WSU duathlon

"I breathe in, I breathe out, I put one foot in front of the other..." The bars of the country song ran over and over through my mind. Ok, maybe he meant the words to lament the pain of life after love and I was using them as I was huffing and slogging my way through the second 5k of my duathlon, but the words still applied. "Al-most-there-don't-slow-down," I stomped out each word as I skipped every other step up a short flight of of concrete stairs from the parking lot to the cross-country path above. The almost 90 degree sun beat down as I made the hairpin turn and started up the last hill before the path would dip down and curve around toward the home stretch.

I had entered a duathlon that was hosted at WSU in Vancouver. Pretty sure that I would drown on the first swimming leg of a triathlon, I decided a duathlon - including only the running and biking events - would be the way to go. A 5k run, transition to the bike, a 15 mile bike ride, transition back to running, and a second 5k run along the same route to finish - that didn't sound too bad. "It'll be fun," I told myself. Well, fun wasn't the word I'd use right now to describe the experience. I was just happy to be somewhere in the middle of the racers and not in last place. My stride lengthened. I searched for every energy reserve to speed me toward the finish line. 1:57:18 the large, digital numbers read. It was over. I had reached my three, low goals - 1) to finish, 2) to not be last, and 3) to finish in under 2 hours. I plunked down on the grass next to my bike, only the first few measures of the song running through my mind as I focused on what was really important, "I breathe in, I breathe out ..."