"Southern Comfort" 2009 Duathlon Worlds report

It’s been a fun filled year of racing and training, all of which is culminating with this Saturday’s duathlon world championships.

Being held in Concord North Carolina I thought it reasonable to drive down to the race instead of flying which meant that I could bring my wife and son down and introduce them to some southern hospitality.

After a few dozen renditions of Baba Black Sheep and the best of Raffi, all thoughts of world championship stress melted away in the 90 degree Virginia sun well into our 12hr car ride. Fortunately we did not have to tackle the entire trip in one sitting, as we were fortunate to stay with family in Washington D.C.

There is nothing better than visiting family while on a road trip. Arriving to welcoming arms and a home cooked meal beats any hotel stay hands down. We had a lovely time catching up with the Longworth side of the family and were ready for a reasonable bed time when the alarm bells went off as Caden’s froggie went missing! Lets preface this by mentioning that he has never fallen asleep without froggie in the 30months of his life. An all out APB went out for froggie and at midnight we had lost almost all hope, when Caden with a big grin on his face, calmly went over to the desk in our guest room and pulled him out of a drawer. Nice one…

Concord greeted us with familiar sights and smells as we passed through the standard strip malls and mazes of fast food and chain restaurants. To top it all off, the site of this year’s race will be the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. I must say that this is one interesting venue. We will be racing on and throughout the Nascar track and other various motor sports venues. This place is huge and the bike course was set up in a fun and exciting fashion. The roads are immaculate and the course is super fast, but highly technical. Not for the faint of heart.

We were able to escape the carnival atmosphere of Speedway boulevard, and found a welcoming local restaurant that even featured local ingredients. It was a great comfort to dig into my Cajon grits and shrimp meal full of creamy goodness. This evening froggie was sequestered to the crib, so we anticipate no late night hide and seek games.