Location
Rocky Hill Ranch, Smithville, TX
What Is It?
The Dirty Du is a run/bike/run event. I did the sprint version of the race which consisted of:
- Run: 2 miles
- Mountain Biking: 6 miles
- Run: 2 miles
Team Mates
Since I did the sprint version, I didn’t have a team mate. The long version of the race allowed you to do relay racing though.
Category
25-29 year old Clydes (men over 200 pounds)
Placing
Unfortunately, last Tuesday I hurt my IT Band. But I still attempted the race. And after 1/2 up the first run I could feel my IT Band starting to get irritated. Then 1/2 down that first run I had issues putting weight on my leg.
So, at that point I called it quits and DNFd my first race.
Experience
It was like a big party there! I had great fun even though I had to DNF the race.
I started off the run good. I was feeling good, keeping within myself. I was well ahead of quite a few people and passing others. But half up Fat Chuck’s I started to feel my IT band get irritated. I thought this was a bad sign, so I slowed down and walked most of the way up. Running a bit on the smoother/flat/downhill areas to try to keep things from getting worse.
I got to the top and the turn around area, and I was down to two people behind me. I got about half way down Fat Chuck’s and I could not put weight on my right leg with out it hurting. It was at that moment I decided to call it quits so that I didn’t do much more damage to it. This was suppose to be a fun race anyways and I have a more important one coming up.
After I was done with my race I stuck around and cheered on my fellow racers. It was great fun to watch everyone else come and go racing around, getting their butts kicked by the course.
After the race was done we headed over for our free hamburgers, which if you have not had before I highly suggest you go and try them! And while we waited for the burgers they did the awards ceremony. Quite a few people from our group go top three in their respective age groups.
I got a really nice T-shirt in my Swag Bag and then another one during the awards ceremony for being there and being a ‘Clydesdale’. Also got another water bottle and some other stuff in the Swag Bag. Was quite a good haul for the $35 race fee I paid.
Pictures
I forgot to take my camera so I have no pictures of this event.
Final Thoughts
It was a fun race to be at! It would have been nicer to have finished, but I can live with the DNF and the fun that went with it. And there is always next year to come back and finish… And finish well.
Days Later… (2005/12/05)
My IT Band doesn’t seem to be bothering me today. But I will still take it easy this week and try to stretch it as much as I can. Need to get it working correctly so I can continue my training for my next major race, the Houston Half Marathon!
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