And it all came tumbling down...
Encouraged by a good run time in my last race, I thought I should try to qualify for the 2025 World Championship in Duathlon (run - bike - run). It's going to be in Spain and will fit into my travel schedule. For that I need to do races to improve my ranking, which I thought would not be a problem. I signed up for Katy (Texas) Triathlon/Duathlon September 1 and planned for some more during the fall. I had a great race. There are never many people in duathlon, so everyone started at the same time, all ages and men and women together. To my surprise, I felt that the initial run pace was slow. I had planned to start modestly, but not THAT slow. After the first run of 2.5 km, I was at 4th place of total with a 7.39/mile pace. (It was a flat course). Bike went fine too; 6th place of all with 20.9 miles/hour pace. At the second run, I was a little tired but still managed an 8.45/mile pace on 5km and a 3rd best time. Overall, I won the women's race and was number 5 in total. Only four