The race is nearly upon us and we are traveling down to Richmond this evening in order to prepare for the race on Sunday. After a heavy training period over the past 5 weeks, this week was a nice taper and Saturday will only be a pre-ride of the course.
The race is made up of a 15km run, an 80km bike then finishing with a 7.5km run. The course itself is a 7.5km run loop around the downtown area of Richmond and a 20km bike loop including a couple of bridge crossings over the James River. Obviously the first run is two loops and the bike is four loops.
It should be a great event and there are over 600 racers comprising the various age-groups and the elite professional. With the race being hosted in Richmond, the US team is by far the largest and consists of approximately 250 racers. Other major representation is from Canada, South Africa and Australia....with a few Brits thrown in for good measure. This is my first Team USA event so that will also be a unique experience especially with such a large contingent.
What are my expectations for the race? Well simply to have a good showing and try to grab as higher placing as possible. However, with my biggest race of the year coming in three weeks time down at the 70.3M WC, I will be looking to get some kind of gauge as to my fitness particularly on the bike and the 2nd run. I am aiming to go out and try and crush the bike as hard I possibly can and then see what kind of pace I can keep on the 2nd run. I know that I have the legs for the distance but it is just knowing how hard to go without blowing up. As such this will be the perfect test for Nov 10th.
For those of you that have an interest the race is providing some real-time updates during the day which can be found at http://www.usraceworks.com/duathlonworlds/ I will be bib number 143! The race starts at 7:30AM EST (12:30PM for those in the UK). Wish me luck!
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