Race day started out at 5 AM, and Matt West picked me up for the drive to Livonia shortly before 6:00. We talked strategy as we drove, and showed up just as registration opened at 6:30. After racking our bikes, we helped set up the finish line and got set for the race. As we were finalizing our bikes, I discovered bonehead mistake #1: I had forgotten the straw extension for my Aero Drink bottle. Fortunately, I had brought a bottle cage with me because we were originally planning to ride after the race (it never happened, thankfully), so I bolted the cage on and poured my Hammer HEED back into a standard bottle.

We warmed up by running most of the trail section of the run course, to get a feel for the turns and the layout. There were a couple of very small inclines, but it was otherwise very flat. I decided to go sockless today, but neglected to properly prep my feet (bonehead mistake #2, which I paid for later). We finished our warmup just before the start, and within minutes, we were off.

From the gun, there were four or five of us that went out hard and pushed the pace. I had to make a decision right away: hang back and stick to a time plan, or scrap the plan and key off of the leaders. I chose the second option, surging just a bit to pull even with the top guys as we rolled through the first mile in 5 minutes flat. As we wound our way through the 5K course, two runners pulled away from me, and I let them go, figuring I would catch them on the bike. I entered T1 about ten seconds down and in third place. First run split + T1 was 17:13.

I discovered bonehead mistake #3 as I tried to get on the bike: I had not only forgotten rubber bands to keep my shoes steady for my flying mount, but I had neglected to realize that with a full tri setup, my bike handled differently. All of this lead to a couple scary moments as I tried to get on my bike and get rolling, and probably cost me 10-15 seconds. The bike course had a few false flats, but there were no hills to speak of, so it was a drag race on the course. I managed to reel in the two guys ahead of me by first half of the first out-and-back loop, and led the race on the second half of that loop. Shortly after the turnaround by transition, I was passed by Tom Linck, a guy I hadn't seen before who dropped me after a minute's worth of effort trying to stay with him. He had a fantastic ride, and I couldn't quite keep up his pace. On the second half of the second loop, one of the previous leaders caught up to me and we leapfrogged on the road, arriving in T2 together. Bike leg split was 47:16 for 30K (third fastest), cranking out an average of 23.6 mph.

After a lightning fast transition, we were out on the run course again, chasing the rider who had outcranked us. My hat's off to the guy I was running with, Ryan Rau, because I just didn't have the legs to stay with him as we chased. He pulled away soon after we left transition, and passed Tom shortly after the first mile marker. Looking back as we entered a series of turns, I could see that we were definitely going to be the top three, and I initially just set out to cruise the second half of the run. As we neared the second mile, however, I started to see Tom coming back to me, so I picked up the pace just a little and reeled him in. I finally passed him with about half a mile to go, and surged hard enough to keep from being overtaken. From there it was a quick cruise to the finish, in second place by 27 seconds. My T2 + second run time was 18:00, and overall time was 1:22:28.

Next up: I haven't decided whether or not I will be running the Dexter-Ann Arbor road race in two weeks. I may sign up for the 10K to get a feel for the distance before nats, or I may hop in the 5K and try once more to break 16 minutes. Regardless, my next duathlon will be on June 12th - USAT Short Course Duathlon Age Group Nationals in Mason, Ohio - and then it will be off to summer camp!