BAM X off road duathlon

I raced the BAM-X off road duathlon this past weekend. It's the first year they've held this event, which runs in conjuntion with the BAM Triathlon. The race consisted of a 5k trail run leg, an 11 mile mtb leg, then another lap around the 5k run course to the finish. I thought it would be a good early season primer for the Xterra race in August. The race is held at the Soldier Hollow Olympic Park which is a fantastic venue.

We rented a condo in Midway for Friday and Saturday night. We really like Midway so had looked forward to a little getaway up there. Some friends joined us Friday night, we grabbed some grub at the Dairy Keen, played a little tennis, and hung out playing cards at the condo until calling it a night around 1:00 am (kids hung on till about midnight). Brandon and I went for a mtb ride the next morning around 9:30 and rode the dutch trail system for about an hour and a half or so. Relatively mellow 7 mile ride with a few short climbs that required a good effort. Just about perfect for a day before the race ride in which I was coming off a week of only one ride day and one run day.

Spent the afternoon/evening with the family relaxing, watching Tiger continue adding to his legend on the golf course, and going to my mission president's ranch for his son's wedding reception where we saw a lot of friends.

The race started at 7:00 Sunday morning. I had Annie drop me off around 6:30, checked the bike into the transition area, then took a light jog for a warm up. I wasn't sure what to expect in regards to hills/climbing so was pleased to find it reasonable, with some short, steep sections, but nothing so severe that it threatened to blow me up early in the race. Ran an ok run for me, I need to get a lot faster (gave up 4 minutes on the first leg), but this was ok for me at my current fitness level. I rode as aggressive as I dared not knowing the course, we started climbing right away, and while I had an idea where we'd turn back downhill, I was cautious to make sure I didn't blow up prior to getting to the top. The downhill was fast, down a dirt road towards the resevoir. I'd picked off a few people on the climb and managed to get a couple more down this section. The course was marked somewhat weak in a few areas and I went off course twice, but was lucky to catch it early and limit the damage. There was one guy who added several miles to his race. Once at the bottom it leveled off on another dirt road that ran along side the lake back towards the olympic park. I gave up one spot to a guy that came by at a really strong pace, I let him go, more concerned at this point about how my legs would hold up to run another 3 miles than jockeying for position.

I exited transition in 3rd, but was run down by one of the guys I'd passed on the bike leg. Mentally maybe I should have pushed a little harder and gave chase, but at the moment I gave myself no chance of keeping up with or running him back down. I finished in 4th, stopping near the end to grab Chesney who finished the race with me. 2:00 hours 29 seconds. I am sore today.