Walpack Wilderness Challenge Duathlon, Walpack , Nj
This is my first race report in EN. A little background: I've been racing triathlons for 2 years before this season. I'm in the same local club (Mapso Tri www.mapsotri.com) along with Jed Kwartler and JT Thompson. This past year has been a recovery process after breaking my left collarbone into 3 pieces in a mtb crash. Not fun. I'm a former roadie with very little running and swimming but I'm working on it the best I can. I started the run training a bit too hard a couple years ago and developed a stress fracture in my foot that has left it persistently painful in spite of several doctors and interventions - but I'm still running. Bozo.
This race was a lark, intended as a lighthearted head-to-head race against my pal, Larry Cyran. Larry joined Mapso this summer at my urging and did his first tri in a long time, practically killing himself at the NJ State Olympic Tri Championship and placing 20th of 60 in the M50-54 AG. Not bad! Larry then asked me to help him race Poconos 70.3 so I spent July through September coaching training him to do that (no pay, just seeing if I could help him) race. My own HIM PR is 5:49, set last September at Hunter Mountain with members of the Ottawa Sleeper Cell and Keith Wick. What does Larry do? That guy goes and lays down a 5:27. WHAT?? Doesn't he know he's not supposed to upstage his 'coach'?
Well, that just cannot go unanswered... So, we decided to do this duathlon just for kicks along with another Mapso member, Sue Stickles. To be fair, Larry was at an extreme disadvantage because this was a sprint duathlon. If it were a tri, he would already be in line for seconds at the buffet table when I'd finish. He recorded a 28 minute 1.2 mile swim leg at Pocono 70.3 and my HIM swim PR is 35 minutes. Here's the race report.
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Ha ha ha ha. Yee haw! Of course I'm saying that now, now that I'm not stumbling around trying to finish the dang race. Heh.
That's how you'd sum up The Walpack Wilderness Tough Warrior Muddy Dash Challenge. Well, you'd also have to say "BRAVO!" to the organizers of this event. The Walpack Wilderness Challenge (www.wwchallenge.com) is in its second year and it grew from some 60 racers to over 150 this year. All run by volunteers and it was pretty well supported. The registration for adult racers was only $65 and all the race proceeds go to local charity. The Walpack Inn was a really nice little place, a Zagat rated steak house with impressive rustic decor complete with wildlife trophies. Larry even got a little help overcoming his discomfort with black bears; more on that later. They even had a band.
The area is beautiful, the Jersey side of the Delaware River, across from the Poconos. The first run of 6K started you out immediately on some rolling hills followed by a very stiff climb like that one a few miles into the Quassy 70.3 run leg. The first half of it was on a paved road and then the second half of the climb was the start of 2.3 miles on a mushy, puddly, muddly darkly shaded dirt road. Yummy. No, really. You got to taste it when a runner in front of you splashed some of it up. The bike course (21K) had lots and lots of hills and dips like that stretch of the Poconos 70.3 route just south of that big descent (after you finish that 20 miles of out & back). It also had some decent stretches of level road or false flats for a minute or two where you could tuck in and hammer. The road surface was remarkably smooth and uncluttered. Best part of the race. The event finished off with a 2K run bounding through a grassy meadow behind the Walpack Inn. You really needed serious leg and core strength to stay running with good form on this part of the race. There were sandy spots left over from Hurricane Irene flooding, two places where big tree trunks were left strewn across the path and one serious corker of a hill about 100 meters before the finish. A nice touch was having volunteers perched at the top of that little monster to catch your race number as you stagger upwards - that info was relayed up ahead to the race announcer who had a good time yelling out your name and cheering you on. Made it feel a little likean Ironman finish.
app.strava.com/runs/25708647 First run.
app.strava.com/rides/25708658 Bike. Garmin got screwed up a bit so the course is short.
My Garmin really messed up the second run so I won't bother putting it up here. It was just a mess.
Race results are posted here: www.coolrunning.com/results/12/ma/O...set1.shtml
So, Larry and I previewed the bike course when we went out to pick up our packets. We were impressed - and relieved that real life conditions did not match the horrifying elevation detail on the race website. Since I was going to be racing it on my road bike I was seriously rethinking my prospects for this head-to-head match up with one Larry Cyran. He was also going to be on a road bike but his was set up with aerobars and on our preview ride it was clear that they made a difference. If he could stay close to me on the run leg (and he pretty much did) he was going to pass me in the closing miles of the bike and then uh oh! It would be a 9-10 minute showdown in the sod, a grudge match in the grassland, a brawl in the bramble, a roll in t... Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, the bike course. Just splendid. That's me in the grey and white jersey.
Driving out to the race on Sunday morning we were looking anxiously at the temperature, especially since with the surrounding ridges we weren't sure the sun would be up high enough & long enough to warm things up past the 40 degree mark until well after the race began. Then Larry sees a black bear by the side of the road and we promptly almost drive off it in response. That was funny, and better than a cup of coffee to wake us up. A little later Larry remarked that he wondered if he'd see any bald eagles out here. It was just that kind of day.
Deciding what to wear due to the cold was a puzzle but I got lucky with my choices. I also got lucky finding my timing chip after it had fallen out of my bag in Larry's van. Phew. Maybe getting my HR up because of that was good in lieu of a thorough warm up as they getting ready to start the race. We all were expecting a little air horn to start the race and so there were lots of laughs when one of the firetrucks let loose with a blast of its horn - and then the fun began. Running instead of swimming. Yay! NOT. That was a tough run course. It got really sloppy, too. There was no avoiding the muck and you had to pay attention to where your feet were landing the whole time you were on that dirt road. Going down a steep descent down a ravine before sharply turning and going up the other side I slipped on a muddy patch and turned my ankle a bit but didn't crash into the body catching volunteers at the bottom of it. I bet they had quite a few laughs this morning. Once I finally got onto the paved road again I realized I was sweating a bit so I decided to gamble and took off my arm warmers and winter beanie as I approached T1. Here's hoping I don't freeze on the bike. I'm such a wuss.
I gotta tell ya, I am much better in T1 during a duathlon. A 34 second T1 instead of my usual 4-10 minutes was nice, especially in a sprint where a single minute might as well be half an hour.
I'd already decided that I was just going to go all out on the bike, especially with all the hills. Since the website's description made us think it was going to be a hilly horror show I decided to put my tri bike in the shop and just use my road bike. Too late now. Oh well. Except for that first real tough hill, some were long gradual things but most of them were 20-30 second bumps of varying steepness. I had no aerobars so I had to make the most of my bike's strengths, comfort on the hills out of the saddle. After cresting that initial climb I was soon caught by a couple women on tri bikes on the descent and following flats. I passed them again and then one of them got back in front - only to slow right down even though we were descending. I wanted to pass her again right away but there was nothing I could do because within seconds the other woman came right up beside me and says "That's drafting, you know." I replied "Not much I can do here. I want to pass again." "You should drop back." "Why are you sitting next to me instead of completing your pass?" Eventually she passed us and that's where I made a good decision to just shut my mouth. We were right up on the base of one of those hills and I was thinking "Well, draft this." and I took off, up and hammering out of the saddle knowing that I'd get a little break descending after about 30 seconds. Those hill workouts pay off, people! I never looked back and they never passed me again but I was riding like hell anticipating one of them coming around at any second. If I'd been dumb enough to say what I was thinking I'm sure I would have been doomed to yoyo with them for the next 35 minutes. Once I made the big turn to head back north I was thinking it was only a matter of time before Larry came by with a wave and a joke but somehow I held him off coming into T2. Our bike legs wound up essentially the same so that first run may have beaten him up more than it got to me. Anyway, that guy is getting a lot stronger. He's already a water monster so with a little more practice and track work and he'll be making waves. I almost don't want to tell him about EN. Heh heh heh...
I did an FTP test the weekend before and came up with a reading of 233 watts and it turns out I wound up with an average power of 214 watts for the bike leg. I don't have any analysis software yet to break it down but with the way I was riding I'm pretty sure the VI was more than 1.05. I didn't race with a HR monitor but I know based on experience that it was pegged at somewhere in the high 160's the whole time, even on the downhills.
T2 was uneventful and then it was off to trot around the meadow. Geez, I really don't run well in the grass. I'm not from Georgia Tech but I was a rambling wreck out there. It would have been great to have some cross-country cleats on that course. The wet slopes, the sandy patches where your feet squished around, those tree trunks and that last hill. It seemed to take forever even though you could almost always see the big finish arc as you wound your way around the meadow. Talk about being very happy to be finished. Then you could smile and laugh about the last hour and a half or so.
As soon as I finished I took off my chip and went back out to yell for Larry who was right behind me. As he came down that last hill I started shouting that he should run fast. "There's a bear right behind you...! Come on! He's gonna get you! Don't die, Larry!" Folks were laughing at the finish, wondering what I was talking about so we explained the joke and one volunteer said "Yeah, we've been lucky today. No bears yet..." Gulp. Then it was time to get out there in the meadow to scream for Sue. She didn't get a chance to just shuffle on home since she was in a pack of racers all through the meadow. Great job gutting it out in the home stretch, Sue! Second in your large, expanded age group!
Peter Wick, 7th overall and 3rd out of 20 in the Male 46+older AG.
Run 6K - 29:56.7 (8:03/mile)
T1 - 0:34.46 WHAT???
Bike 21K - 41.19.0 (18.9 mph)
T2 - 0:36.6
Run 2K - 9:16.2 (7:28/mile)
Finish - 1:21:43.0
Larry Cyran, 12th overall and 4th out of 20 in the Male 46+older AG.
Run 6K - 31:02.5 (8:21/mile)
T1 - 1:26.8
Bike 21K - 41.30.2 (18.9 mph)
T2 - 0:50.9
Run 2K - 9:23.9 (7:34/mile)
Finish - 1:24:14.4
Sue Stickle, 30th overall and 2nd out of 12 in the Females 46+older AG.
Run 6K - 35:20.8 (9:30/mile)
T1 -1:03.5
Bike 21K - 48:10.7 (16.2 mph)
T2 - 0:47.1
Run 2K - 9:56.9 (8:01/mile)
Finish - 1:35:19.2
Then it was time for some salad, hearty beef stew and a nice robust brown bread provided by the Walpack Inn folks. That was quite nice, although Larry and I were hoping for some flapjacks... :-) A "Ground Hog Day" joke. Driving back to Millburn, we stopped at one of the many roadside farm stands to get some apples and honey. We looked up over the lake and there they were, a majestic pair of bald eagles wheeling about in the sky. Sweet.
Thanks for reading.
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