The finish line was all the way up there.

On Sunday, I competed in the what is hoped to be the 1st annual Enchanted Rock Extreme Duathlon put on by San Antonio based Redemption Race Productions. The 4 mile run/16 mile bike/2 mile run race was advertised as a challenging course with a finish on the top of Enchanted Rock. Their race motto was “No Whining.”

Runners take off at the start of the duathlon

Local pro James Cleveland won the overall race at 1:24:55 with a 31:09 run (6:14 minute mile) on the first leg, 43:13 bike (22.2 MPH), and 10:32 climb (8:47 minute mile.) Kathryn Hunter from Houston Austin won the women’s overall at 1:42:40 (39:14/49:10/14:15.) There was also a race within the race to see who could climb Enchanted Rock at the end the fastest. Cleveland dominated the men’s side by a minute and a half at 4:38 (9:16 minute mile) and Tiffany Cress of Austin edged out Hunter by twelve seconds posting at 6:18 (12:36 minute mile.) Full race results are now online at Redemption Race Productions’ website.

Elliott starts the 16-mile bike phase. We have photos of every participant in the bicycle phase, click the image to see them.

My Experience

For challenge and natural beauty, this race did not disappoint. First though, I’d like to say there were two instances of false advertising on this race. The first run was actually 5 miles, not 4, and the third leg of the race was advertised as a run.  As far as I could tell, there was no “running” when ascending the rock!

Descending stairs before the big climb at the finish.

This was my first race since last fall, and honestly I was not feeling very motivated. I love Enchanted Rock, but the idea of leaving at 5 AM to race in upper 30 degree weather did not excited me. (I also had had a few beers and too much chocolate cake and pizza at my children’s birthday party on Saturday.) Marcus volunteered to drive and come take pictures, so I figured what the heck. Even though I had 4 layers of clothing on, I was FREEZING when we got there. Still, I figured once I got running, I’d warm up.

Sure enough, by the second mile of the run I was stripping cloths like a nudists at Hippie Hollow. The run encompassed running the Loop Trail around Enchanted Rock. It was very rocky and uneven at the beginning and end of the loop, but most of the run was on a wide, rolling crushed granite path. Some people complained about the uneven parts, but hopping around and finding the best lines brought back feelings of childhood for me. I have to say this was the most beautiful run route I’ve ever done in a race. Seeing the sun come up over the park was not to be missed.

One humorous aside, this was only my second duathlon though I’ve done over 20 triathlons. In triathlon which usually start with the swim, I’ve been used to the brief “warming of the water” at the start of the race. No such luck in at running race, so I was incredibly thankful to find the park port-a-potty about 2 miles out on the trail.

I felt good coming back into transition to the bike. The only bummer was I was low on fluids. I’m a heavy sweater, and I like to carry my own water on the run.  There are no drink stops on the bike, so I tend to race self contained. The only problem was I discovered a leak in my bike bottle just before the race started. That left me with just the 20 oz running bottle I had. I should have taken some water from the stops on the run, but just didn’t think about it.

Biking is my strongest leg, and I go into the aerobars and cruised on the rolling road course picking off dozens of riders who had out run me. The thing I noticed about the racers on the bike leg was the high number of people I passed with full on triathlon/TT bikes sitting up on the saddle out of the areobars. I’d say if you are going to race a tri bike, train yourself to remain in the areobars vast majority of the time or just race a road bike. Your body is the biggest drag and you are just wasting the purpose of the bike by failing to stay areo. Oh well, I guess I’ll just take advantage of the situation and keep passing people.

The only problem on the bike was my lack of sufficient beverages started to catch up with me as I felt cramping in my calves throughout the bike. A little stretching on the pedals, and I was OK. Once off the bike however, my legs felt noodly.

As I said before, there was precious little running going up Enchanted Rock. As I got off the base trail and onto the actual rock, all thoughts of running ceased. I was simply put my head down and make a steady march to the top. My finish time ended up being 1:56:39 which was good enough for 6th place out of 14 in my age group. Not bad for a B priority race the first time out this season.

Final Thoughts

Redemption Race Productions did a great job with putting this race on and it’s definitely one I’d do again. I’d also say the state park staff were great, and I appreciate Texas Parks and Wildlife opening up this popular park to a great race.