Fun duathlon!

Left to right: Ellie holding Elisabeth, Dianne, me holding Catherine, *jeanne*.

We had a great time doing the Blackwater Traverse Duathlon in Cambridge, Maryland yesterday! A group of girlfriends got together for it and we ALL got hardware! Woo hoooo!!

The race direction was excellent, as I had expected from the well-organized group that also puts on the Columbia Triathlon and the Eagleman Half Ironman.

The weather at the 8AM start was overcast, 74*F, humidity 84%, wind east 6mph. While that doesn't sound too warm, in that kind of humidity we were wringing wet at the starting line even without a swim leg! Fortunately the terrain was as flat as can be so the course was relatively easy, though a bit monotonous (well, except for that nice plump possum and raccoon roadkill). And maybe I'm mistaken, but it sure seemed like the wind picked up a lot more than 6 mph when I was heading into it on the home stretch of the bike leg!

Here are my official splits:
Run 5K: 34:13 (11:02 min/mile pace)
T1: 2:13
Bike 30K: 1:11:03 (16.2 miles/hr pace)
T2: 1:45
Run 5K: 38:10 (12:19 min/mile pace)
Total time: 2:27:27.10

I brought home an attractive plaque for first place over-40 Athena. I was also the ONLY over-40 Athena, but hey, you can only compete against those who show up, right? There were only 2 entries in the under-40 Athenas, and they both beat my time. Um, by a lot.

My girlfriend Ellie got a plaque for second place woman age 50-54 (I'm trying to talk her into starting a blog, so maybe we'll see more of her around here soon), and my friends *jeanne* and Dianne got plaques for the first place women's relay. Way to go, ladies!

Also, Holly was able to come over too and it was great to see her looking amazingly fit and healthy! She was an essential part of our team since she kindly watched my girls during the race. They only had one or two little tantrums, she tells me, so I think it was a pretty good day for everyone!!!