Roden Wins Duathlon

Some times our spouses know us better than we know ourselves. I was lying in bed on Saturday, still smarting from a robust crash Thursday night from a freak stem breakage while sprinting in the Thursday night mayhem series. We had planned to do the Raccoon Rally mountain bike race, but I kept thinking about going 40 down this rocky trail with rocks hiding in the weeds and was feeling a tad spooked about the whole affair. Over pancakes, my wife Kate says "Are you sure you want to do THAT race?" Well, I guess I didn't, so we switched around our campground reservations and off we went to the Tri in the Handlebars Buff Duathlon at Evangola State Park. After an evening of restful sleep at the adjacent campground, I was ready to roll for the early morning start. The first 5K went off smoothly, I finished in second but lost a minute or so. Rolling onto route 5 with a tailwind, I saw all the signals down the track drop to green, so I pulled the throttle back on the diesel-electric motors and started for the station, coughing and sputtering up the hills. A verse of Ralph Stanley came to my head:

He looked 'round and said to his black greasy fireman, "Just shovel in a little more coal, And when I cross that old White Oak Mountain You can just watch Old 97 roll."

Back at home base, I swapped out my cleats for some gym shoes and headed out for the run, at a pace just above that of drying paint. The runner in second place was bearing down on me with grim determination, while my legs were starting to cramp. It was similar to the day Thomas the Tank Engine cheekily challenged Edward the great locomotive to a race, so I chugged along with the express line closing the gap, just balling the jack toward home. The closing lyric of Mr. Stanley's song popped into my head:

"He was found in that wreck with his hand on the throttle, He was scalded to death by the steam."

Risking a look back, I was being caught in short order, so I broke into a rapid shuffle and was able to nip across the line for the victory. Happy day for my family to finally win one these things.