I participated in the Dirty 30 Off Road Duathlon today at Bear Creek Park. When I pulled up to the park I was happy to see that there was a pretty good amount of people there. I signed up and started to set my bike up in the transition area. As I was setting my bike up I noticed that there was only one other single speed bike there. I thought nothing of it at the time and continued getting set up.


The First Run:
There was less than 100 participants so we had a mass start. The course took us from the South side of the park by the main parking lot around the soccer fields and up on to the trails in the park and back down to the transition area. The run started out really fast. I tried to hang on to a faster group in front of me but trailed off a little a couple minutes behind.



Transition Area 1:
Transition was pretty uneventful. I changed my shoes, put on my helmet, got my spare tube and tools, downed a Power Gel and took off on the bike.

The Bike:
The bike started off pretty well. I immediately passed a few people and started on the climb towards the West side of the park. It was a slow grind on the single speed but I was still able to pass a few more people so I was feeling pretty good. I started to think that maybe I had the wrong gearing on my bike. My bike is set up with 32 tooth chainring in the front and 16 tooth cog in the back. I started to think that maybe a 32/18 would have been better for so much climbing.

I eventually got up to the top of the Zipline trail. The Zipline trail is fun. Lots of tight single track, some technical sections and finishes with a stream crossing. After the Zipline Trail we climbed back up to the park. This is the part where I got a little confused. We came to a section that would take us back up to the Zipline Trail. I knew we were supposed to do that section twice but I wasn't sure where the loop was so I went up and did the Zipline trail again. After that, I came down to a part where there was a course marshal and I new I had screwed up because this was obviously where the loop was. I went down, finished the bottom part of the loop and came back up. I went back up to the point where I got off track and then came back down. So even though I didn't exactly do the same route as everyone else, I still covered all the same terrain twice. So it was technically the same course just different. (I'm blaming this little mishap on the fact that my legs wee destroyed form pedaling my single speed up all those hills and I was a little disoriented as a result.)

The rest of the bike ride was uneventful and I came into the transition area ready to run.

Transition Area 2:
Not much going on here. Put my bike down, changed my shoes, took off my helmet and almost ran out of transition with my pockets full of tools and a bike tube. Took that stuff out of my pocket and got out of there.

The Second Run:
The second run was slower than the first. I had some time to get my running legs back and was actually able to track and run down a few other competitors. I was a few minutes slower but the time seamed to go by faster.

In the end I finished in 2:17. I was hoping to come in under 2 hours but hey, I'll take 2:17. The one thing I'm convinced of is, I'm not sure if I want to race my single speed anymore. It's really tough to be passed by people you know you could hang with if you were on a geared bike.

So more lessons learned. Next year, I'm getting a geared bike!