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Rope Mill Dirty/Muddy duathlon post-race thoughts

-Rained last night so the course was slick and muddy. It was an accomplishment for me to ride clean (no crashes) Dialed back some and babied a few corners.

-Raced with the singlespeed because of the gearing simplicity and I figure I was just as fast if not faster versus the geared bike. At the start, about 10 racers jumped ahead of me. I really need to figure out how to keep up with those jackrabbit starts.

- Got bogged down again as the bikes stacked up in the first quarter mile. It was a steep rocky climb. Some hike-a-bike through there because of the logjams. This definitely slowed me down. I normally do this loop in 35 minutes give or take so I was 2 minutes off my pace. Seems like some of the racers had never ridden before.

- 2 jerks behind me for a few miles kept talking about passing me but never did. Kept yelling out "guys let us pass!" "we really gotta pass these guys" The guy in front of me yelled "Either execute or shut the f*ck up!" HA!
Finally I let both of them pass but in hindsight I should've made them stay back there a bit longer :)

- Finished the first lap in 37 due to hijinks on the course from newb riders that didn't know how to go over a log or rock and would come to a complete stop! A few times had to run with the bike (CX training!) Running part was surprisingly good, no outer knee pain with taking the downhills fast! Legs were extremely heavy on the run and hard to move! 3rd lap on bike was actually 2 minutes faster than the 1st because there was no logjamming. Surprising because I felt SLOW and sloppy out there on lap 2.

- Overall, I'm pleased with how well I biked. I'm sure I could've found 2 minutes out there for a 3rd place finish. I handled my bike and my emotions well. I felt calm amid all the chaos of crashing bikes and asshole racers. I may even begin to like this running thing too.

-
Location: Woodstock, GA, USA

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