Last weekend was the always fun early season opener, the Desert Classic Duathlon in Fountain Hills, Arizona. I came in healthy for the first time ever, thus feeling anxiously excited for the race. First I spent a few fun days in downtown Phoenix checking out the culture. Among the highlights were some great bbq at Honey Bear's; a fun tour of the Phoenix Art Museum {The Wave by Gustave Courbet and Mohl ip by James Turrell were my two favorites, check 'em out!}; and a wonderful pizza at Pizzeria Bianco--the best pizza in the US!
After the fun, it was time for business. At packet pickup I was given bib number 13. Awesome! Being the cycling etiquette geek that I am, I wore my 13 upside down of course. Onto the start, it was silly fast as usual for a short course du. I ran ok, but definitely not as fast as I would have liked. On the bike, I felt like was in no-man's land forever. I could see a rider in a black kit ahead that I was slowly closing in on. I finally reeled him in and passed him just before transition. It was none other than Tim DeBoom. Great, now I have to try to out run one of the best runners in the sport! I held him off for about a half mile. Somehow, I was able to keep him relatively close for the remainder of the fun & hilly 2.7mile trail run. I finished 11th overall, which is not that glamourous. But, considering I was only 41 seconds behind DeBoom, I'm pretty happy; especially considering he has a great history of peaking in the Fall (rather than February!) and my biggest races are in the Fall. Overall it was a fun trip--I got to hang out with some good friends in the sport; I got in a great training race; and I'm healthy!
Still plenty of work to be done before Powerman Alabama in April. Definitely a good dose of running and sustained speed on both the run & bike. Without a doubt, looking forward to that!
