Four seconds.
That was the difference between first and second at the Tri One On duathlon in Port Washington.
I did not go crazy. I just pushed consistently hard. The transitions were good. The bike was solid, especially considering I was on a road bike and had not ridden in about six weeks.
This was also my first race starting the bike with my shoes already clipped into the pedals and held level with rubber bands. I had practiced it enough to know what should happen. The real version went smoothish, which counts as a win for a first attempt.
Somehow, even with the time away from riding, I had the fastest bike split.
That number made almost no sense to me. My lower back and upper glute had made riding barely comfortable, so the bike had been mostly absent while I worked through physical therapy. I expected six weeks away to show up immediately. Instead, the road bike carried me through the strongest part of the race.
Then I gave the race away on the second run.
I missed part of the course and ran about 300 meters farther than I was supposed to. My recorded second run was 19:25. Without the extra distance it would have been closer to 18:30.
I finished second overall by four seconds.
There are plenty of races where four seconds is just four seconds. This was not one of them. I came to win, had the legs to win, and made the most basic kind of mistake. If you come to win, you better know the course.
The total time was just under 59 minutes. I ran a little afterward to cool down, though the heat put a quick limit on that. My back seemed okay, which mattered after the last few weeks of barely being able to ride comfortably.
I was not exactly on form. The strength work had left me exhausted, and I could feel it. That made the result encouraging and irritating at the same time. I could race well while drained. I could also lose a race while being fit enough to win it.
The encouraging part matters. I have been unsure what kind of result I can produce when training fatigue is this high. Now I know I can still stay controlled, move through the transitions, and push hard for an hour. The irritating part was still the same: I missed the win by four seconds.
Fresh, I think there is another minute or minute and a half in there. By next summer I want to get the whole thing down around 54 minutes.
For now the plaque says second. The watch says 59 minutes. The extra 300 meters are mine.