Doug Heady conquered the second race of the the 1st Annual Team NordicSkiRacer.Com Fall Duathlon Series with a total time on 37:47. With the fastest transition and rollerski times, Doug was able to make up enough time from his run to beat second place finisher Mike Muha by 1:21. Tim Feldkamp came in a strong third. This is the second straight victory for Doug.

Race Director Dan Motowski marking the course before the race. Orange for the first running lap, yellow for the second lap.

Mike Muha lead the race from the start, but was passed by Rob Fairman at the start of the second lap. Rob picked up the pace and clobbered everyone in the run. Rob's slow time during the transition allowed Muha to be the first skier out on the rollerski leg.

Doug Heady was third into the transition area, with Jeff Potter a mere 5 seconds behind. Once again, Doug's superior transition time - a full 38 seconds faster than the next fastest transition - put him into a great position to win the rollerski segment and the race. He easily caught and passed Muha in the first couple kilometers of the rollerski.

Both Muha and Fairman classic skied the rollerski portion of the race. Rob's slow V2 910K rollerskis put him at a great time disadvantage. Dan Motowski also had fairly slow rollerskis.

Most Improved Duathlete

Doug Heady took 22 seconds off his October time to win the "Most Improved" award. Although his rollerski was 51 seconds slower than last month, he took 50 seconds off his run and 23 seconds off his transition to get a net gain of 22 seconds. Both Mike Muha and Dan Motowski were slower than October. [Editorial comment: We were probably slower because they were all tired out from marking the course before the race!]. Tim Feldkamp had a much better time this month but he changed from rollerskis to blades so his time could not be compared. 

Bill Kaltz chose to do the Iceman Race instead of the Duathlon. We believe it was purely a defensive move on his part...  :)

Rollerski-Only Division

Jeff Ray set a blistering pace, finishing the rollerski in 13:13, almost a minute ahead of second place finisher Will McLaughlin. Greg Worrel - off his October pace - finished third, with newcomer Mike Heidinger on V2 Nordix (rollerskis that you can use with running shoes) finishing fourth.

It'll be interesting to see if Jeff can set an even faster pace next month! I'm not sure if he can fit 120 psi into those V2 Aero 150's...

The Course

Race Director Dan Motowski again put together a well marked course over the mountain bike trails and paved bike path at Island Lake Recreation Area near Brighton, Michigan. The running trail was roughly 1/3 up, 1/3 down, 1/3 flat with relatively easy hills. The trail utilized both the Blue and Yellow mountain bike trails between the Riverbend Picnic Area and the mountain bike trailhead. The running portion of the race was roughly 5 km long.

The rollerski path went up the paved bike path hill from Riverbend, then followed the mostly flat path for 3.1 miles. There was one road crossing, and the finish line was over the top and down to the bottom of the biggest hill on the bike path at Island Lake.

Weather was fabulous! Sunny, no wind, temperatures right around 30 at race time. A few later arrivals postponed the race start until about 10:20.

The third and final Duathlon race of this series will be held on Sunday, December 7 at 10:00am. Is anyone going to beat Doug's time?