Kamikaze Kitty Cats & Unflat Iowa Topography...

Sunday, 21 July 2013 01:10

I raced here last year and had a few mishaps. One thing about Iowa, it is not flat. This race is a great hill workout on the bike! What goes up, must go down, right? Well, last year, as I was barreling down a hill a kitty cat decided he wanted to cross the road and we had a little 'meeting'. This is not how I like to meet cats. Usually we say 'hi' by a pat on the head, or a cuddle. I guess this kitty had other things in mind. We both made it out fairly unscathed. The cat fled after the incident and luckily it was near the end of the bike. I was pretty shaken up and it affected the second run a bit. Overall, it was a successful race, I set a course record and spent the rest of the weekend with my lovely sister.

Fast forward to this year. I was pretty nervous about 'meeting' any more living creatures out on the bike course. But I woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful day and went down to the race site. It was a smaller number of people this year, but they also added a team category and a 5k, so people may have opted for those instead. The race went well, with no added excitement. I was pretty happy with how I felt. I bettered my time (and course record) from last year by over 8 minutes. Can't complain about that!

But, I wasn't the only one there from Minnesota. Derek Hager also bettered his time from last year by 2 minutes and had the fastest bike split of the day! (ED. He finished 2nd overall. Not bad for a 52-year-old guy! FYI, Jenn finished 5th overall!)

Here is the link for the race and the official results:

http://www.traveldubuque.com/UserFiles/file/events_duathlon/website/index.html

http://www.pigmantri.com/jmsracing/results13/dubuquedu13b.pdf

All the best,

Jenn