Russian Wild Boar Duathlon

If my first multisport race of the season is any indication of the remainder of the season, then I am expecting huge performance gains this year. I competed in the Russian Wild Boar Off-Road Duathlon today. As a part of the Brookside Greenway festival, it was held on the rain soaked Brookside Greenway and trail system. Despite the muddy conditions I racked up a first place overall finish. Going into the race, I didn’t really know what to expect. It was my first-ever duathlon, and a first time-event. As a first-time race, I must commend race director Mike Bryan for doing a fantastic job of making sure everything was organized, and well marked. Initially, the bike portion of the race included a river crossing. However, the rain last night caused the river level to rise to waist deep level. Fortunately the race organizers re-routed the bike portion to omit the river crossing. The final route included a 1.8 mile trail run, 10 mile mtb bike, and 1.8 mile trail run. In order to maximize participation, race officials aimed to limit the technical difficulty of the course. However, thanks to mother-nature, the extreme amount of mud made up for the lack of technical difficulty. Since it was my first duathlon, I started off conservatively. Knowing that I was able to run with the leaders without any signs of fatigue, I found a huge boost of confidence going into transition. Leaving transition on my bike, I was in the familiar last 2/3 of a triathlon territory. Still feeling strong, I laid the power down on the bike and managed to gap the field by over 4 minutes. At the start of the final run, my legs complained a little. However, thanks to the great conditioning work over the winter, I was able to mentally shut out that initial fatigue and increase my lead for a victorious finish. I’m really looking forward to the Xterra season!