Whilst we've been in the depths of the coldest Spring in Europe for 60 years, Australia have been enjoying (or possibly suffering) their hottest Autumn for 50 years. And this definitely makes me wish I was on the other side of the World! I have been continually complaining about the cold weather - it's incredibly impractical for a start and makes training a lot harder! I have been out on my bike in the snow, but I've definitely not got as many road miles in so far this year as I was planning to. And when I have been out, I've been carefully making my way down the centre of the road avoiding the ice. I also had one eventful bike ride where I stopped for a quick snack and when I went to clip my shoes back in, my cleats had iced over!
By some miracle the day of the Cambridge Duathlon saw temperatures over twenty degrees and it was a gorgeous sunny day - basically a lovely day to be out running and cycling.
The aim for the race was to qualify for the World Duathlon Champs - that meant finishing in the Top 4, and my personal goal was to pick up my first Triathlon England National champs medal. I knew that would be a tough ask, and everything would have to go absolutely perfectly on the day.
The course was beautiful, but it was also very exposed and very very windy.
The women's wave started first and the pace was spot on for me - I was running in a large group at the front of the race, getting a little benefit by sheltering from the wind behind the leaders. As we came up to the turn to head of the wind, the leader made a little move which I covered and then settled into 2nd place for a while. As we turned again to head back downhill towards race HQ, she picked up the pace and I decided not to go with it - I had another 2 hours of racing ahead of me and didn't want to overdo it on the first run! Coming up to transition another woman edged past, but I was very pleased to come in 3rd with a time 30:18 for 7.5km. I'd been aiming for 30 minutes, but given the conditions this was a great start.
Transition went smoothly - gel in, helmet on, shoes on, swig of water, grab bike and off we go - until I got to the exit from transition, where a car was trying to come in to transition! Jammed the brakes on, wiggled my way past the car and then I was off - 2 and a half laps of lovely countryside cycling in the sunshine. I worked as hard as I could throughout, changing down gears in the wind and making sure I took on enough liquid in the heat. I was lucky to have my fiance, my Dad and my coach all spread out across the bike course to give me encouragement at different points. On the last lap I was definitely starting to suffer and began to get cramp in my back - at this point I saw my Dad standing by the side of the road, miles from race HQ, cheering me on! It gave me the boost I needed to push on to the finish and overtake a couple more competitors!
Another speedy transition then off out on the run. All the duathlons I've done previously have had a 5km run at the end, instead of the 7.5km I was faced with today - but I have been training for this so I knew I'd get round! The start times of the different waves meant that quite a few men had passed me on the bike, and I used this to my advantage now as I made my way through the field, trying to pass as many people as possible. Yet again I had the whole support team all over the course, with Phil (my coach) dashing around all over the place to give me encouragement and shouting useful things like "the women in front all look tired!" Always good to hear, but by the last mile I was feeling very tired as well and felt like I was running through treacle. I managed to put in a good effort over the last 800-400m to overtake a couple more women and when I crossed the line I knew I'd given it absolutely everything.
After collapsing on the grass for a while we went to check the results - I was hopeful I'd qualified, but I just wasn't sure how many women were in front of me and I felt like my last run had been too slow. Cue a lot of excited screaming! I'd finished 3rd! I also clocked 30:20 for the final run split - just 2 seconds down on my first run time, and the fastest split of all the ladies. Absolutely amazed. My first Triathlon England medal!
After a very hard Winter's training, I felt a bit overwhelmed that it had all paid off and I'd achieved my aims. I was just 11 seconds behind the 2nd place woman, but also only 11 seconds ahead of 4th - showing what an amazingly close race it was. Thank goodness I made that extra effort at the end of the race!
My cycling is definitely going in the right direction, but I've still got a fair bit of work to do to bring it up to the same standard as my running. Luckily we've got a lot of ideas for how I can take a big chunk off my bike split already, so after taking a few days to relax and recover, it's time to get some seriously hard bike work done!
Thanks for reading, and a massive thanks to everybody who's supported me!
