Durham Tri Club Duathlon, Meadowfield, 20th August
Run 2M, Bike 13.4M, Run 2M
Peter Brooks
Having got involved in a small way with Durham Triathlon club to give me some cross training whilst recovering from a stress fracture, I thought it would be a good idea to enter the club's series final monthly duathlon in August. I managed to persuade Phil Owen that it would be good for us to do it together.
On the evening of the race, we sat in the car at Meadowfield Sports centre looking out of the window, listening to the rain hammer against the car wondering what we had done. Thankfully, the rain stopped before the race started.
After the race briefing, explaining the course and transition rules, we were set off according to our handicap, Phil and I went 7 minutes after the first group for a 2 mile run followed by a 13.4 mile cycle and finishing with another 2 mile run. I, for one was more than a bit nervous about the task ahead as I am not a confident cyclist yet.
The first run was pretty straight forward and completed without incident, then it was into transition where my running shoes were placed neatly by my bike, cycle helmet on, cycle shoes on and bike grabbed for the cycle. I must admit that the cycle part of the race was hard, there is one very long, quite steep hill going up to New Brancepeth which beat me and which we had to go up twice, but there was also a nice downhill stretch to recover on each lap.
After the two laps were complete it back into transition, remembering that I had to get off my bike before entering the transition area and then changing back into running shoes for the final 2 mile run. After such a hard cycle, my legs just didn't want to run again and I started off quite wobbly but soon got back into my stride to complete the course in about 1 hour 40. I have never been so pleased to see the end of a race!
The hardened triathletes had all finished well before me, and Phil was miles ahead of me too, but the tri club are a friendly bunch of people and will always help out novices whenever needed.
Duathlons are definitely hard, but they are certainly fun and a great way of cross training. This will definitely not be my only attempt.
Results
| Pos | Name | Run 1 | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan JENKINS | 13:04 | 00:36 | 42:27 | 00:51 | 12:14 | 1:09:12 |
| 3 | Hilary ROSS | 14:01 | 00:25 | 46:39 | 00:22 | 14:31 | 1:15:58 |
| 4 | Roz LAYTON | 16:00 | 00:23 | 51:02 | 00:33 | 15:10 | 1:23:08 |
| 7 | Liz LAMB | 17:15 | 00:53 | 50:32 | 00:21 | 16:31 | 1:25:32 |
| 10 | Phil OWEN | 15:00 | 00:40 | 55:10 | 00:34 | 16:01 | 1:27:25 |
| 11 | Peter BROOK | 16:00 | 01:25 | 1:04:23 | 00:36 | 18:15 | 1:40:39 |
15 finishers.
T1 and T2 are the transitions between the run/ride and ride/run respectively.
