I raced in the Chilly Willy Duathlon yesterday. It's a 5K run, then a 10-mile bike, then another 5K run. It's held at beautiful Fort DeSoto Park, which is an island just off St. Petersburg. It's a perfect location for the race.

Here's a summary of my experience: it was awesome. I loved every minute of it.

Supposedly, the Chilly Willy is one of the biggest duathlons in the country. They cap it at 500 entries, which isn't a lot by running race standards, but apparently that's big by duathlon standards.

I got there nice and early to make sure I had plenty of time to get through the packet pickup / timing chip / bike setup stuff. It was pretty chilly. I warmed up with some jogging and stretching and felt really good.

Next thing I know, we're lining up, the gun goes off, and it's time to rock. I could see the front guys/girls making the first turn up ahead. Sweet Jesus, were they flying (~ 5:30/mile pace)!

The running course was great. It goes along a wide nature-type path for half of it, and then on the beach for the return half. Most of the sand was fairly firm, but there were some soft areas too. I am used to that, so it wasn't a big deal.

I kept myself in check during the first run, since I was concerned about saving energy. In hindsight, I should have pushed it harder. My pace was 8:28/mile. Should have been closer to 8:00 or 8:15. Still, I had a grin the whole way. Great fun.

The great thing about just wearing running shoes throughout the race, instead of changing into cycling shoes, is that my transitions were lightning fast. Just buckle/unbuckle my helmet, get/put my bike on the rack, and I was off.

Cycling, at least at first, was sweet relief. Since it uses some different muscles, it sounds crazy, but I was able to rest and get something to drink. I was up to about 20-21 mph without any difficulty. I was passing people and being passed left and right. I am very, very pleased with my bike. I saw a lot of nice bikes, but even though mine is not top-o'-the-line, I am really digging it. The road was nice and smooth and cars were blocked from entering the island, so it was wide open. We had to deal with a headwind for miles 2-5, and that started to take a toll on me and my speed. But once I made the turn at mile 5, the wind was behind us, I was up to about 23-24 mph, although I had to slow down due to wind, fatigue, and bike traffic near the end.

I had a pretty smooth ride, but my forearms got achy on the pads. Not sure why, but I will have to experiment with pad positions. Also, I almost got into an accident when the cat ahead of me decide to move to the left in the last turn as I was moving inside him. It was close. Note to self: be on defense mode in the turns, and stop acting like you're driving a race car and trying to make a pass.

I tried to eat my fruit bar during the bike, but I was breathing pretty hard, and it was difficult to swallow. I think for this length event (or shorter), I will just stick to Gatorade. One of those bottle that fits between the aero bars would have been nice too. Just lean down and drink.

Had a clean transition to the second run but, as expected, the legs felt like anchors for the first half mile or so. Doubts crept in my mind. Then, I checked my pace and saw that I was actually running faster than I had in the first run! That juiced me. Then, this older guy (65-ish) slowly caught up to me and passed me. I was a little discouraged until I saw an Ironman tattoo on his calf. OK, respect granted.

I picked up my pace a little and drafted him as best I could. When we hit the beach section, I was feeling in semi-control, so I pushed past him. He picked up his pace, and I could hear him just behind me until about a half-mile to go. I decided to start my kick and was hoping his kick wasn't better. I beat him to the line by a few seconds. He came up to me afterwards, shook my hand, and told me he didn't have enough left in the tank.

My pace for the second run was 8:19/mile. I was pleased. Other stats: I finished 19th out of 37 in my age group. I finished 96th overall (not counting relay teams). I finished 65th in the bike leg, which I am really happy about. It's weird: even though I am new to cycling, I was a better biker than runner, compared to the rest of the field. I don't have a clean measurement of my bike pace, since the listed times include both transitions, but I think I averaged pretty close to 20 mph. I'm sure there is a lot of room for improvement there.

My total time was 1:23:00. The male overall winner was 0:59:48. Yikes. The overall female winner was 1:07:07. She is from Sarasota and I've finished well behind her at several running races. I was hoping that an elite triathlete (Ironman winner) from Sarasota named Heather Gollnick would be in the race, but she wasn't. She might have beat the male winner.

So, that's it in a large nutshell. I plan on entering again next year. There is a duathlon in Sarasota on April 5 that I will enter. I'd like to do a 5K or 10K run race sometime in March. I'm addicted!