So this past Saturday was the 16th Annual Rye By The Sea Duathlon.  It consists of a 5K paved/trail combo run, a 17 mile bike, and then the same 5K  run, but backwards.

I’ve been interested in this race for a few years now, but finally signed up this year in advance, thus making it pretty much mandatory that I go since I had already paid.  Well, after several weekends of near perfect weather, this was the weekend where Mother Nature decided to throw us a whammy.  I fully admit if I had not pre-registered, there is no way in heck I would have been racing.  Temps where in the 50’s gusts of wind towards 20mph and drizzle to heavy rain.  I much prefer hot and humid for racing.  Alas, you can’t control the forecast.  Everyone else had to deal with the same conditions.

Mia and I drove out on Friday after work to pick up my race packet.  The schwag for this race is a little lacking.  I did get a t-shirt, but there were only 3 coupons for discounts at local stores. for the other “free” stuff.  Since we don’t live close enough to any of them, they were a bit useless.

My biggest debate for the weekend was do I race the deep dish “race” wheels or the standard box section rims.  I was a bit worried about the wheels filling with water in the rain.   After dinner at Margaritas in Concord, and on the drive home, I decided what the heck, might was well race with the good wheels.  So at 11pm at night I was putting the cork pads on the front brakes and installing the rear HED wheel.  Packed all my gear and was basically read to go aside from tossing it all in the car.

I woke up at 4:30 AM on Saturday.  I couldn’t sleep anymore, and the race start was at 8AM, I still needed to eat, and drive out to the coast.  It had barely started to rain in Concord by 5:30 AM.  I left the house at just before 6AM and it rained off and on until Manchester, as I turned eest onto 101 it was misting and by the time I got to Rye it was off and on mist.

That changed quickly though, but the time the race started and I had gotten in a short warm up, it was starting to drizzle, and within the first mile of the first run, it was raining.  This would be the conditions for the rest of the race.  Mist and heavy rain with random wind gusts.

My first run was okay, 7:19 pace, which was sane.  My 1st transition was SLOW, almost 1.5 minutes.  My bike was pretty much good to very good.  I felt smooth from the very start and kept a good pace the whole time.  I passed at least 20 people in the first 5 miles and then picked off another 4 in the next 12 miles.  Needless to say the bike is my strong point.  My 2nd run was again, okay, but not great.  Better by far than any other Du I have done this year.  I ended up 4th in my age group which I am happy with.

No pictures at this race, Mia was smart enough to stay in bed and with the weather, it wasn’t worth me bringing out the camera at all.

In closing, this race is great, the course is awesome and very fast for the bike leg.  If you get the chance to do this race, then do it.  You won’t be let down.
Also, the race wheels was the smart way to go.  I did drain over 1/4 of a cup out of the rear wheel when I got home.  Luckily it is a clincher and easy to deal with.  The front wheel had no water at all!  Good news since that one is a tubular and ripping the tire off was not very appealing.

Here is a link to the results.

Thanks for reading.

-Pete