Millstadt, IL Biathlon 9-07-2008

(David) What to say about this race? I like this race but never really expect to win anything because of the stiff competition. The day before is the Popeye 5K and I try to good in that so I know I won’t do as good in this race. The day before any race I rest. Running a 5K race one day and then the next day doing a biathlon where one runs five miles and bikes 22 is hard to do. I have the philosophy of, “just try to do what you can and see what happens”. Well this year I think I lucked out. I never thought I could place in my age group because it is very tough. However, this year I got third in 35-39. I was actually surprised. Before the race, volunteers write your number on your arm and leg. With that number is a letter representing what gender and age group you are, I was in “d” group. When running and biking I kept my eyes out for that letter. I did not see anyone pass me with a “d” on them. Apparently I did miss one while riding, check the results. Of course that was probably one of those guys that was just a blur when he passed me. Anyway, about 10 to 15 miles into the ride I started getting excited thinking I have a shot to place. I just tried to maintain and hoped something didn’t go wrong. When I got in Marvin and I checked the results, yea they are that fast, and I was listed as third. I actually thought they made a mistake and would change it, but that never happened. I got third out of 26 in my age group and 20th overall, out of 210 or so. My overall time was two minutes faster than last year, 1:40:06. My run was faster, 33:43, but my bike was slower, 1:06:23. Overall I was 18th on the run and 25th on the bike. In age group I was 2nd in the run and 3rd on the bike. I improved my transition time by 40 or 50 seconds. I always have a problem with that. Although my age group had 26 participants in it, I think they were not as good as last year’s. I was two minutes faster than last year and moved up four spots. I don’t know if the competition was there. Oh well, I’ll take it. It makes me wonder if I would be faster if I didn’t do the Popeye race the day before.


(Marvin) I really enjoy doing this biathlon. The distance is challenging, and when I'm done I feel spent which is a very satisfying feeling. I tried to run the Popeye 5K conservative the day before, but probably went faster than I should. Oh well. I started the Millstadt run by not going all out, and finding a comfortable pace. The run is an out and back over hilly terrain. When I came to the half way turning and headed back I could see how many people were participating (210 to be exact). Dave yelled that I was number 15. I was just trying to maintain my pace when another runner came up behind me and started pacing me. Then it turn into taking turns of pacing each other. I would lead then he would lead all the while pushing our pace faster than if we were alone. When we finish the run portion I came in next to him and they rank me as 10 and him 11. My transition went fairly smooth even though it felt like I was wasting a lot of time. On the bike I head out of town and saw a ambulance coming into town with sirens on. Later that day I heard that one of the cyclist was hit by a car. I looked online at several news sources, but never found out anymore detail. I hope that it was not very serious. When riding my bike I could feel that most of my power was suck out of my legs from all the hills that I ran the previous day and then today's event. I kept my pedaling cadence high and was making good speed. There are two killer hills in this course and on the first one I was caught in my high gears and almost had to walk, but I shifted and it sounded like my gears were going to explode. Everything shifted to it's proper place, and I was able to complete the climb. The second hill I made it to the top, but my legs were killing me. I started cramping around 15 miles, and had to slow down. This is a issue that I keep have coming up at race. I need to find a way to stop the cramping. At the end of the race heading into town two other racers caught me. I was able to keep up and sprint to the finish. One finished ahead of me and the other behind. Last year I finished 12th and this year I finished 12th, but improve my time by 00:03:28 I had a time of 1:37:28 2nd in age 30-34 and 12/210