National Duathlon Champs 2009

Hello Bloggers. Sorry for the lack of posts. Things have been hectic in my life recently. Add to that some computer functionality problems, then blogging seems to slip!

Well, with my calf problems at the back of my mind, I set off bright and early last Sunday to Milton Keynes to compete at the National Duathlon Champs. I have raced a few duathlons before but never a standard distance event of 10k run, 40k bike, 5k run (although this one was massively over distanced with a 5.3k second run!). Let’s get this calf thing done first. It was ok on the day; however, now both calfs refuse to stretch, bend or move in any way! I think it is just soreness and fatigue, as I did push rather hard on the bike and second run. Anyway, whinge done with, the race went as follows:

10k Run

Warm up for the run with a few strides and stretches. I was in wave 3, starting 2 mins after the 30 – 40 year young dudes. That means young Pete Russell (former RAF triathlete now a contractor here at Wyton) was 2 mins down the road ahead of me. I set off at a steady pace as I was not quite sure how hard to push on this first run. I was along side an Army chap in a second group. I though about going with the front group that had pulled out a gap but decided on caution. After the first lap of 4 I eased ahead of my group as I felt quite perky. I gradually picked off a few guys from the lead group and estimated that I was in about 11th place in my wave. Soon, people from the wave ahead were being passed and after the second lap I saw Pete Russell looking a bit heavy legged. I gave him a pat of encouragement but he did not look too happy. On the final lap I opened up a bit more and almost ran through the transition barriers in the process! Don’t get me wrong, I had pushed hard but I did feel that I could have pushed slightly harder. 10k run split – 36:22.

40k Bike

I had not reccy’d the bike course but was told that it was ‘rolling’ 2 loops of 20k. I suppose that was an accurate description but one hill was slightly harder than ‘rolling’. Some of the road surfaces were dire and my old bones ache! I also had problems with my gears and was unable to switch to my small ring on the chainset. This was only a problem with the hard hill and I had to grind up it. On the second loop my left leg decided that it didn’t like grinding and I cramped badly. Once over the hill, however, it loosened up and I pretty much hammered it back to transition. I felt as though the bike efforts was very sporadic. There was a lot of bunching and I duly did my bit of easing off so as not to draft. However, I then had to overtake them to up the pace. This is not a good way to ride and I think the final bike split time of 1:04:07 showed that. I wanted closer to the hour. I suppose I may just be expecting too much! No dramas in transition – unusual for me!

5.3k Run

The aim for my run was to break 20 mins. That extra 0.3k adds about a minute to a 5k split. As I set off out of transition my legs were bad......very bad! Ny running is always hit and miss after the bike but that initial 10k run seemed to have really toasted the old pins. I concentrated on short choppy strides and I feared that I was going to just get slower. However, nearing completion of the first lap my legs clicked into the fact that I was asking them to run. It was heaven and I felt the flow return! The second lap was far quicker and I caught a number of people who had past me on the first lap. As I rounded the corner into the finish I had more bounce and wished I had found my run legs earlier in the second run. As I finished the announcer informed me that I had finished in 3rd place in my age group in 2:01:59. I was very please as this was my first (and maybe only!) National Age Group Medal! My thoughts of wishing that I could have gone faster disappeared and I am thankful for being able to do what I do.

Mention must go to Jackie Wren, whom I travelled with. She was competing in the ladies race. However, she is not at her best at the moment and struggled on this occasion. Once she gets healthy, I know that she will be back to grabbing medals again – stick with it Jax.

Also, Bev Childs continued as she left off in 2008, with an age group victory. Another National title for Bev and she should have another great season in 2009.