I thought I’d do a duathlon in preparation for the triathlon season. Something nice and small just to get into the swing of multisport races; a sprint distance race on a closed road motor circuit sounded just the ticket. However… I didn’t notice it was a World Championship qualifier until a long time after I signed up! Not so small then…
So, with my expectations set rock bottom in terms of ranking, I made sure my focus was on my personal performance! I’m still building up running after an 8 month ‘niggle’. You know, one of those things that will hopefully be gone by the next run. However, I’m really pretty confident it’s getting better now. Honest!
The course was 4 times round a 1.25 km loop for the first run, and we’d been split up into waves based on age – I was in the 40-49 wave which had 32 people in it. My plan was to run by feel, not going into the red at any point.
As soon as the race started, I drifted to near the back. I think I was in about 28th place. I was running pretty quickly for me – 3:30 per km – but nowhere near as fast as most people! However, despite dropping down to a more realistic 3:45/3:50 pace, I slowly started overtaking.
Here you see me sporting my traditional camp running wrist!
It was a cold day, and I was wearing an extra layer under my tri suit and gloves, which felt way too warm in the sun running with the wind. However, turning back into the wind I was pleased that it seemed like the correct decision. I’d got warm enough with the wind that I didn’t want to shelter behind other athletes back into the wind as I was enjoying the cooling!
By the end of the run, I was up to 21st, averaging 3:48 pace, and just sneaking under 19 minutes for 5km.
I took my running shoes off, and made my way tentatively out of transition barefoot (my bike shoes were attached to the bike). I was being careful of my niggly foot rather than being fast here. Still, it didn’t hurt and I got going.
I loved this course – there is beautifully smooth tarmac with NO POTHOLES! Sorry, got a bit excited there. It’s quite technical for a TT bike, with a few cutbacks and a hill. I overtook a lot and really enjoyed getting better at the course as I did laps.
Oh yes, the laps. I really should have read the instructions. I knew it was meant to be 20km, but not how many laps that was. I thought I’d done 2 laps and looked at how far it was – 7.5 km (yep – I’d already miscounted laps), so though it must be 6 laps. No 7. Oh bugger…
Knowing the distance might be slightly over or under so I couldn’t just rely on that, I resorted to asking people I was overtaking how many laps there were! This got a lot of confused looks, and several answers I couldn’t really hear. However – I had a cunning plan.
I knew Donald was racing, and would likely lap me towards the end of the bike. Soooo, just wait for that. Then stay close enough to spot when he dismounted, then do one more. Genius, right?
Which, surprisingly is what actually happened. It took a bit more power to stay with him once he did overtake me on lap 6 (?). At a legal distance. But it was actually fine. Maybe I should have been putting a bit more effort in all the time? Anyway, he finished, I overtook him while he was getting his feet out (un-lapped! It counts!) And did one more.
I got off the bike in 5th position, with 6th close behind.
Coming into transition I ran through carefully, barefoot again. I took my gloves off to get my ridiculous running shoes back on, but a) cramped up a bit and b) couldn’t get my fingers to work well enough to get them through the hoops on the trainers. So, this was a sloooow transition. Slow enough that Donald completed one of the 1.25km run loops before I got out (lapped again damnit!). And way behind the athlete that came into transition with me, so back into 6th.
The final run was on a different loop than the first, with a slight downhill to the turnaround point, then back up. I had no intention of burying myself here, but did want to try to run at a decent pace off the bike. The downhill helped to get going, so I averaged a respectable 3:53 per km. I got overtaken by a charging Sullivan (same story as last time I did this race), and one other athlete who was a lap behind, but he was having calf issues, and I overtook him coming into the finish.
First up we tested with Professional Triathlete James Teagle. He tested various things, starting with an EZGains cover on an MVR wheel vs a Prime disc wheel. As expected, yet again the results were very very close, with the EZGains disc faster at some speeds/yaws, and the Prime faster at others, but all within a remarkably small range of variance; across the whole range they were within 0.5 watts (testing at 45 and 50 kmph).
Other tests he did showed a bottle between the arms was faster than without, and same for a bottle behind.
Another test showed a big win (5 watts) for having a bottle down the top. Since doing this test, this has now been banned by the latest incarnation of Ironman rules – a set rules that we’ve spent a lot of time examining and talking to Ironman about at EZGains. Fortunately EZGains wheel covers are still allowed and we believe all EZGains products are.
Just to confirm that, the first Ironman races with the new rules – San Juan, Peurto Rico and Campeche Mexico – have taken place with over 20 EZGains customers using a variety of products including the Chainring Guard and Front derailleur guard and we have not received any negative feedback from any athletes competing and no issues with the officials.
The only other thing showing such a big gain was putting Velotoze calf guards on – 5.5 watts for those! These can be handy for triathlons as you can wear them under the wetsuit if it’s a wetsuit legal swim.
For pure cycling, we had another athlete Max, testing across lots of the Velotoze products – the XL and XXL socks (XL and XLL meaning tall, rather than big footed…) also came out well at about a 2 watt gain at 40 kmph.
Blue is normal socks, yellow XL, green XXL.
My testing was done at a speed suitable for my triathlons – 40kmph, and 0 and 5 degrees yaw. One test was with a bottle between my arms (2.5 watts faster with the bottle on).
Double rear bottles tested 2 watts slower than no rear bottles, a single rear bottle was a tiny amount faster than no rear bottle – 0.5 a watt.
The most unexpected thing was the GB tri suit test. In the current kit, there is the option for a short sleeved, or a vested triathlon suit.
Generally short sleeved tops are faster than the vest versions, but are hotter, so there’s a choice to be made for hot races. So the question of if the sleeved top is faster, and if so, by how much, is important.
The above shows that the vest tri suit (brown) is slower than the short sleeved tri suit (purple), but only by 1.5 watts, which is much closer than I anticipated! It’s certainly nowhere near the difference compared to the best short sleeved tri suit I tested, the Huub Anemoi (that was a 8.3 watts faster than the vest tri suit). I think it’s relatively poor performance is probably at least partially due to how short the sleeves are.
So what does that mean in terms of time differences? Assuming that you were travelling at 40kmph, here’s a table of extra seconds per watt over 40, 90 and 180 kms.
So for the GB tri-suit, if it’s a hot race, I’ll almost certainly go for the vest version as I think I’d lose much more time on the run due to overheating on the run – I’ll just need to make sure I use some decent sun-cream on my shoulders.
I was a little worried. The forecast was for 29 degrees C. I’ve raced in hotter conditions, but I’ve pretty much melted! However, I’d been looking forward to this race, so I’d just have to use Plan B – dump water over myself whenever I could!
This race was running alongside an aquabike race – a qualifier for the world championships – which attracted a lot of people. The aquabikers started 5 minutes before the the triathlon, so I got to watch that start which is always fun!
It was a deep water start, and I positioned myself at the front. After the countdown (10,9,8,6?!,7,5,4,3,2,1) we were off! The guy to my left pulled ahead and I tucked behind him. However… he was kicking too hard – he wasn’t going to last long at this pace. I glanced around and saw another athlete to the left slightly further ahead so switched to his feet just as the first guy started fading.
Looking around there was one other swimmer ahead an pulling away. I decided to try to switch to their feet. I had to push really hard as they were already a few meters ahead and pulling away. It took about a minute for me to close the gap! But… I was now struggling, having pushed too hard.
It also turned out they were moving faster than I thought I could hold, even drafting. I had been planning on taking the swim relatively easy so I wouldn’t overheat later. So after the second buoy I grudgingly let him go and calmed the pace down.
However, shortly afterwards he stopped to have a look around and get his bearings. The sun was quite low, but I wasn’t having much difficulty seeing the next buoy – maybe his goggles weren’t as good? Regardless, by the time he got going again I was right on his feet again! OK, I thought, I’ll try to hang on a bit longer!
About this time we started passing through the aquabikers – first just the odd one, then more and more. He pulled away and stopped a couple more times, and each time I caught up. Then he started going wide – I decided I really should swim at my own pace and took the direct path to the next bouy.
Coming to the end I spotted him again (we had fetching green swim hats on while the aquabikers had pink). He was only about 10 seconds ahead after all that!
I did 26:55, which would be a bad time except it seems it was a long course.
I was sure I overtook the other triathlete in transition, so I was onto the bike in the lead! I was looking forwards to the fast course! The course had a link road out to what I think was the old Bedford/Cambridge road (there is now a big dual carriageway). 4 loops between 2 roundabouts, on a good surface.
I wasn’t disappointed! I seemed to be moving very fast for the power I was outputting (44-45 kmph average excluding roundabouts for 290 watts). I came to the conclusion that, since I’d calibrated my power meter early in the morning and it was now much hotter, maybe it read lower.
I got held up a bit behind cars behind other bikes, but not much and I got lucky at the roundabouts, again occasionally having to slow down but not stop. I overtook lots and lots! That was fun!
Coming back into transition not having been overtaken, I knew I was in the lead! But this is where the heat was really going to come into play. I was trying to take it steady, but was also scared some fast runner would fly by! I got some water at the first aid station and dumped it over my head. It helped a bit!
The course was a 2.5km out and back, which you ran twice. A few inclines on a gravel surface, and blissfully, quite a lot of tree cover providing shade! After the first turnaround, James (the man behind ATW) cycled past and held a bottle of water out for me. Legend! I dumped some over my head and carried on.
When I saw the athlete in second place coming the other way I was happy! I was close to 4 minutes in the lead – if I didn’t do anything silly I was going to win! I was able to pass the half full water bottle over to him and it felt like good karma!
I wasn’t impressing myself with the pace, but I think that was the heat, meaning I was always going to be slower than I’d hoped. Well, I’m always going to be slower than I hope because I’m such an optimistic person! This was even slower than that…
Still, by the next turn around I was able to check; I wasn’t losing much time to those behind! Yay!
At the final turn around point I saw someone who was only about a minute behind me and looked like he was moving fast. I was pretty sure he was on his first lap, but to be sure, I tried to push faster. I didn’t actually move faster, but I did try!
Even so, I did have a bit of a chance to mess around for the camera at this point!
Coming into the finish I ran under Archie, then enjoyed the ice cold bucked of water and sponges at the finish!
Having missed my preferred season opener at St. Neots, I signed up for a Sprint Triathlon at Dorney Lake – one of the events in the Eton Sprints weekend. This was mainly motivated by a chance to go away with my father in his shiny new camper van.
One of the races going on was a draft-legal European Qualifier draft legal which isn’t really my bag. But fortunately, there was also a non-drafting version, so I was able to sign up for that.
I had high hopes for going pretty fast as the weather was awesome but I knew the swim and bike legs were slightly long, so I didn’t think the time would be that impressive.
Unlike the draft-legal racing, for some reason the non-drafting race had a rolling start and despite there only being about 140 people in the “Open” (genetically male?) wave, it had been split into two waves. That meant I was in the old person wave! Bah, humbug….oh…maybe I do need to be in there…
At the start I got in line about 7 people back from the front. We had a couple of seconds between each person – so after a brief pause and some banter about doing butterfly, I was off! The course went out to a buoy (which I think was where the mass start version started), then turned left, and went straight up the rowing lake for a while.
I had someone behind me swimming on my toes quite quickly but was picking off the people ahead. Before long I was in the lead! That’s never happened to me before swimming, so it was quite a novel (and pleasant) feeling!
Fortunately, it was easy to sight where to go, as the course was pretty close to parallel with the rowing buoys going up the lake. This had an unexpected benefit as there was a line under the water connecting each line of buoys, so you could even use that for direction when looking down.
I glanced back at the next turn buoy – I had lost the person behind me, and now had clear water behind! I carried on, trying to focus on technique. The sun was shining down through the water, and I saw some pretty large fish. Carp maybe? Probably 50cm long? Anyway, back to the race…
I got out at the big blue arch and looked back. I had a big gap over the next athlete – probably about a minute!
I ran to transition and got changed. There are two things that I need to improve here.
1) I hadn’t done my normal pre-race checks of running from the swim-in and bike-in to my transition slot and hadn’t looked for waymarks. This turned out to be fine here as my bike is pretty obvious.
2) I like to put socks on but had accidentally brought the wrong pair. The pair I did have are very tight cycling ones, so I wasted some time wrestling these onto my wet feet.
I managed to leave transition just as the second athlete was coming in 🙂
The bike course was just as quick as I’d hoped. There were a few corners that didn’t require much slowing down unless you happened to get there at the same time as someone else. As it was a 4-lap affair and we started 20 minutes behind the female wave, they were still on the course.
By the second lap there were plenty of male athletes to overtake as well! At one point I spotted another person with an EZGains disc. We had a bit of a chat afterwards – it’s another nice excuse to be social!
I had a lot of fun overtaking and waving to my dad each time I came past him. My average speed slowly crept up. It was lower initially, since I started with my shoes on my bike, so it took a short while to get my feet in and get yo to speed. By the end, it had got up over 43kmph. Oh yeah!
I got through transition with a bit of wasted time looking for my shoes. It’s always nice to look professional when leading a race… But I got going and felt OK.
The run course was a simple out-and-back along by the lake. I had a bit more time to call out to dad than on the bike and had a little banter with athletes coming the other way. I gave out and got some encouragement -I love the atmosphere at triathlons!
At the turnaround point I had a chance to see how far behind second place was. Running back, I could see some people not far off, but it was some women I’d overtaken. Then another. Then another…
After a while I saw the person in 2nd and realised he was 7 minutes behind! I figured even with the staggered start I was pretty safe and eased off the pace just a bit. Not too much though – there was the other (younger) wave to consider. However, the organisers had said there wouldn’t be any prizes or presentations for the winners (boo!), just a discount voucher via email for the first 3 in each wave, so there wasn’t much pressure there.
I jogged on, merrily waving to dad on the way back then trotted over the finish line. I thought I’d just be fine as I wasn’t pushing hard, but it turned out I was hot by then. I really enjoyed a cold alcohol free Erdinger at the finish!
Turns out I finished with close to 7 1/2 minutes to spare in my wave, and also managed to beat the youngsters (I’m calling under 40 youngsters…) by 2 1/2 minutes. Whoop!
Before I get too excited congratulating myself (easily done…) there was an equivalent race on the previous day – there were some faster people in that race (including Patrick who is in my age group and I’ve had good races with in Poland and Abu Dhabi).
Pooling all the male athletes across both days, I can get a bit more data on how I did in the various disciplines. It’s obviously a bit rough due to the conditions being different on each day, but it’ll do to figure out what needs most work.
Swim 9/360 = 2.5%
T1 14/360 = 3.8%
Bike 1/360 = BOOM!
T2 22/360 = 6.1%
Run 24/360 = 6.7%
FWIW, to get up to 9th in the run I’d have had to do 1 minute faster (I very much doubt the coasting cost me anywhere near that much).
Since I was only able to start running again 5 weeks ago after a long break for a tendonitis injury, I’m really pleased at how well that’s going. Hopefully I’ll have a good injury-free period and gain some pace now…
I qualified for the standard distance European Triathlon Championships Poland at Southport Triathlon last year. I was particularly excited as it was held during school half term, so my family could come and support me!
It was in a town called Olsztyn, which regularly hosts international triathlons and is a lovely location for it.
The course was 1500m swim in Ukiel lake, 40km in 3 laps on closed, mostly dual carriageway roads, and then 10km in 4 laps in the park by the lake.
The lake has a sandy beach, some food options including ice-cream, and some water sports, so I pictured it being a great location for my kids and wife to hang out at.
Unfortunately we weren’t lucky with the weather – it was kind of cold, wet, and windy. The last turning out to be important as the day before the race, the organisers decided to ban disc wheels on the basis of them being dangerous in high winds, despite a rather clement day being forecast for our age group race.
Disc wheels offer a significant advantage over spoked wheels, so many athletes use them. However, travelling with a bike is hard enough without trying to also bring an extra wheel.
So, this decision caused absolute chaos! There were people desperately trying to hire or buy wheels (even really poor ones at overinflated process) so that they could race. Some travelling hundreds of kms overnight to go and retrieve one from a friend. Some people failed to find one and just looked shell shocked. Even if they found one, it often was causing trouble to fit them and swap brakes over.
I use an EZGains wheel cover so was able to remove it, along with a few other people using them. It would have been a smug moment if it wasn’t so worrying for those that hadn’t found an option.
However… by the end of the day they announced they’d review the decision at 10 am the next day. Which they did, and changed their minds – discs we’re now allowed again!
10am was not a great time, as that left only 2 hours before transition closed (meaning you couldn’t touch your bikes after that). So you only had 2 hours to revert bikes and wheels, and to sort out breaks etc. and also do your normal things to set up ready for the race. Given that many people had had to use a mechanic for this, it was stressful!
I put my disc cover back on (the only hard part of this was trying to put electrical tape on and get it to stick because it was raining).
Fortunately, by the time the race started, the weather had cleared up, which was much more pleasant!
In my age group there were 32 people. I already knew there was 1 person who was going to be miles ahead, then my internet stalking had identified 3 others that I thought would likely be fighting for the last 2 slots on the podium. I thought I had a chance of getting on there too, but I’d have to have an amazing race to do so.
The start involved going into the water at the beach, then swimming under a pier and holding onto a rope until the start buzzer. We had a 30 second call, then we were off!
I tried to swim hard at the start, but immediately got caught up with people on either side. It was pretty rough, which was surprising given the small number of people! I ended up having to drop back and go round the outside of one of them.
By the first buoy, I’d got clear, but the damage had been done – the leaders were well clear, and the couple of people I tried drafting weren’t going fast enough, so I overtook them, and ended up swimming alone.
The water was pretty cold, but kind of refreshingly so. There was some choppy water in the wind, so in certain directions it felt a bit messy. Still, I felt like I was swimming with decent technique.
I overtook someone from the previous wave towards the end, and came out of the water and was able to high 5 my family!
I’d come out of the water in 6th. I measured it as 1540m, so 1:30 pace, which, with no one to draft I’m happy with.
I had a quick transition and got out on the bike. There were lots of athletes from different age groups on the course already. I was hoping to spot people from my age group as each group has different colour numbers on (mine was red).
However, it turned out they’d reused red for another age group, so I didn’t really have a clue how I was doing! I was, however, overtaking everyone I saw, which was a nice feeling at an international race!
(I’m not in this photo!)
The course involved some small hills, and 4 dead turns per lap – all of which were at the bottom of hills. This made for a slower course than I was expecting, although there was a long slightly downhill section with the wind where you could get some speed up (I was hitting 64 kmph there).
Then on a flat section afterwards there was a comedy puddle that stretched all the way across the road so you couldn’t avoid it – it was deep enough to make sure your shoes got wet! The rain started again, meaning I really had to concentrate, in that fast section in particular. It lasted a big chunk of the ride then stopped again.
On the last lap I started to think about the run and eased off and actually got overtaken by someone I’d recently overtaken. The cheek of it! I realised I was overdoing the easing off, so sped up a bit and re-overtook them.
I finished and ran into transition. I’d done 1 hour 4 minutes and 1 second on the bike, 4th fastest in the group.
With all the athletes in each age group racked together, I could see what position I was in. The racking for my age group was over a couple of rows, but it looked like there were just 2 bikes already there – I was in 3rd!
(This photo was from before the start – the racks were mostly empty when I got back)
I ran out onto the 4 lap course with the hope of being able to hang onto my position. The course took a slight uphill for quite a long time along the side of part of the bike course, then there was a down and up out and back section, then a short flat bit before a short sharp uphill and then downhill section through the woods, and a flat section past the beach back to the start. On the final lap there was a right turn to the finish line.
(I’m not in this photo either!)
I was holding just under 4 minute per km average over the lap and was overtaking lots – I wasn’t expecting that as previously in international races I’ve overtaken some, but mostly been overtaken!
At the out and back section I could see an Irish athlete in my age category who was about a minute ahead – I wasn’t loosing ground on him, but not gaining much either.
I got overtaken 3 times on the run. Once by the lead athlete in my age group (who won the whole race). I knew this was going to happen, but it was still frustrating! Once by a German athlete in my age group, and once by a Polish athlete in a younger age group.
I was running at my limit, but on the last lap I knew I wasn’t going to catch the Irish athlete, and knew my podium chance was slipping away. I really went for it and tried to catch back up to the German athlete. He was quite a way ahead, maybe 150 meters, but I started closing. I kept pushing, but was running out of time!
Coming into the last flat part I was really flying and really hurting. We came up to the turn off for the finish, but he was still 10 metres ahead, just too far to catch. But… he went straight on! He was a lap behind! I couldn’t believe it!
I ran down the finishing chute and sprinted for the line trying to catch a random athlete from another wave (she out-sprinted me). I collapsed over the line, an absolute mess. I’d done 39:05 for the 10km.
My wife and children were there and once I’d scraped myself off the ground I went over to them, where I was pretty emotional, and I loved seeing them there! They congratulated me on coming 4th.
4th? Hold on, what? I turned out I’d failed to count up to 3 in transition and I’d got the number of bikes wrong. Noooooooooooo! I was 1:09 behind 3rd, 1:44 behind 2nd (and I won’t mention how far behind 1st!). As a friend said – denied a place on the podium by basic maths skills…
While disappointed in the final result, I was actually really pleased with how I performed and the race execution. It was also quite special having my family there supporting me!
Afterwards we had a nice holiday visiting Gdansk, although I did end up with a sickness bug. It didn’t stop me from wearing my tasteful race T-shirt!
Running has never been my strong point in multi-sport, so duathlons, which feature two runs with a ride in the middle, generally are a bit depressing – I finish the first run a long way behind my competitors, cycle my way up the ranks, then in the final run get overtaken by the people around me.
However, having just got a shiny new 1:20:31 PB at the Cambridge half marathon (without any injuries – I’m touching wood as I type this…) I thought it would be worth having a go at the Duathlon Championships at Oulton park. Oh who am I trying to kid?! My real motivation here was riding a bike on the course there!
A custom made car/motorbike race track, on rolling terrain, it’s got smooth tarmac, sweeping bends, no cars, and fun hills with nothing too big or steep. It sounded great fun!
I travelled up early with my racing buddy Clinton in time to watch Ruth race in the sprint duathlon, a draft legal race which was a qualifier for the world triathlon race in 2023. She smashed it, coming 2nd in her age group, qualifying to represent GB!
I took some photos and couldn’t help but notice that one of the hills was a bit steeper than I’d pictured. Quite short, but it seemed to really sap the speed out of the racers.
There was a lot of talk about how many really strong athletes there were racing. While not a large field, it looked like it had attracted the best from around the country! I knew getting on the podium in my age group would be a big ask, but thought I might just be able to, having looked at the results from the previous championship, but I’d have to have a great race to manage that.
The plan was reasonably simple – aim at my half marathon pace on the first run (3:50 per km), then hit 90% FTP normalized watts on the bike (300), and do what I could on the last run. Half marathon pace would probably be a bit fast given the half marathon had been on a flat course, but I figured I wouldn’t manage to go any slower in all the excitement!
I had a couple of new aerodynamic toys on the bike that worked out well. In particular I was happy with the shiny new EZ-Aero Chainring cover, I think it really looks ace and on a windy day like this I can really do with the extra few watts saving.
On the start I was a couple of rows back and had a bit of banter with friends I’ve met at previous races and some new faces, and then we were off! The start is slightly downhill and everyone was excited, so it was fast! I averaged 3:30 pace for the first km and had dropped back to around 100th overall. The athletes at the front were going under 3:00 pace!
I felt like I was holding back, but dropped the pace slowly. At the bottom of the hill, the course curved round into the wind and started slightly uphill. I slowly started overtaking people, which felt good! The overtaking got less frequent, but continued for the rest of the run, although I tended to lose ground on the uphills, and gain it on the downs.
I came into transition just behind an athelete who I’ve previously raced and has left me behind on runs before, which was a good mental boost. I’d averaged 3:49 pace in 32:52 for the 8.6km, and made my way to 69th at this point. 10th in my age group – lots of work to do then!
I got through transition quickly enough, and even managed a proper flying mount without crushing anything delicate. I managed to get one foot straight into my bike shoes, but messed up the other – I even managed to pull the Velcro strap completely out of it’s loop so had to fiddle that back in, although I didn’t have to stop to do that.
The course was every bit as fun to cycle on as I’d hoped! There was the first downhill, a sweeping left into the headwind, then a banked hairpin (not sharp enough to have to let off the power), a false flat into a small hill, a long downhill with a right bend leading up to the steepest hill (where all the spectators were), then a section of short rolling hills and a right hand bend back to the start.
I was trying to power up and over the hills, take it easy on the descents, and get aero, particularly into the wind. This seemed to be working. Looking at the previous result it had looked like I’d need to average something like 42kmph to be in with a shot of the podium. I was averaging 42.5, so that was promising! I overtook a lot, but actually got overtaken 4 times, although I overtook 2 of them back. This is pretty unusual for me, and again underlined the strength of the field.
Photo credit Two26
On the last lap I got my feet out a little early and not at a great time on one of the rollers and lost a bit of speed. My average dropped from 42.5 to 42.2, which was an irritating mistake. I’d moved up to 29th and 4th in the age group, just 4 seconds behind 3rd.
I got off the bike and out onto the run. Running always feels bad after cycling hard, but fortunately there was the downhill at the start to get into it. Unfortunately, the guy in my age group was running faster than me (surprise surprise) and pulled away.
I seemed to be losing ground on everyone around, but again, not as fast as I thought I would – I was definitely doing comparatively better on the second run than the first (I came 53rd on the second run vs 69th on the first). However, I did still lose 4 places on the second run, including someone else in my age group. I ended up doing the 4.3km at 3:53 pace in 15:59. 5th in age group, 33rd overall.
I’d averaged 3:50 per km over the runs, and 296 normalized watts on the bike – pretty much exactly what I’d been hoping for and by far the best duathlon I’ve done. But I was a long way down in the race. I think it was a faster day than the previous race I’d been looking at, so everyone was a couple of minutes faster. I was 56 seconds behind 3rd.
It felt more like a World Championship race than the British Championships! It’s a long time since I’ve come away from a multi-sport race without getting on the podium in some way.
I’m getting better at running, and if I can stay injury free, hopefully it’ll continue. As triathlon season approaches I’m just hoping some of these duathletes can’t swim!
I haven’t done a duathlon longer than a sprint distance before. In the past I’ve always been too worried about injury to try a longer one, but (whisper it quietly…) I currently don’t have any running problems! However, having experienced, in the sprint ones, the pain doing the second run when I’d done the first one too fast, I really wanted to treat this race with respect!
Dorney lake has been a regular pilgrimage for me, thanks to my rowing past. I’d never managed to get any prizes there when rowing, so I’ve enjoyed my multisport success there; I was hoping to continue that. However, running being my worst discipline of the three triathlon sports, I knew it might be difficult in a race where you do that part twice.
After an enjoyable evening with my parents in their camper van, I made it to Dorney an hour before the start. After the typical faffing and toilet queuing, I was ready.
There were three races of different distances all starting together. Super Sprint, Sprint and Olympic. I guess that was about 170 people in total, with 75 in the Olympic distance race. So, the start was quite busy and fast! I was positioned near the front but was determined to do the first run in a controlled fashion, running just below my threshold level. This meant not getting carried away in the initial surge, so I found myself being overtaken quite a lot in the first 300m, but followed that by overtaking people back again, gradually, over the course of the run!
For the Olympic distance it was a 2.5km out and back course alongside the rowing lake, done twice for Olympic, once for sprint. The super sprint racers turned at 1.25km. The out section was with the wind, and I was really pleased that I was feeling like the pace was easy although I was bobbing along at 3:50 ish pace (which is a little faster than I was expecting). I just kept telling myself to hold back!
Coming to the first turn around point, there were plenty of athletes ahead of me, but two had broken clear, obviously having a great race against each other. Checking my watch, I could see they were already 1 minute 20 ahead! Still, I figured they were probably in the sprint race. I was hoping to get on the podium in this race – my running isn’t strong enough (I’m working on it!) but I was hoping my cycling would make up it for it since it was a relatively small race.
At the turn-around it became clear that we’d been running with the tailwind! I decided to tuck in behind a group of 3 athletes who were just ahead to try to get some shelter. This worked, but they didn’t change pace and even with their shelter it felt harder than I really wanted, not much, but enough to make me monitor it. They got me to nearly the end of that leg, then they overtook someone moving a bit slower, so I switched to drafting him instead.
The two athletes were running back the other way meaning they were doing the Olympic – damnit! Now about 2 and a half minutes ahead, they were still pulling away, but not so quickly. I think I was in about 16th position now, including the sprint. 10th in the Olympic. The return leg with the wind was easy again, and I remembered to eat a gel.
Coming up to the turn point, I made sure I was close to someone and tucked in behind him. This worked quite well until about 3/4 of the way back where he started slowing down. I stayed for a while before deciding he wasn’t going to speed back up and overtook. This dropped my average speed to 3:53. Getting into the wind by myself validated that it had been a good idea to seek shelter!
Coming into T1 I felt in control, and like I hadn’t overcooked the first run. I was in 8th place, and I’d made a mental note of what the two leaders were wearing in the hope I’d overtake and spot them on the bike.
I’d decided to take my watch off for the bike section but fumbled doing it several times due to wearing gloves (did I mention it was cold?). Apart from that it went smoothly, and I was out and on the bike. The course was straight down the side of the lake with the wind, then a winding course back into the wind. 8 times.
The first section was fast, really fast! It was smooth tarmac, and I decided the tactic was to try to get up to speed, then just cruise until the turnaround (which meant maintaining 50kmph).
At the end of this section was a tight corner. It was a little damp, and there were some leaves on the floor, so it was a corner to take slowly and carefully!
Getting back up to speed after that, into the wind required a lot of effort. This section of the course was fun, but not particularly fast, with rougher surfaces. I tried to work hard all the way back to the start, where there was another tight corner. The combination of the corners and this slower section massively reduced my average speed!
I was overtaking lots but didn’t spot the 2 fast athletes. I had no idea how I was doing due to the laps and athletes from the different races. I remembered to drink my energy drink throughout, although it being cold, I didn’t feel particularly thirsty.
I enjoyed the ride and had 8 opportunities to wave at my parents! I try to make myself as obvious as possible, but my kit isn’t as bright as I’d like. I do have a fun swirl on my EZDisc though which I hope helps!
I averaged 41.7 kmph over the course. If you look at the speed in Strava it’s obvious where I’m going in which direction!
I made it through T2 without any issues. Getting going running was kind of hard. I did quite a lot of sessions to practise this transition in the summer and it felt easier then, but I haven’t done these recently. However, that might just be because the summer races were triathlons rather than duathlons.
I couldn’t see anyone ahead. Or behind. There were a few athletes moving slower who were obviously doing the sprint, but no one moving fast. I wondered if I’d overtaken the front 2 and not noticed? But, no – coming towards the turnaround, they were coming back the other way, still right beside each other having a great race! And there was someone else with them! Damnit!
I continued to run as fast as I could and braced myself for a lonely run back to the finish into the wind!
I slowed a bit with the headwind but managed to speed up and sprint across the line. I’d averaged 3:53 – the same as the first leg, but it felt a lot harder this time!
The first leg was 9.7km, the bike 37.2km, and the last run spot on 5km. I done it in 1 hour 52 minutes. I was 5 minutes behind the leaders (who’d finished 2 seconds apart!). Talking to them afterwards, it turns out the extra athlete running with them had had issues with his bike computer and miscounted bike laps, so I’d actually come 3rd! Sadly, it looks like there will be no trophy from F3 events though – there wasn’t any presentation on the day despite there being a little podium on the grass.
I had a lot of fun here and am very pleased to have done my first Olympic distance duathlon, and to come away without an injury or even any soreness! And it’s always an absolute pleasure to find an excuse to spend some time with my parents!
Hills. Lots of them. As I slugged it up yet another incline I did wonder – I live in a place with no hills – I’m a flatlander – why did I sign up for this?!
Having spent the previous week on holiday with my family in Wales, we’d come to Leeds “on the way home” for me to race. This wasn’t the plan, but with both the holiday and the race having been postponed from the previous year, they’d ended up on the same dates.
I was up at 4:30am to get ready, and built up my karma early by helping someone out with a flat tyre in the hotel car park. It was his first race (he was over 70 – truly amazing to be starting doing this at that age!) and he didn’t know how to fix it, so I was happy to be able to do it for him.
Then I cycled to the start along most of the bike course. I was pleased to see that although the hills were pretty long, they weren’t as steep as I’d feared!
Getting into the event involved Covid checks and walking quite a long way; it’s a huge event with over 3000 people racing on that day alone, so the park and the timings were tightly regimented! The times for arriving, registering, racking and racing worked pretty well, but if I’d had to queue for the toilets in transition or by the registration, I think it would have been difficult. I’d also done a warm up run before turning up as you had to go straight to the swim start after racking your bike.
For the start we were in age group waves. I’ve this year “graduated” up into the 45-49 age group. This being a huge race with the best “age-group” athletes in the county, I didn’t have aspirations on winning the whole race. I was hoping to do well in my age category though! There were bronze, silver and gold (the coveted British Champion for your age group) medals up for grabs! From the start list there were 184 people in my age group though!
Everyone in this age group we were wearing red swim hats, and we were organised using this. We lined up in 2 rows, all safely 2 meters apart. I had a disposable mask with me, but discovered to some hilarity that it’s not easy to wear when you have a swim hat covering your ears…
As we were called forward to the start, I ditched that in a bin and had an energy gel. I was pretty focused on process goals. I wanted to swim well – keeping my length and not pulling my elbows through the water ahead of my hands. So I was thinking about that rather than getting nervous.
I did have a bit of a moment when I realised I hadn’t studied the swim course, and I’d put myself second in line! Fortunately a marshal said it was easy – yellow buoys on your left, red ones on your right. Also, although we had a bit of a gap to the previous waves, they weren’t that far ahead, so we’d be able to see people ahead.
This is the course image I should have studied…
The starting procedure was to run down a ramp, with a timing mat on it, into the water, with about a 2 second gap between each competitors – two rows going side by side at the same time.
Without much fanfare, we were off! I remembered to start my “GPS in a hat” and belly flopped gracefully (that’s a thing!) into the water. I started off and realised the first swimmer was going fast, but not so fast I couldn’t draft behind him. Perfect! The water was pretty murky and he had a big kick, so I couldn’t see much.
We soon left the swimmers from the other line behind. I did a bit of sighting, but it seemed to be going well, so decided to trust the athlete I was drafting. Mostly. Every now and then I’d pull out to the side to see if I could go faster, but didn’t make any progress past him, so pulled back in behind.
After a little while we started catching up the slower swimmers in the wave ahead. Light blue hats I think – the relay wave. Quite a few were doing breaststroke, which is fine, but does mean you have to avoid legs kicking out to the side. We turned a couple of buoys, and started catching up with people wearing other colour hats as well.
My focus on technique was paying off as it felt like we were moving fast and it was feeling sustainable. But I’d started to bump into the feet of the athlete ahead – I figured he was maybe slowing so tried to overtake again. This time it worked and I slowly pulled past, and away!
The course had one long side. From what I could see, there was just a single yellow buoy at the far corner. Probably. It was hard with all the people from the other waves churning the water up to get a clear look. It was a big buoy, but must have been 400m away. I just ended up following where other people were going until I could see it properly.
All this time I felt like I had a good ‘feel’ for the water and was moving well! But, I’ve been wrong about that in that past. Still, there didn’t appear to be any red hats anywhere nearby.
I got to the end, and pulled myself out of the water onto the swanky blue carpet. I’d done it in 22:53 according to my watch. That’d be 1:32 pace per 100, which wasn’t bad, but not as good as Southport. However, I’d actually swum 1617m rather than 1500m (I ‘think’ that was just the course rather than too much dodgy steering on my part!), which was actually 1:25 pace. A new PB – woop!
The straight line shooting up to the left over land is because I accidentally switched my hat GPS thing on and off again in transition after the race. So that wasn’t swimming, but it does show how far away my bike was in transition! That’s probably 600m running barefoot uphill in a wetsuit! The distance between the swimming and biking from the transition put paid to any hope of getting under 2 hours for me! Still, I overtook several people on the run up there.
I got through transition comparatively quickly, although I did forget to put socks on. There was another long run to the mount line. I know there was an uphill early on in the bike course, but thought we’d have a fair amount of time on our bikes before hitting that. However, it turned out the run to the mount line covered almost all of that!
I have my shoes attached to my bike, so need to get on my bike, then get my feet into my shoes and do them up. Normally I do this by jumping on the bike, putting my feet on top of the shoes, getting up to speed, then putting them in while going along. Getting them in with wet feet is either made easier by having socks on, or by putting talc in the shoes and ‘glide’ on your feet.
In this case, I’d done neither as I was planning on having socks on! As a result, I got to the hill without my feet in. The problem with this is that going up a hill you lose speed quickly, so if I attempted to put my feet in, I had a good chance of falling over by the time I managed it! I started up the hill, knowing it wasn’t efficient and I was losing time. After a couple of minutes (it was a long hill!) it leveled off a bit, so I went for it.
I lost more speed, but stayed upright!
Then I felt more comfortable. In fact, I was in my happy place – on the bike, on a closed road course (no cars)! It was a hilly course with some right corners at the bottom of hills, involving some sharp breaking.
I overtook. Lots :). I was working harder uphill and stopping pedalling and getting aero on some of the downs. I got overtaken twice going up hills, but overtook them back, one on the same hill, and another at the top. I knew this wasn’t going to be a fast course like Southport, but focused on keeping my normalised power up.
I had one scary moment. I was overtaking a lone rider who drifted further and further out towards the cones in the middle of the road. I normally give a call of “coming by” as I overtake if there’s not much room. I gave a second shouted version of this as I nearly ended up pushed into a cone, but fortunately there was just room to avoid that!
Coming into the end I got my feet out without any drama and started the long run to transition.
I got a bit confused here. I knew my bike space was in a row marked one thousand seven hundred and something to one thousand eight hundred something, but thought we had to run around to the far end of the rows. This wasn’t the case and I realised this as the numbers hit two thousand so I quickly doubled back! When I approached my racking space, I couldn’t spot my shoes. I stopped, but soon spotted my bag (due to Covid bags were allowed in transition). I must have saved a couple of seconds at least (spoiler – this was important!)
I finally got my socks on and started running. I had a gel on the go and got my watch on as I came out of transition.
Starting running after cycling is a weird sensation. You get better at it the more you practice; unfortunately I haven’t practiced this much, but I’m better than I used to be. Regardless, this being a multi-lap run, athletes from earlier waves who already had their “running legs” going overtook me quite quickly to start off with. I thought they were just much faster (some of them were!) but mostly they stopped pulling away after about 500m. Most people I was running with seemed to pull away on the hills but I’d be going faster on the flats and downhills.
I was quite pleased that, despite the hills, I was averaging roughly 4 minutes per km – not as fast as Southport, but that was flat! The park itself is a beautiful lush green, and the course wound round a lake and through trees. There were spectators, music, and my family had made it – seeing them really gave me a boost (it was on a hill – so a boost here was relative…)
The run was 3 hilly loops. Did I mention I live somewhere flat? Worse still, the last lap didn’t finish down where we started. Nope. It not only finished at more or less the high point, but also had a ruddy great wooden ramp up to a short flat sprint for the line.
I had another gel at 5km, but on the last lap was finding it pretty hard. My average at the end of the second lap was 3:58 per km, but I knew it’d be an uphill battle (ba-doom-cha!) to keep it below 4 given the elevation gain. I did my best, but I need more run fitness! I was very glad to take the last turn towards the ramp.
I’ve seen the pros sprint up this ramp now. I did my best, but found it bouncy and wanting to spring me backwards! I slowly worked my way up it, then sprinted for the line – I’m used to time trial racing and you just don’t know how close your rivals are, so really try to empty the tank at this kind of race. I did a little jump and heel tap going over the line and even managed not to fall over…
I’d managed to race, flat out, without getting injured! Woohoo! I had a chat with some racing friends, got my bike and met my family. The area was somewhat like a socially distanced festival – the kids loved the wacky entertainers, the atmosphere was great, and there were plenty of food and drink opportunities.
I checked the results, and couldn’t quite believe it – it appeared I’d won my age group! By 4 and a 1/2 minutes! With the time trial start I was wary but given the whole age group had started within 10 minutes of each other, I began to believe it! However…
I checked later and there was at least one other athlete in the age group who had stared 40 minutes late with another wave. I’d still won…
I am the 45-49 British TriathlonOlympic Distance Champion!
…but only by 1 second! Wow. There are so many ways I could have gone more than a second slower.
I can honestly say that if hadn’t had the EZDisc cover on, I wouldn’t be a British Champion. If I’d not spotted my bag, if I hadn’t got a fantastic coach, Tom Vickery, if I hadn’t bothered to shave my legs, if I had taken a wider line round the corners, if I’d decided to keep drafting during the swim, if I’d used the slower arm warmers, if I’d not sprinted for the line. Any one of those, or many others, and I’d not be a British Champion.
I can’t even imagine how much time I’d be spending thinking about this if I’d just lost by 1 second!
All in all it was an amazing experience, especially to race at an event this big after being in lockdown for so long, and I loved being able to catch up with some triathlon friends, and to be able to share this experience with my family!
Oh, and I’ve qualified for the World Championships next year!
Some stats on my positions for future reference (although this doesn’t include the competitors that were in the non championship races, so these won’t compare well with my other races probably):
Swim. 75/1167= 6.43% 1:25 pace Bike. 10/1167 = 0.86% 317 NP Run. 82/1167 = 7.02% 4:02 pace Total. 29/1169 = 2.48%
Southport is a long way from where I live. But, having signed up for this race in 2019 in a fit of enthusiasm to try to qualify to race for the GB (age group) triathlon team again, I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to race a triathlon! Doing the Active Training World’s Bedford Duathlon a few weeks ago was a great primer, but I do prefer triathlons.
This race was a European Championship qualifier, which meant that it would be a big race with some very fast athletes. To qualify, you need to come in the top 4 in your age group (there are some “roll down” slots, but you have to wait to find out if you’re in with one of those).
In order to comply with Covid restrictions I needed to find somewhere to stay that was self contained, or camp. I kind of straddled both by picking a glamping pod!
This turned out to be much better than camping as it rained heavily throughout the night! Fortunately by the time morning came around the rain had cleared up! Despite staying near the race I still had to get up at 4:30am 😦
Arriving at the seafront, it became obvious that with the large number of competitors (over 1000 including the sprint race) and the increased racking space (Covid), the transition area was very, very long! 440m!
Plenty of room for my bike then! Looking flash with the EZDisc on!
After typical pre race faffing I joined the queue for the start. Due to Covid this was a “time trial” start with about a 5 second gap between athletes. Being a bit disorganised I was quite near the back of my wave. Still at least I had plenty of time to make sure my swim hat was on properly…
Sigh. In my defence, I had a thermal hat on under it (no ice cream head!) and an old GPS watch under there too – I get much better recordings than a wrist based one.
It was a pontoon start. Having not had a lot of swim practice thanks to lockdown followed by an upper back issue followed by needing to self isolate, I hadn’t done much swimming, let alone any diving practice. So, graceful belly flop to start then!
The water was pitch black, salty and er, tangy? Something to do with the geese poo probably. Not too cold though (13.7 apparently, but it seemed warmer).
I actually got into a good rhythm, and immediately started overtaking! I’m still not used to being a good enough swimmer to do that, so it’s a nice surprise when it happens! Sighting went well, and the buoys were big and obvious. I did have to navigate through quite a few groups of people, but unfortunately not anyone going the same pace to draft behind.
The course was a double loop around an island, and away from the start the water cleared to a dark murky brown! Occasionally I came across someone that was standing up. Guess it’s not very deep then!
It seemed like the field had thinned out a lot by the time I got to the end. By this point my hands had got cold enough that I couldn’t really keep my fingers together, but I still didn’t feel cold apart from that.
My hat GPS confirmed it as being 1.5km, and I’d done it in 22:17. The official timing mat was right by the exit, so official time was 22:22. I’d come 20th out of 621!
Strava link (ignore the time and pace, not sure why that’s wrong – the distance and elapsed time is correct)
Then came transition. This was a long barefoot run! I tried to take fast short strides so as not to get a calf strain, which seemed to keep me moving at a fair speed. I’m a bit rusty at swim to bike transitions – it’s been a while since my last triathlon! It all went smoothly though.
The exit from transition was a 180 degree turn through a comedy puddle, and then a tightly coned passage to merge into the road – this was a closed-road race (yay!) but there were athletes already cycling. Unfortunately for me there was someone stopped in this tight passage fiddling with shoes. After waiting for a few seconds, I checked the road was clear and nipped through the cones – a marshal told me off (sorry!), but then I was off.
Onto my happy place on the bike! The course runs along the coast, is very flat, with several roundabouts, and dead turns at either end. Two loops for the Olympic distance.
I overtook a lot, but didn’t want to overdo it as I was hoping to be able to do a decent run pace afterwards. Irritatingly my lower back started aching by the end of the first loop. This is a problem I’ve had in the past, but after lots of hard and long turbo sessions I thought I had it sorted. I guess I’m doing something different out on the road
So I took the opportunity to get out of the aero tuck at the roundabouts and turnarounds, and held the power down a bit.
Coming back to transition I had to slow down around people coming onto the course and needed to carefully avoid someone swerving all over the road while messing about with their bottle.
In the end I averaged 41.7kmph for the bits where I had my shoes on, and came 8th, moving me up to 7th overall.
Then came the long, long run… through transition! Once I actually got my shoes on, running felt much better! I had a gel at the start and stuffed another in a pocket for half way.
There weren’t many people around, but I seemed to be overtaking those I saw. One guy was a few hundred meters ahead and it took ages to catch him. We said hi and I slowly overtook – I guess this was at about 2.5km. I felt like I was running well and nothing was hurting 🙂
The course went around the lake, then past the finish and did some wiggling about before joining back onto the first lap, before actually finishing at the finish this time.
The first time past the finish I realised the guy was not far back and had started to gain. I didn’t think I’d slowed down – checking my speed on my watch confirmed this; he’d sped up! He overtook me at about 7km and we had another little chat.
I thought I’d try to stay with him. He seemed to accelerate at 8km. Just at this point a fly went straight into my eye! I was determined this wasn’t going to be an excuse for losing him – I’d just have to run with one eye shut! However…
My left calf muscle started to really tighten up. I’ve had a lot issues with my calf muscles in the past where they’d completely lock up and I’d get nasty tears that took months to heal, so I was really worried. But… I was near the finish! I didn’t want to stop!
I slowed up a bit and it didn’t seem to be getting worse. Maybe it was just cramp? My pace was down about 30 seconds per km, but I thought I could hold that OK.
And then I realised I was really near the finish! The course must have only been 9km. Hurrah for that! I hobbled down the finishing chute, and promptly crumpled to the ground.
I got to say congratulations to the guy I’d been running with afterwards. My calf was sore afterwards, but not too bad, and it seems to be healing quickly, so I’m hopeful this won’t turn into something long term.
I’d run a massive PB for the 9km – 33:48. Shame that’s not a real 10km time! Still, it was the 34th fastest run, and took me up to 5th place overall!
1st in my age group, and qualified for the European Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships in 2022. Boom!
Total time 2 hours and 27 seconds. Ohh, close – that slow down at the end of the run cost a sub 2 hour Olympic Triathlon! Admittedly with a short run, but the bike course was slightly long, and let’s not forget those transitions! Oh well, I’ve got the British Championships in Leeds coming up! Although, that isn’t such a fast course
Several hours later as I started to drive home, I glanced in the rear view mirror and spotted the fly, still in my eye – it was a massive relief to get that out!
Whoop! A real race! With the loosening of Covid restrictions, outdoor sporting events can now take place. Active Training World have got going very quickly and managed to put on a World Championship qualifier within a few days of the restrictions easing.
This race was at Bedford Autodrome – an old airfield, turned into a motor racing circuit. Which means… no cars! The course is flat, with some hairpin turns. If you want it to be, on the bike it’s fast and a little bit technical. I love it there!
Being a World Qualifier there were a lot of people racing. To make this work
a) it was split into waves rather than a mass start, and
b) it was a time trial start, with one person starting every 5 seconds (chip timed so it didn’t have to be precise).
While this wasn’t as much fun as a mass start, it does have the benefit of allowing one to keep a cool head rather than getting too drawn into the excitement and starting way, way, waaay to fast!
It was a cold sunny morning (4 degrees centigrade) so after much deliberation I ended up deciding to race with 2 extra layers under my new Zone3 aerodynamic tri suit and sleeves, and some fetching neon yellow gloves. At least I wouldn’t clash with my trusty steed as that’s black and yellow:
The race was being live streamed! I managed to elbow my way in front of the camera before the start and gave a very bouncy interview. Having friends review this afterwards, they’ve asked if I was on some mind-altering substances (I was just very excited!) It’s been a while since I’ve last been able to race!
Lining up to start, I gave myself a stern talking to, to make sure I didn’t go too fast off the start. I knew my pace target and wanted to stick to it. 3:48 per km. Fine. Got it. I got to the start, waited for the go, then off I went! Yes! Racing! 3:30 pace. Erm.
After a few hundred meters I calmed down and got the pace under control. Even so, I’d started off about half way through the competitors, so was just overtaking lots of people (this doesn’t normally happen as in a mass start you kind of end up in your relative correct position quite quickly) which was really motivating.
It was a two-lap course, 5.6km, and about half way round was an ace marshal with music blaring out, cow bells, dancing away madly! Apparently, she kept this up for all 4 waves! I think she must have had more of a workout than I did!
It was a bit windy; it felt reasonably warm when running with the wind. But cold again when running into it!
Coming towards transition I was overtaken for the first time. I tried to stay with him, but he was going faster than I wanted to, especially as I wanted to be switched on for transition having not done that in a long time.
However, in transition, running to my bike I saw him stop, look confused and turn around – I guess he’d gone past his bike. I didn’t see him again.
Here’s my run on Strava. 3:45 pace (a bit faster than planned, but not too bad – the idea was I’d be able to do the same pace for the second run).
I got to my bike without any issues. Shoes off. Helmet on (the gloves worked OK with the buckle) and off I went.
There were a couple of people stopping to get on their bikes at the mount line, so I nipped past and did a flying leap onto mine. Well, kind of. I’m out of practice, OK?!
Anyway, I got my feet on top of my shoes (which were already clipped into the pedals), got quickly up to speed on the slip road, and then started to get my feet into the shoes. First one went fine, but I only managed to get my toes into the second and then unclipped it! I was moving pretty fast at this point, but managed to reach down and grab it, pull it onto my foot, clip it in, then do it up. Disaster averted!
Onto the bike course. Oh my, this was fun! There weren’t many people on it at this point, so I could take the racing line around the course. Again, I had a target to aim at (power), but having just done the run, didn’t have issues going over it this time!
It was 5 laps of the course, and the wind was mostly cross head/tail, rather than much direct head or tail wind. It felt like the shape of my EZDisc rear wheel disc cover was working well in these conditions, and it wasn’t hard to handle as the wind was constant rather than gusty.
The race organizers, Active Training World, had organised photographers (they put the photos on Facebook for free afterwards!) and I spotted one on the bike course, so put on my best bike position as I came past…
I overtook lots through the ride. I had my eye on catching the current European duathlon champion in my age group (who’s a much better runner than me, but I thought in a non drafting race I might have the advantage). I knew he’d started some time before me, and I caught him late in the 3rd lap. Whoop!
On the last lap I took the effort level down just a tiny bit to prepare for the run, but I don’t think I lost much speed. Racing is different than training, so it took a bit of mental effort to not chase a certain watt score but try to race smart!
In the last straight I got my feet out. That was cold! But I was ready when it was time to peel off into the pit lane. There was one cyclist just ahead who still had his feet in, and I closed on him coming up to the dismount line as he got his feet out.
I leapt of my bike behind him and had overtaken by the time we go to transition (all of about 10 meters away). There were just 2 bikes in transition at this point.
I found my lurid green trainers, got my bike racked, helmet off, and struggled into the trainers. Then off I went! The other athlete was just out of transition before me, as we started the final 2.6km.
I ran just behind him for a while. I’m used to the second run of a duathlon being pretty depressing with faster runners overtaking me, but I was pleasantly surprised here. I couldn’t keep up with this guy (we were going about 3:30 pace), but even when I slowed down a little, there was someone about 50m behind who wasn’t closing.
This run seemed harder, not just because it was the second run, but it seemed there was more running directly into the wind (it was the reverse direction of the first run). Oh, OK, it was just that it was the second run!
But it was great being that close to the front! Especially knowing I’d started halfway down the field!
I kept trying to stop the distance to the athlete ahead getting any larger. It did, but it did help me focus. Turning into the final straight, which was about 200m, I tried to sprint. Nothing changed in my speed… Through the finishing arch I tried a jump for joy. I think I got about 2 cm off of the ground!
I had such a blast racing again! The atmosphere was great, with loads of people giving off positive vibes! Even when I was having a panic about losing my car keys, some superstars that I didn’t know kept me company and stopped me getting too stressed until I found them.
I really enjoyed this! My friends that were racing have all spent quite a lot of time dissecting the race afterwards. The video stream is still available so we’re finding ourselves on there, and comparing racing positions etc.
Oh, and did I mention, the results were available immediately, and I won my age group! The guy running ahead of me on the last leg was in it; he got over the line 30 seconds ahead of me, but it turns out he started 45 second ahead!
Sport Related Nonsense 