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Ridin' Dirty - Iron City Duathlon Race
By:  Kyle Power   (2011/06/27)

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Last weekend in the “big land” was the 7th Annual Duathlon race which takes place every year on Father's Day in Lab City and is hosted by the local ski club, Menihek Nordic. The race consists of a mountain bike portion then switching to a dirt road run, that makes for a pretty tough but fun race. This year the weather was a little less than superb and well let’s just say, it was a messy and muddy day at the office. It's a good thing epic days are my favorite days!

I competed in the competitive adult category doing a 15km Mountain Bike/ 7km Run. The race for me went okay. Every summer I don't bother to take on any specific training or preparation for this race and instead use it has a workout to help gauge my ski training progress thus far in the dryland season. That being said, improving my running has been a priority this summer so I was interested to see how it would all pan out. Skiers race a lot in the winter so I think the main goal of summer racing should be having fun, while taking the opportunity to not forget race smarts and focus. Now, I can't guarantee just how much fun I actually had but it certainly did serve has a friendly reminder of why all this training in the summer is so important for being ready to race in the winter. To sum it up, it hurt like hell but I kinda liked it and also ended up having one of my better times over the last few years despite the muddy conditions. I placed second overall, coming up about 40s short from the Victory. 



The start of the Adult Category. For a small town local race it draws a good crowd with competitors of all ages and goals from Lab City and Fermont, QC. You can find me on the far left reppin' my sweet Fresh Air Exp vest!



 A tough wet climb you get to enjoy both on the bike and on the run!



The man who won it all. One of my first club coaches and longtime competitors, Alf Parsons. He's a few years older than I am and can still lay the boots to me. Although, he does win medals at World Master Ski Champs!

Shout out to the volunteers for putting off another good event at Menihek. While I am the only one competing in my family, it is still a family event with my dad as Chief of Race and my mom helping with timing! 



 
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