London Duathlon 2017
September 17th 2017
10k run, 27 mile bike, 5k run
I was signed up to this race during some post-LEJOG enthusiasm. I have in fact signed up to two duathlons before, but having become injured in the preceding week to both of them, I've felt I've been under a bit of a duathlon "curse" and haven't risked it since.
However, despite being preceded by a heavy "10 years since university" reunion in London, I made it to the start line relatively unscathed, if a bit hungover.
My eldest brother lives in Richmond, so I had the luxury of cycling (with regular Google map checks!) to the start, arriving 60 minutes early, as prescribed - despite having to clamber over a footbridge to get to the event village! This turned out to be far too much time. I was ready by 09:40, and sat around bored, watching the first wave of my race going off gradually from 09:45. By the time it came to my prescribed start time (10:30) I was desperate to go! Annoyingly I noticed fairly late on that people in my "wave" had been starting earlier, something I should have taken advantage of...
At around 10:20 I entered the start funnel (in the slow queue as I was not wearing the prescribed race jersey because a) it was too big and b) it was a cycling top which I've found challenging to run in previously). I managed to start around about my wave's time, and set off on the run. This I found impossible to gauge, having never done a duathlon before! I decided to stick around Z3 heart-rate, immediately going above it on the first hill. After this, I managed to keep "in-zone" but was getting largely overtaken.
Glad at first to get on the bike (the camber in the road had been causing me minor angst during the run) after a rather slow transition, I set off, knowing that most of the 2000+ field was already ahead as my bike had been last on it's row! The bike course was four laps, and fairly technical. The first lap I spent scoping it out, discovering a surprisingly steep climb early on, tight cobbled round-abouts, a hairy descent and some nasty speed bumps. Lovely! Also added to the mix was an acorn that flew very fast at my cheek - extremely painful!
My legs felt tired, probably from not having practised run-bike transitions (and maybe the bottle of white wine last night...). I struggled to get a rhythm for any of the bike course, mainly trying to keep control of Jem and not crash into others. The course was fairly busy for the first three laps, and Jem, despite being fine on LEJOG, was just not indexed properly so kept spontaneously changing gear grrr. The last lap was welcome but quiet - most others were on or had completed the run by now.
Dismounting felt good, and once out of T2 I was surprised to feel good on the run. I supposed this is what I was used to! Being left with the slow end of the field by now, I found myself steadily overtaking right to the end of the 5k, with my legs feeling bizzarely better than when they were "fresh" for the 10k.
A slightly ad-hoc first attempt at a duathlon, but nevertheless good to dabble and realise that I really do prefer swimming to running!
Times
Total time: 02:52:43
Run: 00:52:10
T1: 00:01:35
Bike: 01:32:50
T2: 00:02:09
Run: 00:23:59
Standings
Age category: 11/38 29%
Gender category: 48/229 21%
Overall category: 468/1037 45%
10k run, 27 mile bike, 5k run
I was signed up to this race during some post-LEJOG enthusiasm. I have in fact signed up to two duathlons before, but having become injured in the preceding week to both of them, I've felt I've been under a bit of a duathlon "curse" and haven't risked it since.
However, despite being preceded by a heavy "10 years since university" reunion in London, I made it to the start line relatively unscathed, if a bit hungover.
My eldest brother lives in Richmond, so I had the luxury of cycling (with regular Google map checks!) to the start, arriving 60 minutes early, as prescribed - despite having to clamber over a footbridge to get to the event village! This turned out to be far too much time. I was ready by 09:40, and sat around bored, watching the first wave of my race going off gradually from 09:45. By the time it came to my prescribed start time (10:30) I was desperate to go! Annoyingly I noticed fairly late on that people in my "wave" had been starting earlier, something I should have taken advantage of...At around 10:20 I entered the start funnel (in the slow queue as I was not wearing the prescribed race jersey because a) it was too big and b) it was a cycling top which I've found challenging to run in previously). I managed to start around about my wave's time, and set off on the run. This I found impossible to gauge, having never done a duathlon before! I decided to stick around Z3 heart-rate, immediately going above it on the first hill. After this, I managed to keep "in-zone" but was getting largely overtaken.
Glad at first to get on the bike (the camber in the road had been causing me minor angst during the run) after a rather slow transition, I set off, knowing that most of the 2000+ field was already ahead as my bike had been last on it's row! The bike course was four laps, and fairly technical. The first lap I spent scoping it out, discovering a surprisingly steep climb early on, tight cobbled round-abouts, a hairy descent and some nasty speed bumps. Lovely! Also added to the mix was an acorn that flew very fast at my cheek - extremely painful!
My legs felt tired, probably from not having practised run-bike transitions (and maybe the bottle of white wine last night...). I struggled to get a rhythm for any of the bike course, mainly trying to keep control of Jem and not crash into others. The course was fairly busy for the first three laps, and Jem, despite being fine on LEJOG, was just not indexed properly so kept spontaneously changing gear grrr. The last lap was welcome but quiet - most others were on or had completed the run by now.
Dismounting felt good, and once out of T2 I was surprised to feel good on the run. I supposed this is what I was used to! Being left with the slow end of the field by now, I found myself steadily overtaking right to the end of the 5k, with my legs feeling bizzarely better than when they were "fresh" for the 10k.
A slightly ad-hoc first attempt at a duathlon, but nevertheless good to dabble and realise that I really do prefer swimming to running!
Times
Total time: 02:52:43
Run: 00:52:10
T1: 00:01:35
Bike: 01:32:50
T2: 00:02:09
Run: 00:23:59
Standings
Age category: 11/38 29%
Gender category: 48/229 21%
Overall category: 468/1037 45%
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