My racing year isn’t over yet. I’ve got one more race to do. Or maybe, my racing year is over and this is the first race of 2025, although it’s still happening in 2024. It’s a weird one. The race, the timing, everything about it. So the question is, what to do?
This race isn’t my usual race. It isn’t a trail run. Well, not all of it. Neither is it an ultra run. I know how to do that. This race is a duathlon, but a special one; a cross duathlon. We will run seven kilometres on trails, mountain bike twenty kilometres, and finish with another three kilometre trail run. It looked fun when I signed up, but now it’s almost time to race, I’m not so sure.
Not a mountain biker
See, I’m not a mountain biker. I used to believe I’m not a biker at all, but lately I’m starting to think I might be. Not a fast one. I bike as slow as I run. But I have fun being on a bike. No, that’s not true. I’ve fun being on my gravel bike. Biking on the road is not my thing. Just like running on the road isn’t my thing. I like to be out in the forest. I like to be among the birds and the bees.
Having said that, mountain biking isn’t my thing as well. I already knew that. I did it in my twenties. But I lack skills and guts. Racing down slopes, with big trees waiting at the bottom, isn’t something I like. Especially when those trails are muddy and covered with protruding tree roots. One day, my front wheel hit a root as big as a tree and sent me flying over my handle bars, missing the tree ahead of me by inches. That’s the day I sold my mountain bike.
In the saddle again
Yet, I’m in the saddle again. Why? That’s a good question. Probably stupidity. Or just me being a bit over enthusiastic, again. When I got injured earlier this year, I bought a gravel bike and discovered it’s fun to ride a bike in the forest on dirt roads. Being a trail runner, I started to look for run – bike – runs. Trail run – bike – runs. I discovered this Cross Duathlon de Peel. It sounded fun. There was just one problem; the mountain bike trail isn’t suitable for gravel bikes. It’s a serious mountain bike trail. So I decided to buy a mountain bike.
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I have fun, I admit. As long as the trail is not too technical. Single tracks are fine. Little steep climbs are fine. Downhills are fine; as long as I’m not surrounded by trees, or worse, heading straight into a tree. To be fair, if it wasn’t for the trail running, I wouldn’t have stepped on the bike.
Why am I doing this?
But mountain biking isn’t the only reason I’m asking myself what to do. It’s also the race itself. Or better said, the timing of the race. I like to race at the end of the year, yet I’ve got another race coming up a month from now. So the timing of this race isn’t the best. To be fair, the timing of the race after this isn’t the best either, as I’m running the Chianti Ultra Trail the third week of March. And that timing isn’t the best as well, as I’m running the Rotterdam Marathon half of April. In short: I’ve made a mess of my race schedule again. Typically me, being too enthusiastic.
It doesn’t have to be all bad though. A race doesn’t have to be a race. It can be good training. The difference? A race is all-out, training is running with the brakes on. That’s why I’m wondering what to do? Am I going to race this cross duathlon, or am I going to run with the brakes on? Is it going to be about finishing as fast as I can, or just about finishing?
I’ve got two more days to come up with the answer. I’ll keep you posted.
For now, keep on running.
