Millstadt Biathlon 9-9-2007

(Marvin) This could become one of my favorite biathlon events. The course is long and challenging with many competitors; 204 of them to be precise! Starting with a five mile rolling hill run, and a 22 mile bike ride with some rather steep hills thrown in. Last year when I did it for the first time the weather was cool; but this year the weather was 74 degrees with 94% humidity. The humidity is killing me! I went out conservative on the run going a 6:40 pace; last year was a 6:28 pace. I say conservative, but towards the end it was very taxing effort to keep pace. Running Popeye the day before probable didn't help either. After the run I looked like I've been swimming with all the sweating I did. I had some power aid waiting by my bike and I gulped down half of it which was a mistake that upset my stomach, but I felt if I didn't drink I would cramp up like at the Fairview biathlon. On the bike ride it went fairly smooth except that my speed was not up to par. Anytime I would push to make an effort especially on hills I could feel my legs on the verge of cramping, so I would back off and keep cadence. It also felt like it was raining with all the sweat dripping from my helmut. The bike ride is scenic if you take the time to look around. I know sometimes I can get caught up in the race and not remember too much of where I've gone. I did the run: 33:21 biked: 1:07:35 total: 1:40:56 12th/204, 2nd in age 30-34



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(David) Going into this race I said I was just going to do it for fun since I did the Popeye Race yesterday. I’m not sure what I did but I felt good the whole race. Marvin and I got there about 20 minutes before the race and had to scramble to get our stuff together. The run was five miles and I wanted to do seven minute miles. I was pacing a guy in front of me and apparently he wanted to do seven minute miles because my time was 35:28 and my three mile time was 21:09. The guy finished 20 or 30 seconds in front of me so he timed his run well, if he wanted to do seven minute miles. My transition time is never good and this race was no exception with 2:10. I forgot to start my Garmin so I didn’t get any data for the first two miles or so of the bike. The data I did get was average speed 19.7 and maximum speed was 36.9. I was 27th on the run, 17th on the ride and 16th out of 125 males. I got 7th in my age group, 35-39, with a time of 1:42:23. I think one reason why I moved up from 27th was the hills. It seemed like when I passed people it was mostly on hills. On one of the worst hills I passed four or five people. There were two riders that would pass me on flats and I would pass them on hills. With about five miles to go I passed them on a pretty tough hill and never saw them again. I am not sure if I could have done much better at this race. I don’t know if the race the day before affected me that much or not. I maybe could have run faster but my bike ride felt really good. According to the times I beat Marvin on the ride, not by much. A few of the downhill rides were pretty scary because it was a twisty road and a couple spots you had to make a right or left turn at the bottom. I got up to 36.9 miles an hour and I didn’t even realize it until I checked my Garmin later. After the race they had attendance prizes, we didn’t win, and we stuck around for the awards. They also had free soda, which a lot of places don’t have. This is a pretty big biathlon and I hope to go back.