OSCEOLA DUATHLON...IN JOE'S WORDS..

Rochester tri/du-athlete Joe Moyer (pictured) has been racing like a banshee of late. And with great success. He's won two of the last three duathlons he's entered, and placed 2nd in the other. His wife Ann has enjoyed similar success.

Joe's most recent victory was at the Osceola Duathlon last Sunday. This is his report:

"When pulling into Osceola on race morning, the temperature reading at a bank was somewhere in the 20s, maybe 26. I don't quite remember as I was trying not to acknowledge it. When unloading the bikes from the back of the truck, there was a layer of frost on both of them.

"The bike portion of the race was shortened to 11 miles from 22, due to concerns that the cold...and forecasted windy conditions would be hazardous at worst and unpleasant at best.

The opening 3 mile run and closing 1 mile run remained the same. During packet pick-up, many of the athletes expressed some dissatisfaction that the shortened bike course would cause them to not place as well overall. I could understand their feelings, as I am a much stronger cyclist than runner. That said, I feel that Gloria (the race director) made the correct. decision,

"I was assigned bib #1, so there was some pressure to put in a good effort. I knew I needed to stay close to the fastest runners, so I would have time to....move in front of them on the shortened bike course.

"Ann and I both warmed up well so we could go into the first run at full intensity. When the gun went off.., I settled into a good pace....By the halfway point I moved into 3rd...and was only 10-15 seconds behind the two leaders coming into transition. I saw that Ann was in the lead at this point of the race.

"Transition was a bit slower than I would have liked, as I needed to put on some winter gloves so that my hands wouldn't go numb on the bike.

"On the bike, I settled into a good pace and could see the two leaders...I moved into 2nd...after two miles. At about mile 3 I made my final pass...Knowing how short the bike course was, I was riding right at, or above, anaerobic threshold...as I needed a bit of a buffer going into the last run.

"Coming into transition, they announced that I had a pretty good lead, so I got the running shoes on as quickly as possible and headed out. I started the run very hard, and maintained that intensity the entire time...Nobody was close enough to pass me, but due to the fact that there were waves of athletes that started behind me, there could still have been another competitor covering the course in a quicker time...

"I crossed the line with a time of 57:23. The announcer told me if nobody else crossed...by 1:00:23 I would be the overall winer. (The last wave started 3 minutes behind the first wave.)

"1:00:23 came and went without anyone else finishing and I realized that I had won. Immediately I headed out onto the run course to find my wife Ann. I was hoping she could pull off an overall win, as I bet it would be the first time in MN multisport history that a husband and wife won the same race overall.

"Alas, it was not to be, and Ann finished 2nd...which was a very good effort for her considering the cold and her intolerance to it.

"Maybe next year Ann and I can pull off the double win." JM

Editor's Note: Joe, we're not sure that you and Ann would have been the first Minnesota couple to win the same race. We suspect that Suzann and Mo Mouw may have done that on more than one occasion.

2009 Osceola Duathlon Results

1. Joe Moyer (Rochester, MN) - 57:25

2. Jim Felling (River Falls, WI) - 58:30

3. Denver Rogolla (19, Morse, MN) - 59:12

1. Diane Hankee (Lino Lakes, MN) - 1:05:33 (This was Diane's 3rd win in 2009!)

2. Ann Moyer (Rocjester, MN) - 1:06:21

3. Renne Richards (Oshkosh, WI) - 1:06:47