Xterra Off Road Duathlon

　
Saturday March 27th was a the season opener for Birmingham’s local Multi-Sport Tribe with the Powerman Alabama weekend. Saturday kicked off the event with the Elite Duathlon Championship as well as the Xterra Off-Road Duathlon. We were greeted with a beautiful morning with sunny skies and temps in the low 70’s by race start. A solid group of Off-Road Athletes towed the start line for a 1pm start. With the sound of the gun we were off and running. The first run of 8k was all on the new BUMP Lake Trail Extension, which when completed will take the loop around Double Oak Lake. The loop was mostly single track and with some small rollers felt a little long. By time we had hit the trails a young buck from ATL had taken a nice lead and by time we had made it back to Transition 1 he had moved ahead about 5 minutes. David Meadows and I stayed together for most of the loop and I was lucky to get around David about mid-way through. I’m glad I did because David out-split me on both of the bike and 2nd run legs of the race. Once on the bike my Trek Top Fuel felt like it was ready to race. We did the BUMP Trail Counter Clockwise so it made for some difficult short climbs and it really felt like it had no flow at all, but finally my legs came around for the first race of the season. Chris “THA WRENCH” Tyree had my bike tuned and ready to go for me on Friday before the race, so it was performing without too many glitches. I rode down the 2nd place guy after about 3 minutes and asked him how far up the next guy was……his reply stunned me when he said 5 minutes, 5 minutes would be a challenge! I gunned the Top Fuel and started the chase. Finally after the Blood Rock Climb I caught site of him just ahead on the fire road. I punched the Top Fuel again and rolled right past with some words of encouragement and a “Good Run Dude” statement, now I was in the lead. It’s all nice being in front but you know guys are on the hunt behind you, and I knew David was back there! I had to keep moving! I’ll admit my legs started feeling the first race of the season a little early. By the time I had moved back around to the RC Track I knew I had another 20 minutes on the bike…..that really hurt! I held on and pulled into transition 2 with a Very Small Lead over David. Thank Goodness it was only a 2k run to finish, cause I had no more to give. I had no idea David was so close until I caught him out of the corner of my eye coming up fast! I gave what little I had left and was able to cross the finish line in First Place just a few seconds ahead of David. Tough race with tough competition. A good end of the day!
Thanks to Cahaba/Homewood Cycles for the great support, and by having the best equipment to race on. Thanks to Chris for keeping my bike in Top Form, and Thanks to the Malki’s for their Generous Continued Support.
　
Until Next Time,
Casey Fannin