Prairie Punisher Duathlon - Gardner, KS

prairie punisher duathlon
gardner, ks
7.28.2007
3.1mi run/17.1mi bike/3.1mi run


pre-race
Is it already 4:15a.m.?! I’m up – making the coffee and gathering all my stuff. I jumped in the shower (on days like today – with the heat and humidity – it’s gonna be gross, so you might as well start out feeling really clean, right?), threw on my DFT tri tank/shorts and loaded the rest of my gear in the car. Terry came by at 5am, and I followed him out to the course.


It wasn’t too crowded or busy when we arrived at 6am, so we got in line for our packets/timing chips. Once we had those, it was back to the cars to get all our stuff and find a spot for our bikes in the transition area. This was also pretty painless, as they had us rack our bikes by age. As we were doing this, we spotted Troy. We ended up at the same place on the bike rack, with Terry one rack over.




Troy went to check in and Terry took his bike for a spin - I was left to set up my transition area. I’d been looking around for some teammates. I hadn’t met either of these gals. Leslie is new to the team, and Kelly lives in South Dakota. Kelly and I had communicating by email, but were looking forward to meeting at the race. Next thing I know, Don Hottman (DFT owner Megan Hottman’s dad) was standing next to me. He pointed down the bike rack just a touch where both Kelly and Leslie were setting up. At this point Don also told me that Kelly had just received a phone call that her father passed away this morning – he’s been battling cancer for a while and had not been doing well. My heart went out to her! Here she is at her first multisport event and all the emotion that goes along with that, and she receives this very sad news. Kelly, you’re a trooper! (more to come on her as we race).
I was introduced to Kelly and her husband, Lance, and also met Leslie.




(pictured here - Kelly & Dawn pre-race; Lance and Don - our cheerleaders!)
We snapped some pics, I wished them well in the race, and headed back to my transition area. And, just a few minutes after that, we all headed to the starting line.


run 1 – 30:05 (9:41 pace)
The run was a mass start, and all the people I knew out there started up ahead of me. There was my teammate, Kelly, and then a fellow spinning instructor and one of her students. Troy started next to me, but I immediately let him go. I just eased into a very comfortable pace. I felt good, and wasn’t letting the crowd sweep me away. It was really hot and very thick. As I made the left turn up towards the turnaround point, I saw Terry running towards me – wow!
only a handful of guys had come back by…he was off to a great start! I ran the entire way, and arrived back in transition feeling good and happy to be getting on my bike.

t1 – 1:35
I came into the first transition feeling pretty good, but it was really hot. I took my time, changed my shoes, donned the glasses (which immediately fogged up), fastened my helmet, threw my GU in my pocket and I was heading out the transition – oh yes, and I did take my bike! I saw Don and Lance as I exited transition…they were fabulous cheerleaders!

bike – 52:52 (19.4mph)
My only goals on the bike were to catch and pass the three gals who were ahead of me on the run (no offense, gals, just need to have a target, right?), and I really wanted to average 20 mph. Well, I met my first goal, but it seems I fell a tad short on the 2nd. I felt good as I hit that road and got moving. I didn’t notice much wind at first, it seemed fairly quiet. So, I just settled in and began to hammer through the course. Note to self for next year – the second half of the course IS hillier than the first, and the wind is always a factor on that end. Anyway, I was feeling fine, drinking my Gatorade and absolutely dripping with sweat – I mean, it was just pouring off me – very, very hot and humid day (have I mentioned that already?). About 30 minutes into the bike, my calves started talking to me a little bit. Uh-oh, I thought, this isn’t gonna be good. I don’t really battle muscle cramping very often, and not really very often at all on the bike. So, I start thinking, should I ease up? Probably so, if I want to stay upright on the final run. I eased up slightly, and tried to keep the cramping at bay. It worked a little, but when I would climb a hill, and was really lifting up with my knees, I could feel them. Hmmmm.
The wind also picked up quite a bit on that last ½ of the course, which made things a bit more difficult. I had already passed the three gals, and was now just focusing on my computer – trying to keep my speed above 20mph. I got stuck behind a minivan due to poor traffic control, and when I went around as directed, I almost got hit by a car coming from the other side – need I mention poor traffic control again? Anyway, I hauled myself into the finish section of the school parking lot, and found myself stuck behind three cyclists, spread across the route and slowing down more than I wanted to. I’m not saying this cost me the podium, mind you, others complained of this same experience. I pulled to the dismount line, hopped off my bike and the bike course was done.


t2 – 1:20
As I came into the transition area, I saw Troy (picture here actually finishing his race - how he mustered up that big smile, I have no idea!)


– he was done with his 9+ mile run (doing the long course), and was preparing to hit the bike course. We exchanged a few words, talked about how hot it was – all while grabbing gear for the next leg. And with some well-wished, we were off on our respective courses.

run – 35:09 (11:19 pace)
The second run was a rather unpleasant experience. As I started running, I could feel my calves really seizing up. I saw our cheerleaders, Don and Lance, again, and they wished me well. I grabbed a water and Gatorade at the run exit – I dumped most of the water on my head/neck…it was hot, hot, hot out there! I continued to run. At this point, my right calf was knotting up so badly that it was literally lifting my foot off the ground – strange experience, but I couldn’t put my foot all the way down. I was forced to stop and walk it out a bit. Once I felt like that had eased up, I started to run again. Unfortunately I was dumb enough to think that going sock-less was a good idea, and I was suffering dearly for this mistake as well. I could feel the area all around my ankles on both feet just getting rubbed raw. Not good. I wasn’t a mile in, and had to stop and stretch my calf – again! Just after this stretch, I saw Terry run by…he was almost done – impressive time!
I struggled to the turnaround, along with many others. There were lots of folks walking. What happened to that wind on the bike? It was so hot and still out there – it was like the air was just hanging there.
At the turnaround, I grabbed two more cups of water – drank one, dumped the other on my head/neck again. As I started running just past the turnaround, I saw Kelly – she was looking good, about to finish her first multisport event! I cheered her on. She caught up to me and we ended up walking a bit together – then we ran – then we walked – she finally went on ahead, and I just kept running pretty much at a crawl. It certainly wasn’t pretty. I was thrilled to see the turn in for the transition area, but still had a long stretch to go, into the parking lot and down the finishing shoot. I heard Terry cheering for me as I came into the finish. Then, there I was past the line. I was done. I moved to the side and took off my shoes – not a surprise, my feet were bleeding and blistered. Terry was kind enough to grab my sandals from my transition area, and helped me load up my bike and such. I congratulated Kelly on finishing her 1st multisport event! She ended up with 3rd place in our age group – yeah Kelly!



Terry won 1st place in his age group – a huge improvement from last year – I’m so proud of him, he’s worked hard for that!

overall – 2:01:00
Overall Place: 59th out of
Place in Gender: 10th out of 28 Females
Place in Division F3539: 4th out of 10