Whistlestop Duathlon Race Report by Carl Viars
For the 2007 (12th) Whistlestop Duathlon one thing was clear to those who raced and to those that stayed home—Sunday, April 15th was winter-like cold and windy. Yesterday the high and low temperature for Birmingham was 41/53 degrees, combined with the winds and overcast conditions made most wonder if they should have stayed in bed. Whistlestop is part of the Powerman Alabama Duathlon Series which pro athletes compete along with amateurs of various athletic abilities. The Whistlestop format is a 2.7 mile run, a 17 mile bike, and a 2.7 mile run. The Powerman format is a 5 mile runs and a 33 mile bike leg. I don’t have the running base for the double 5 mile runs of the Powerman, so I have stuck with the Whistlestop to get my fill of multi-sporting.
With the winter-like conditions you didn’t see people out warming up prior to the start. Most were huddled-up inside until their group was called to the starting line. For a novice like myself my strategy was to warm-up on the first run (2.7 miles). I tried to pace myself and not push it too hard on cold muscles to avoid an injury in the first 20 minutes. I quickly realized that I had overdressed, being so cold and windy I thought I could get way with wearing my bike jersey with arm warmers over my base layer of a singlet and a Underamour shirt. Wrong! It quickly got real hot, I had to pull my arm warmers down and suffer through the run. Then I was real concerned about being hot, wet, and sweaty…then jumping on the bike for a freezing. The transition to the bike leg was slow and uneventful…but it was a big relief to get on the bike.
The bike leg seemed like it would be dismal with the cold weather, overcast and windy conditions—fortunately it didn’t rain. Despite the weather the 17 mile ride wasn’t bad, I actually was a little on the warm side, and the time/mileage went by pretty fast. I felt real comfortable on the bike and on the aerobars. I didn’t experience any discomfort, but didn’t break any personal records either. In retrospect I was probably in a “survival mode” mentally speaking and wasn’t pushing myself against the weather elements. Several times I had guys pass by me real fast with a “P” marked on their calf; I realized later that stood for “PRO.” The transition to the second run was once again slow and uneventful…unlike the last transition I wasn’t glad to move on to the next leg.
The start of the second run was significantly different than my two previous Whistle Stop attempts—I wasn’t hit by lower back spasms immediately after starting the run…Thank goodness! This leg was simple trying to keep moving one foot in front of the other to finish. The 2nd run turned out better than any previous attempt and I even had a little left at the end to finish strong—relatively speaking.
My total time was 1:46:42 which was 65th out of 175 Whistlestop racers and 4th (of 9) in the 50-54 age-group. Compared to 2005 I was about 45 seconds slower this time on the first run, roughly 5 minutes slower on the bike, and 2 minutes faster on the 2nd run. I know the conditions for the bike leg was tough, but you always look to improve your performance. I am glad I toughed it out so to speak and competed this year—the epic weather conditions will provide the ingredients of many stories in the future.
