"A bike ride of two halves..."
Just the one Sun City member out at this very scenic duathlon, held in Hamsterley Forest and the surrounding roads. I'd not done a duathlon before but, with plenty of advice from the folk in the pub the night before, I felt ready- even for "the dead feeling when you get on the bike after the first run..." The early morning weather was horrendous and didn't look encouraging, but it cleared up by the time the race started to give some very picturesque "sun through the clouds" moments for the 70-odd duathletes. Whether it was the advertising on the Trinews website or simply the lure of a standard distance duathlon, I'm not sure but the field came from a wider area than many local races- the eventual overall and vet winners came from Edinburgh.
9am and the race was off, following a briefing that included the immortal line "Take care on the descent back into the forest. There'll be an ambulance parked there just to remind you." The mixture of fallen leaves, mud and water made the warning very necessary! The first run was 9.6km: two laps of a circuit on forest roads and paths with a short sharp section of loose rocky climb at 1/3 distance and it started at a pretty quick pace. I knew I would be quicker on the bike (cause I'd not run since the relays!) so kept it steady for a first run split of about 38 minutes. Out onto the bike and you could see why we were warned about the descent as we laboured up it to get out of the forest. Once out of the forest the race really started to take shape as the howling headwind, exposed, straight roads and draggy ascent made one long side of the rectangular loop a real mental and physical test. The payback came on the other long side where the tailwind and hill made cruising at 35+ mph pretty comfortable. After 2 11.5 mile loops it was back into the forest, past the ambulance and into T2. With a smaller, spread-out field it meant I was in transition by myself- it doesn't matter how many times you've done it before, the undivided attention of the race referee makes you very conscious not to make a daft mistake here! The second run went reasonably well, helped by the fact that there was no-one immediately behind. I could see the next guy 200m or so ahead but couldn't make any dent in the lead- partly due to lack of speed and partly cause I was starting to get a bit low on gas. I was learning the hard way that duathlon makes different demands on your feeding plan compared to a triathlon. Still, it all held together and I crossed the line 6th overall in 2:29:47. I could get used to duathlons- you can race in socks and everything...
Steve R