'Chilly' Duathlon, Castle Combe - Race Report

This was my second crack at the 'Chilly' Duathlon. Unfortunately I had come down with a cold which, by the weekend of the race, was verging on a chest infection. But I had paid up and was looking forward to this, so decided I didn't want to miss out.

A few people from my triathlon club were there, but since I'm a relative newbie nobody really expects anything of me. Just as well ;-)

The format was as last time: 2-mile run, 10-mile bike, 2-mile run (although in practice the bike leg was short.

I knew a couple of the guys from the club were no better than me as runners, so I lined up behind one of them and decided to keep him in my line of sight for the first two miles. The little whippet went off at 5:40/mile pace, but he eased off a little and I just about held on to complete the first 2-mile run in 11:47 (see GPS data here).

In the fray during the first 2-mile run

T1 went relatively smoothly, though I've since been told I need to cut my transition times pretty much in half. It's 'free time', as my triathlete friends say. My lock laces might have saved me a few seconds, but I think I could do with some triathlon cycling shoes with nice big velcro straps instead of road shoes with fiddly ratchet fasteners.

Feeling the after-effects of a fast 2-miler in T1

Anyway, onto the bike. I managed to average over 20mph on this leg, but that didn't stop me from being overtaken by what felt like every man and his dog. In fairness, I had barely done any training in the saddle. But I have a turbo trainer on its way in the post and will be hitting the hills at weekends, so all that will change. By the end of the bike leg I was just about in the top half of the pack, clocking a time of 27:19 (see GPS data here). Not bad, but not great either. So, what did I have left in the tank?

Well, not a great deal. That familiar feeling of cramp was looming, so I hobbled out of the transition area in much the same fashion as I had at my last duathlon. Methinks many more brick sessions are in order! But similarly to last time, I did manage to loosen up after a mile or so (pity I had only one more mile to make it up!). The final 2-mile leg took me 13:10 - a massive 1:23 behind my first leg. (See GPS data here). On the plus side I ran the second mile of that leg more than 30 seconds faster than the first mile. Every cloud and all that! Plus, my overall time was a couple of minutes faster than last time :-)

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There was a good sense of camaraderie. And caning myself over two disciplines for the best part of an hour beat moping around the house in my dressing gown, Lemsip in hand. And besides, I'll be back! I'll even wear the shades again, just to look the full part ;-)

Just after the finish - looking far too fresh

Results

Run 1: 11:47
T1: 01:06
Bike: 27:19
T2: 01:07
Run 2: 13:10

Total: 54:31 (putting me 108th of 240 finishers)

See official results here.

Bike splits:

5:19; 5:14; 5:17; 5:28; 5:37