Du Boerne

Boerne, TX December 7, 2008. If you have read my earlier posts, you would know that a few races back I was trying to compete while in a huge over-training trough. The Du Boerne was the exact opposite of that. I felt very strong the entire way through, and my placement in the 30-34 age group shows that. The race was a 5K run, 25K bike (About 14 Miles), and another 5K run.

On Saturday, the day before the race, Lisa and I drove to Boerne, TX and checked into the hotel at Tapatio Springs Golf Resort. We did a nice little evening hike, and had dinner at the clubhouse. After that it was off to bed so we could get some rest for the big race.

Race morning proved to be very frigid as far as South Texas weather goes. It was a near freezing 39 degrees as we drove to the event. Though, once the race started I could not feel the chill, and by the time I finished racing it was hovering around 70 degrees.

The runs for this race were very poorly marked. I was running with a group of three other people near the front of the race to the point were I could see the leader when we had long strait-aways.

Somewhere around the 1.5 mile mark we must have missed a turn, because we ran into a river that was blocking our path. To the right was a narrow path, so we started running down it. At the point that we had to crawl over a fallen tree to keep following the path, we realized that we were on the wrong path and turned around. I was leading our small group back to where our original path met the river, but when we got near that spot there were maybe 15 racers standing there looking confused.

Mob theory dictated that the correct path was the one that my group of four was coming back on, so we did another about face and headed back down the little path. We could see an aid station through the woods, whose occupiers yelled that we should keep on our little path, and it would intersect back up with the main route.

I don't know if I ended up cutting the course, or running a longer distance. All I knew is I had to pee, and I was frustrated. So after making a quick side trip into the woods for relief, I finished the rest of the first run uneventfully.

Once on the bike I felt like an animal. The bike course was a short out and back with some small rolling hills. You could tear down the small hills and keep your momentum going to charge up the next small hill. Fourteen miles on the road is very short, so I was able to keep this up the entire ride. I must have pasted 30 people.

The finale 5k was better than my usual "just hold on, your almost done" duathlon run. I felt strong the entire way through. I did get passed a few hundred yards before the finish line, but it was by an obviously superior runner.

So here is the difference between racing at your peak vs racing in an over-training trough. Do to mental mistakes from being to tired from the trough, I ended up crashing in easy sections of riding at the mountain bike races. At my peak I can stop in a race to take a pee break, and still finish first in the 30-34 age group. What a difference!!!!!

Even though I finished 19Th overall for the race, my age group was slow enough for me to win. I must say that I was very excited since this is the first time I have ever seen my name at the top of an event like this. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me going.