Our Off-Road Duathlon Race

I went up to Shreveport this past weekend to help Scott and Tracey move into their new housee. In between moving, Scott, Judd, Amy, and I raced in a duathlon. I thought, "It's just a 2 mile run, an 8 mile bike, and then another 2 mile run. It'll be no big deal; nothing to it." I was completely wrong. I didn't know what I got Scott, Amy, and Judd in to. (I kind of encouraged all of us to do it together.) The whole race was a trail. I've never done a trail bike race, but I didn't think it would be too bad. (Sorry this is so long, but this was pretty eventful for us.)

First of all, we got to the race site in just enough time to put our bikes in the right position, stretch, get our number, adjust my seat real quick, and listen to the rules. Tracey was laughing at us because we were going crazy getting ourselves ready. Everyone else was standing next to their bike stretching or talking to other racers looking professional while we looked like a bunch of morons going crazy.

It was cool that Tracey was there to take pictures and cheer us on as we started the race. My parents got there in the middle of the race to cheer us on through the transitions.




We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.



My poor mom and Brooke sitting in the cold waiting for us to finish.


Judd is here leading the pack....out of us four. (We were letting his beat us because it was his birthday.) He looks like that trail run was nothing.





The bike trail was pretty brutal. Not even 2 minutes into the first lap I fell off my bike, scraped by my shoulder and pinky. I know it's just my pinky, but it hurt pretty bad. I couldn't do anything about it. I just felt blood dripping down my finger throughout the race until it dried up. I did pretty good on the first 2 mile run so I was in front of a good amount of people, but then once I got onto the bike trail so many people were passing me up. The trail was so tight though. Everyone's like, "On your left!" And, I'm like, "There is no where to go, so whenever I find an open spot." I had to stop and pull my bike to the side. The beginning of the trail, there was a cliff to your left and trees to your right. There's like no where to go to the side. Throughout the trail, you had to go between trees the width of your bike and go up and down steep hills.

I eventually caught up with Scott. He was off on the side putting his wheel back on because it fell off. He eventually passed me up. I ended up riding the bike like it was a joy ride. I don't know how anybody could go so fast zig-zagging through the trail. The whole time, throughout the bike trail I am cursing like a sailor to myself and wondering when the hell the bike part is going to be over. I was going so slow, by the time I was finishing the first lap there were bikers passing me on their second lap.




Amy finished the first lap, and she thought she was done. Everyone was trying to tell her that she had one more lap to go on the bike. She was like, "What the!!!"










It was nice to have my dad there cheering. He's really good at cheering you on. I love it when he's like, "Go Mel B!!!!!!!" It's cool that he can still call me Mel B.


Amy came through the finish line while they were giving out awards. We were cheering her on though as she came through. It's pretty awesome of her that she did this race after having a baby over a month ago. Go Amy!!

Well, we were all excited just to finish (at least me and Amy were). In the end, it was a fun race and experience. It was fun that we all did it together. I don't think I'll do a bike trail again. I'll definitely stick with my road bike. It was a bummer that Mike wasn't there to cheer me on. He's such a fag! My family let him know what a butt head he was; in their own joking way.


At the end of the night, we all celebrated Judd's birthday by going out to dinner! It was a pretty good weekend. I wish we lived a little bit closer to everyone. It's always so fun when we all get together.