Let's du this!

Triathlon season is over, but duathlon season is very much not! Whilst there is something about taking part in a duathlon that almost feels like a “cop out” after the tris and tribulations of tris, it’s undeniable that when you replace my weakest phase with a second crack at my strongest phase, it’s a win-win situation for me. At Dartington Duathlon this last weekend, it proved to be just that: a win!

As I had the best part of two months off running over August and September, I opted for the sprint distance. (I’m only up to 5 miles maximum on training runs, so it would have been silly to go out and smash a 10k, then tense up on the bike and have to run another 5k after). Thank goodness the event was the morning the clocks go back for daylight savings, as it was already an horrifically early start (5:30am wake-up call), and it was still dark for much of the drive there, even with the time adjustment.

Matt couldn’t go with me as he was on call for work, so the trusty parents accompanied me. I decided it would be easier to sleep at theirs, in Exmouth, the night before, to save 45 minutes in the morning having to drive over there to pick them up. However, they are moving house in a week’s time and so my old bed has already gone, my old bedroom is in a total state of mid-pack-up disarray, and so, amongst all this, I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep. It was gone 2am before I managed to drift off, and then I continually kept waking, expecting to hear the alarm at any moment. Point being, I got to the race venue feeling beyond knackered and not exactly revved up and raring to race! The end of season break I vaguely remember promising myself has not exactly happened…. It wasn’t deliberate, it’s just that we’ve had such a fantastic autumn and so it’s been a real joy to get out on the bike whilst I still can, to ride with friends and the tri club Sunday rides, and so I have been putting in a few big bike mile weeks. I’ve also just started back running and am trying to train my body to run in a new style, using a higher cadence, so it’s been fun to work on that too. My body is now at the point where the odd rest day is having no effect: it needs a full rest week. Oh well though, I was here, about to race, and so the caffeine went into the system and it’s amazing how far that and adrenaline will carry you once that starting horn sounds!

Taken by my friend Debbie - not exactly raring to race!

The standard distance went off first, 10 minutes before we started our sprint race at 8am. The standard racers were competing over two laps of everything we did. Halfway through the first run, I was glad I was “only” doing the “sprint”, as boy was this a hilly course! The first 5k run was one mile downhill, one mile flat along the river Dart, then one mile back uphill again. The bike was essentially all uphill to the half way turn around at 6.5 miles, then all back down again, with a nasty sharp kick up a steep hill back to transition. The second run was another hammer it downhill, run along a river for a bit, slog back up hill again affair.

I found myself taking the lead in the women’s race once the ground flattened out on the first run (downhill running very much NOT my thing!). I extended it on the uphill section and, with a surprisingly swift T1 (amazing how dextrous I can be at changing shoes etc when my hands aren’t numb and freezing cold after a swim!), I had about a minute’s lead as I headed out on the bike. Due to the out and back format of the bike course, you could see how you were doing at the turn around in relation to other competitors. It was great to see my fellow South West Road Runner, and fellow European Duathlon champs qualifier, Sam Hopton, out in front, leading the men’s race. It was also encouraging to see that I was well up there, in the top ten overall, and not too far adrift of the leading guys. Coming back down, I could tell I had put quite a bit of time into the second lady, and the third lady was quite some way back. Feeling confident that, barring mechanical disasters, this one could be in the bag, I enjoyed the rest of the fast, downhill bike section.

The cheeky uphill kick to T2 at the end of the bike leg.

 I picked off a couple of guys on the final 2.5km run and crossed the line in 9^th place overall and 1^st lady, over 6 minutes clear of second. My parents, stood watching on the final turn towards the finish, overheard a couple nearby say, “Oh, here comes the first lady: she looks powerful”. This should be a compliment. Powerful, as a triathlete, is nothing but good: power is speed, it’s force, it’s strength, it’s efficiency, it’s getting the job done well. However, there is a small part of my brain – the part which remains ever-so-slightly f##ked up where body image, weight, size, food and eating is concerned – hears “powerful” and hears “big, chunky, muscular, masculine, yuck”. The weedy little thing who used to walk around ghost-like, keeling over every 5 minutes, was a long way from being powerful. But powerful is also strong and healthy, and I would far rather be that than weak and sickly again. Powerful is also the mark of a winner, and I certainly enjoy being one of those; so I guess that will just have to embrace being powerful and accept it for the positive compliment it was designed to be.

Looking "powerful", apparently...

 Interestingly, the lady who came second to me was the daughter of Tony Arnell, of Tribe cycles, who did my bike fit for me. Tony was also racing and he was one of the guys I managed to pick off on the final run, but this was only because his calf had given out on him and so he was reduced to a speed hobble (been there, know what that feels like). Tony’s daughter is only young, and so a definite talent to watch for the future. Sam Hopton, who won the race overall, is also a client of Tony’s and Tribe cycles, so in all, it was a good day for Team Tribe at Dartington.

Sam (first overall) and me (first lady) with our cash prizes :-)

I was waiting to see how this race went before deciding whether or not to enter the Castle Coombe Duathlon, at the racing circuit in Wiltshire in three week’s time. This event is notoriously fast, furious and competitive, and I would need to be on my A-game just to place top 5 at it. I think I will enter, and I may even bring Black Ninja (my Specialized Shiv Elite T.T. bike) out to play, as it’s closed circuit and traffic free, it will be a good first race for us both. In the meantime though, a week’s rest is in order. We are off to Holland to visit friends Lorna and Sascha, and then on to Paris for a few nights….. a chance to finally indulge in that “end of season” break then!