Pages

Monday 18 November 2013

Dinton Duathlon race report

I saw this advertised some months back, but an impending house move made the schedule unsure. I bit the bullet in the end and signed up for it. Of course a delayed house move meant only a week between the move and the race. Work also got their 2p in with me flying to the US on the Tuesday evening and landing back in the UK Saturday morning. How would I fair with such tiredness and stress?

It was very local and only took a few minutes to get there and register. A quick spin up the road and back then time to rack the bike. The advantage of having a surname beginning with A is often a low race number. #2 in this case.

Found my spot and racked the bike and attached my shoes. I seemed to be the only one doing so; admittedly the ground was a little damp but I didn't think it would be too bad. I deposited a pair of trainers at the rear of my bike which garnered some odd looks, then went for a warm up run. Back in time for briefing.

We lined up and watch a mini-helicopter take a video of us and then we were off. The pace was a little tasty and so I reigned it in a bit and started to get overtaken a few times. The run was a 5.3km loop around the lakes of Dinton Pastures near Wokingham. After a few km I began to reel in some of the overtakers, moving from one to another and so on. Throughout I kept an eye on the pace and I didn't want to overcook the first run. Just before km 4 there was a little lump in the trail, then another. Both upset the pacing but the short downhill afterwards was a blessing. 
I went through 5km in 19:39 it didn't seem like the usual hard effort for that pace, especially as I had earned a short-lived 5km PB on a similar course at Dinton in February. Run#1 done in 21:00 in 11th place.

T1 was a very swift 21s (second fastest!) and on to the bike. The LH strap had come undone so I got some speed up then managed to sort it out. Not easy with gloves on. After a few minutes I heard the whup-whup of a disc and was left standing as another tri bike came past. I was then alone for the next 8km before we hit a motorway bridge. I hung back as I didn't want to attack on a hill. A few guys came past me like a chaingang and hung off the back of a few in front. For the next few km we played cat and mouse. Each time I dropped back out of the draft zone. When I overtook, the protagonist typically sat on my wheel. After one overtake I even saw him throw a gel wrapper in to a bush.
Towards the end of the bike leg I was overtaken by the guy again and left it there. He'd take a while to catch me in the first place so I knew his run wouldn't be much. As I came to the mount line a swift dismount saw me overtake the guy and I beat him in to T2. 
20km Bike was 34:18 and 12th place.

T2 was a pedestrian 34s as I put on my second pair of running shoes. This did save some time overall even though I had trouble getting in to the shoes.

The second run was the same course as the first. There was a good first km and then I had to keep pushing to stay on the pace. I was overtaken twice, then after a few km caught up with one of the guys. Shortly before the 4.5km point I was overtaken again and there was no way at that point I would be able to kick and stay with him. That said I managed a ramp and then kicked at the 5km marker. As I came round the final bend I saw 1:17:56 on the clock and gave a good sprint hoping to fall in under the minute.  Second run in 21:44 and 10th position on the run.

The combined time was 1:18:00 exactly and 10th place overall. This was 8th Male Senior and I reckon 4th M35-39. Not a PB, but then not a flat/slightly short course like Dorney and not a qualifier either. I wasn't racing for a particular time, but racing tactically for positions.

It's always interesting to dissect the results of multisport and see where I came on each leg compared to others. For example the guy who came 7th had the 28th fastest run#1, 15th fastest run#2 and a shocking T1. However his bike was very good!
As I have said, I didn't push as hard as I could on run#1 and I was fairly conservative on the bike. I pushed where I knew I could and the course would allow but otherwise not going too hard. I did burn a match at a compulsory stop where I left the bike in the wrong gear! This did work out with only a 44s increase on run#2. The bike numbers also tell a similar story with a Normalised Power and Average Power of 240W for the bike leg (VI of 1.00 obviously). Best 20minute power was 241W for both compared to 258W at a qualifier earlier in the year where my second run suffered by over a minute.

As an event Dinton was great. Good grass roots with a lot of first timers coming from both run and bike backgrounds. Lots of MTBs and team entrants too. Will be nice to see how this event flourishes next year.