Seeing as though I’ve not swum since being in Kona in October of last year (yes, that’s over six months ago!!) I think a duathlon would be a good way of getting into multi-sport this year! Run-bike-run sounds right up my street. I’ve done no swimming, I’ve hardly done any cycling and have been pretty consistent with my running. Perfect.
I’ve only taken part in one duathlon before - on holiday in Lanzarote in 2007. The last ‘brick’ session (run after a bike ride) was in Kona last year. I wasn’t best prepared for this!
As part of my plan to not enter any races that take place more than about one mile from home (I’m about to break that plan next weekend though) I decided to take part in the Bognor Regis Duathlon - organised by Awesome Sports Events. I did the triathlon last year and loved it, so was back for more fun and games.
The time trial bike was unlocked from the turbo trainer - where it’s been sat since October last year. I didn’t bother putting my posh wheels on the bike (as I couldn’t be bothered to find them/unlock them/change-brake-pads etc.) and just stuck a couple of training wheels on. Nothing special - nothing aero. I even left the pointy helmet at home.
The weather was cold and there were 49 entrants - with probably 80% of them being fellow parkrunners I’d guess. It’s amazing the community we have here - so many people who’d never try this kind of thing seem to have started running at parkrun, helped out at a Go-Tri event and are now giving it a go and having lots of fun. It’s brilliant.
We were started in waves of around 10 people and I was in the final wave. The event was a 5k run, 20k (ish) bike and then a final 5k run.
According to my Garmin my first run took me about 20:18. The bike - which was windy and chilly took 32:22 and the second run 20:35. On the bike I managed to hold my own against theother fast folk who were a lot more aero that myself. Although I’ve only ridden once outside so far this year and not been out on the TT bike the occasional turbo sessions I’ve been doing at home obviously weren’t wasted.
In the second run about 1 mile from the end I moved up into third place - because the chap in front of me was suffering for an injury and had to hobble into the finish. I ended up third overall, just over two minutes behind the winner and I was very very happy with that. It was a great event and hats off to the marshals who stood out in the cold for a long time.
Adding both 5k times together gives a 10k of just under 41 minutes total. My Garmin measured the course at about 5k so I’ll have that. This is very promising ahead of the Bognor 10k in a few weeks time. I’d love to just get under 40 minutes during the race - which I think is my favourite road running race.