Atomic Man Duathlon 2013

The Atomic Man duathlon is a local fixture and a must-do early season race. It's a run-bike-run format, with two distances available: Fat Man (10km-40km-5km) and Little Boy (4km-15km-4km). In case you're wondering about the names... yes, they are named after atomic bombs. The race is held in White Rock, New Mexico, which is a satellite town for Los Alamos (home of the Manhattan Project).

Transition towels for all participants!

This year I got involved with the planning of Atomic Man, and while I didn't contribute as much as some (or even most) committee members, I did enjoy some of the behind-the-scenes decision making and getting a much better insight into the job race directors have to do. One thing that doing this highlighted was the fact that my time management skills are not what they used to be, so I found myself missing training sessions to go to Atomic Man meetings. I also had some last minute travel come up, and with a week of illness in there too, I was starting to feel like my training was getting to be intermittent. Not my training for Atomic Man... no, even though Atomic Man was the USAT Rocky Mountain Region duathlon championships this year my sights were firmly set on a race 6 days later: Ironman 70.3 St. George!

About a week before Atomic Man I started an additional immunosuppressant (Tacrolimus), to supplement the CellCept I already take for my uveitis. Starting a new medication is always a little stressful, especially learning if/how it will affect my ability to train and race. The list of potential side effects is awesome: "Side effects can be severe and include infection, cardiac damage, hypertension, blurred vision, liver and kidney problems, tacrolimus nephrotoxicity, hyperkalemia, hypomagnesemia, hyperglycemia, diabetes mellitus, itching, lung damage, and various neuropsychiatric problems such as loss of appetite, insomnia, Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, confusion, weakness, depression, cramps, neuropathy, seizures, tremors, and catatonia."

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any noticeable side effects. Catatonia isn't really compatible with racing of any kind.

The weather on race morning was just about perfect. Considering we had snow for this race 2 years ago, having a not-too-chilly, sunny, windless day was just fantastic. Of course, this is New Mexico, so if it's cool at 8am it's going to be pretty toasty by 11am. I was hoping to finish faster than last year (where I went 2hrs 25min) and avoid the midday heat. If I'm honest I was hunting for a spot on the podium too! My "race plan", if you can call it that, was to run the 10km hard, absolutely hammer the bike, and then hang on for the last 5km.

Pre-race setup went well (for me, my road helmet ended up racing on a friend's head)... and I got a good spot in transition, right near the bike in/out, next to @FeWmnLiz (you can/should read her race report here and you can find out how my helmet placed higher than I did).

As we lined up to start the first run I put myself next to some guys that looked fast. We got off to a speedy start, largely because the start is downhill, then I settled into a comfortable pace. I could see the leaders slowly pulling away from me, but I was fairly sure I couldn't keep up so I stuck with the plan and hoped to pull back some time on the bike. After the first lap of the Fat Man run course, I was in 5th place and could see 4th ahead of me. The top 3 had disappeared in a puff of burning rubber. It's not a flat course and I could feel a little cramping in my side as I ran up the hill in the middle of the second lap. Very unusual -- I never cramp while running. Gritting my teeth and telling myself that if I ignored it the pain would go away seemed to work. As I got to the final 100yds before transition I started to slow slightly and I was overtaken by a good local runner who actually accelerated into transition.
My time for the first run: 40:11 -- a new PR!

Coming into T1

After a tolerable 54 second transition, I was out on the bike course in 7th place. The Atomic Man course is on roads I ride a lot. I know every bump and twist in those roads and I was determined to leave everything on the road in this. Within a couple of minutes I was already up to 5th place and pushing hard. About 5 minutes later I was overtaken by a really strong rider from out of town, and he was moving. Still, he was a bigger guy than me and I thought I might get some time back on the 6ish mile, 1000ft hill that makes Fat Man a real cyclist's course. As I got to less than a mile from the turnaround I was overtaken again -- "I never thought I'd see my bike from this angle" -- Clay, a local hero on the multisport scene and former pro-cyclist sold me his old TT bike last year and he'd caught me, on his way to the top bike split of the day. So, back in 7th and I was just about to see the leaders coming back from the turnaround.

By the 20 mile mark I'd hammered the downhill, my neck and shoulders were aching from being tucked so aggressively on a rough road, and I could just see another rider in front of me. I caught them a quarter-mile from transition and entered T2 in 6th place.

Just hitting the dismount line

My split for the bike: 1:14:56.

Despite having a fairly speedy T2, 39 seconds according to the provisional results, I came out of transition in 7th place again.

Losing a place in transition... again!

I managed to hang with the guy in 6th place for about a mile, but the backs of my legs felt like they were welded solid and I was working so hard just to lose ground slowly. I hadn't seen anyone else behind me on the bike so decided that I had time and should just run to hold my place. Of course, that was when I started being able to see a new figure in front of me... for the last two miles I was slowly catching him, and that helped me keep pushing. With about a quarter-mile to go I moved to just behind my new nemesis and stayed on his shoulder. When we hit the uphill finishing stretch the pace slowly crept up, then he made his move: the sprint was on!

Sprint finish with Gage, a top bloke and strong competitor

It felt like forever, but was really only 200 yards. I crossed the line, hurting and not looking back, 2 seconds ahead.
My split for the second run: 23:53 (Officially 24:32, but the T2 times have been rolled into run 2 for some reason)

I needed a little lie down after all that

And that was it. Sixth overall and second in my age group (M35-39).
Final time: 2 hours, 20 minutes and 34 seconds.
All I had to do now was recover in time for the next race.

Big thanks to Frank, our race director, and all the other committee members for planning. Special thanks to the volunteers. It's a small race, but it still takes a lot of people and a lot of work to make it happen. Best of all, it's an awesome race and it's right on my doorstep.