Race Coverage

Not Playing It Safe...

Wednesday, 28 March 2012 03:00

By Dan Hedgecock (from http://danhedgecock.blogspot.com)

This weekend Claire and I headed down to the deep south along with our personal race assistant (my dad) for Elite Du Nationals. The race was held in conjunction with Powerman Alabama's multi-sport weekend on the same course as the Powerman Duathlon. Right off the bat I have to say that the Powerman course was hands down the best course I have ever raced on. The course has EVERYTHING: beautiful scenery, smooth roads, challenging hills, off-road running, world class race organizers and phenomenal volunteers. If you're looking for a

Leading into the race I maintained confidence that I would do well. I had a very tough run at Clermont a few weeks ago, but had felt strong on the bike. After the last 10 years of racing I know how important it is to have confidence in yourself leading into a race. No matter how fit you are, you're going to get to a point where that voice in your head tells you that you can't keep it up, and if you have doubts about yourself you can fall apart mentally. Having said that, it is still only March, and the only run workout I've done this year was a couple of hill repeats, and I only did that once.

After getting some advice from my unofficial mentor Kevin O'Connor, I decided to go out with the leaders and have a great race or blow up catastrophically. No reason to travel all the way to Alabama to play it safe and put out a so-so race.

The men's field was fairly small and the first 10k immediately split up the group. Josh Merrick, Ryan Giuliano and I went out hard and came into T1 with a nice lead. I found out after the race that Giuliano hasn't been able to keep any food down for a week because of a stomach virus, which make his 5th place finish A-mazing. The run was great. The course was always up and down steep hills and included a winding off-road section of just under a mile. I love trail running and felt right at home on the course.

After jumping on the bike in the lead I kept the hammer down to try and preserve a lead heading into the second run. After the race I was surprised to see that I had the 3rd fastest bike split. Nothing beats a Gear West bike fit and I think I have a relative aero advantage because of my narrow shoulders. I only posted a 1:01:02 bike split but averaged 283 watts for the ride. 283 watts isn't a lot for an elite, but I only weigh 151 pounds, so it's just over 4watts/kg. My best race watts last year was Lifetime where I averaged 279, and I was 4 or 5 pounds heavier then. I'm really looking forward to posting some good bike splits this season.

After coming off the bike in 1st I gritted my teeth and ran the last 5k as hard as I could, managing a 2nd best 17:12 5k. There's no training like racing hard! Crossing the line in first was really big for me. After quitting my