn long uphill road section. I had no power in the legs today and got passed there every lap only to have to re pass everyone back. I kept driving on despite the fatigue from both events and ended up settling in 3rd place. Not bad especially with my teammate Mark Cole taking the win and Matt G. in 2nd. I will take it and get ready for the final cross race of the season on Saturday. This time no 8K trail runs before my cross race. I want to see what I can do with fresh legs. With the melting forecast, it looks like my type of course is coming so watch out :-)
Here are some pictures from today's duathlon. By Carolynn Locke and Dick Ross
Buffalo / Grote Prijs Duathlon Album
Today's Lone Star Gravel Grinder, hosted by Bill Anderson, traveled from the University of Kansas campus along rolling twisting gravel road to the sleepy little town of Lone Star. After a short loop around Lone Star Lake we headed back to town on a slightly altered route due to us trusting a darn GPS devise instead of our map reading skills. Next time we trust the map not some darn mechanical device...
