Chilly Willy Duathlon

I was in Florida over the Feb 13-14 weekend for work. My father-in-law (who lives in St Pete) let me know there was a duathlon going on Sunday morning at Fort Desoto Park. Fort Desoto in St Petersburg is a popular place for triathlons, kayaking, adventure races and running races because it is an awesome place for these things. Here is a satellite picture:



The island from end to end is about 5 miles, so a round trip from the NW end to SE end and back is about 10 miles. I studied math real hard in skool!

The duathlon is appropriately called the Chilly Willy Duathlon, for reasons which I will leave up to your imagination. On Sunday it was about 40 degrees and windy. For us in North Carolina, this is cold but not intolerable. For most of the Floridians it was an arctic blast. Prior to the start I overheard one lady running around asking if anyone had a ski mask with them. I did since I had just robbed three banks, and lent it to her. She thanked me profusely before the police wrestled her to the ground.

Believe it or not, there were nearly 400 people out for the race. At the gun about 100 of them took off ahead of me. It seems there is a universal urge to win the first mile among the runner and triathlon population. I chugged along and was happy to see a 6:20 first mile. The second half of the run was all on hard packed sand, which I enjoy running on but which is not very fast. My first 5k was 20:35 and I ran into transition in about 30th place.

For the bike ride I borrowed my father-in-law's 15 year old Trek. He is a bit taller than me, so I lowered the seat and was good to go. My aero position would be more along the lines of what I would call "as aerodynamic as a sail". Despite that I mashed the heck out of the 10 mile course and passed several more people, finishing with a 23.6 mph, very good for this time of year and on a borrowed bike.

Heading into the final run, I was surprised to feel decent and stayed strong through the run, finishing in 20:50 or so. I passed a couple more athletes and was passed by one fast guy, finishing in 13th overall and 2nd in my nearly old guy 35-39 category. Here is a picture of me looking serious:



After the race I packed up, headed back to my crash pad, cleaned up, drove to the airport, bought lunch, ate lunch on the plane (much to the dismay of my seatmates), and then got home in time to give my wife Bri her Valentine's Day gift, which was me returning home in time for Valentine's Day.