Duathlon

Today I was at Hullavington for the Inter Services duathlon. I haven't done this race for 4 years, if my memory serves me correctly, and I recall that it was a world of pain, which is one of the reasons why I haven't done it for so long. I have been out of the RAF Triathlon circle for a couple of years so it was really good to meet up with some old mates. What was more surprising, though, was the number of new faces - RAF Tri seems to be thriving at the moment, and they are not all old duffers like me; indeed, several are very able athletes. And it was great to see a full Ladies team as well! No doubt a lot of the new faces were looking at me and thinking 'What's that old man doing here?', and the answer came more or less as soon as the gun went off - I was following them all!

The race was a sprint distance duathlon, meaning 5km run (2 x 2.5km laps), 20km bike and, finally, a 2.5km run. It was a bit windy, blowing directly into your face along the start/finish straight but was warm(ish) and dry. At the start I positioned myself behind Coach Roy, but as the plane went overhead I looked up, the gun went, and when I looked back Roy, and most of the rest of the field, had gone. I didn't see Roy again until I finished! I started off steadily and found myself running alongside or just behind Queen Bev. Bev continues to amaze me with her ability to continue to race at a very high level, year after year (and all fuelled by red wine apparently!), and I was happy with the pace she was going at. We were towards the back of the field but, as usual, many had started too quickly and we slowly started to overtake one or 2 strugglers. Towards the end of the 2nd lap I was feeling good and eased passed Bev and found a clean run into T1. I glanced at my watch - 21:53, much quicker than I had anticipated! Helmet on, trainers off, shoes on, grab bike and away, T1 done and dusted in 38 seconds, quite content with that. I started the bike leg easy and planned to push a little harder each lap; as it turned out the effort level went up each lap but the lap times were strangely consistent. And slow! Bev passed me out of the first corner and then rode away from me, and it wasn't long before the leaders came passed going very quickly indeed (and it was great to see so many RAF riders going well). I felt OK, I was working moderately hard but was not in any particular distress, but the speed just wasn't there, no doubt a symptom of my lack of bike miles over the winter and having done no speed work whatsoever this year. I arrived at T2 after 37 mins 48 secs of cycling (19.7 mph), executed a fine example of a running dismount (even if I say so myself, I've still got 'it'!), racked bike, trainers on and out of T2 in 26 seconds. Very happy with that, too. Out on the second run and for about 100 metres I was OK, and then I felt the first twinges of cramp and so eased back until they went away (maybe 30 seconds or so) and then picked up the pace again (pace is, as always, relative). I was passed by a couple of people but also picked off a couple of stragglers myself. I was working hard and finished the 2nd run in 10 mins 40 secs for an overall time of 1:11:28.

I hadn't set myself any particular targets (other than to finish) but my times provided me with plenty of food for thought. CrossFit is definitely improving my running; I haven't run this well for many years, but CrossFit (and consequent lack of bike miles) has had a significant, and detrimental, effect on my cycling. I need to get a better balance in my training programme, and maybe introduce a turbo session at some point each week.

I left before the awards ceremony so have no idea how the RAF Teams did; can anyone enlighten me?

Lonsy was there taking plenty of photos and I was good enough to be going sufficiently slowly that he should have several excellent pictures of me.

When I got home I had a nice soak in the bath and, in hindsight, I actually quite enjoyed the event. Now if I could just get my 5km run time down to sub 20 minutes, and get my cycling back to the level it was at last year, I might just be able to not be the last RAF male finisher next year (and most of the ladies were in front of me as well!). I'll post some pictures when I can get them.

An interesing sub-plot (or maybe not!). As we chatted at registration I recognised a member of my CrossFit club was also there, representing his Army unit, and after a bit of banter the gauntlet was thrown down and picked up. I had experience on my side, he had youth, being some 25 years younger than me. Needless to say, he pulled out a reasonable lead on the first run but this disappeared completely in T1 while he dilly-dallyed like the novice he is, and I was just a handful of seconds behind onto the bike. I passed him halfway round the first lap but he re-took me at the end of the lap, although this must have taken a lot of effort and after I overtook him again shortly afterwards I pulled out a comfortable lead that I held to the end of the race. Chalk one up for the wily old fox and bragging rights when we next meet at the CrossFit gym!

Nice to see you all. My next race is the Odiham sprint tri; see you there.