Hever Castle Standard Distance Duathlon, 27 Sep 2020

Standard distance duathlon is hard. Add in off-road, undulating runs and a bike course where it was never flat and you have a whole new “fun” experience! I have wanted to race at Hever Castle for a long time and so jumped at the opportunity to race a duathlon there!

My race didn’t start until 1:15pm which was a luxury- so much time in the morning and time for the weather to warm up! It was a rolling one by one start onto the run course which was sadly full of athletes doing the run leg of their middle-distance duathlon or the marathon. With very fresh legs I tried to zoom past them but the course was quite narrow at points which made it challenging! The course was pretty epic- one large lap through fields, trails, castles and a horse eventing course! I paced it well and had a great (but long run into) T1! 

I got out on to the bike course and was immediately faced with a long climb. My legs felt pretty good for this point in the race, however I did feel a twinge of cramp in my calf. I have had a few past experiences with cramping up on the bike in standard distance duathlon races so I ensured to spin the legs and not grind the gears. A few minutes into the race I looked down to pick up a gel from my top tube (I tape them on) and to my horror they were gone- must have come off on the savage speedbumps leaving the castle! Drat. I was feeling ok energy wise so just ploughed on! I was a little cautious on the descents to start with but built confidence on my second lap (think I got a new downhill PB speed!) I had chosen to ride my road bike as I was more confident on it with climbs and descents and I think I made a wise choice. All in all the bike course was great- really well marshalled, nice smooth and clear roads and no idiot drivers! I started to fade a little in the last 10mins of the ride but knew I only had a 4.5km run to finish which I should be able to get by without any fuel!

I had another cracking transition in T2. Frustratingly the lady in the lead was lost in transition and asked me for directions to run out as I was sorting myself out by the racking. I pointed her the right way and never saw her again- good deed for the day tick, shame it was the lady who beat me (she was an excellent runner though so never had a chance!) I got out on to the second run but was confronted with a swarm of kids on their bikes racing on our run course! Supposedly we were meant to share the narrow trail path, hmpf. It was all slightly disastrous- the highlight being running up the gravel hill to the finish and them all getting off their bikes to walk up it in front of me!! However, I was chuffed not to have got a stitch on the second run (a common occurrence) and managed to lug myself round to the finish in one piece!

Final results:

3rd female/20 (only 2 mins between me and 1st lady!) 24th overall/80

I had the fastest female bike split and transitions- yay!

Final time: 2hr 30. Run 1 (10.5km): 44mins, Bike (40km): 1hr20, Run 2 (4.5km): 19mins + some very long (distance) transitions!

Megan Powell