The season is quickly ramping up to full speed. I’ve raced the last three weekends and I will be racing three more times the next two weekends, including another Powerman race in North Carolina.

Yesterday was York Triathlon Club’s 21st annual Bronx Biathlon. As an aside: a lot of people give the NY Triathlon Club grief for calling its races “biathlons” rather than “duathlons.” From what I’ve been able to figure out, run/bike/ run races and cross-country skiing/shooting races both were known as “biathlon” for years. But once winter biathlon became an Olympic event, the run/bike lobby lost out to the skiers and had to pick a new name.

In any case, I won.

http://www.nytc.org/results_full.cfm?ID=1

John McGovern, multi-time age group national champ, was there, as well as a few other strong local duathletes, so I knew it would be a hard race up front. Three of us broke away during the first 3 mile run and had a small lead going into the first transition. I was fastest through transition and then put about 2:00 on the field during the 20 mile bike leg. Thankfully, my legs still were turning over a bit during the closing 3 mile run, and I held the two minute gap through the finish.

It’s great to get the first win of the season under my belt, and beating John head to head (he took it to me on a few occasions last year, including a great kick finish at Harriman State Park last summer) shows me I’m moving in the right direction.

The week before, I went to Alabama for the first United States Powerman race. It was a stacked pro field, led by 2004 Long Course World Champion Greg Watson (he finished 4th, to give you an idea of the quality of the race). The opening 8K run (just under 5 miles) was pretty hilly, but that didn’t stop the lead pack from running ~5:05 per mile. For some reason, my legs just wouldn’t get untracked during the opening run, and I came into transition in 16th place. The rest of the race was much better. I passed about half a dozen people during the 55K bike portion of the race (yes, this is long for a time trial, and yes, it is painful) to move up to 10th. I then ran down one more person during the second run, resulting in a 9th place finish.

As a result of the placing, I am first alternate for the U.S. Long Course World Championship team, which will be in Italy at the end of May. It doesn’t look like a spot will open up, but it’s good to feel like I’m in the mix at the biggest races on the calendar.

Time to get back on the bike…

Lee