Tempo Spring Duathlon, 11 Apr 2020
Less than two weeks ago, it was announced that Tempo events would be able to put on their duathlon at Moreton Morrell college (very local to me!). It was one of the last events to take place in 2020 pre-Lockdown 1.0, which sadly I had to miss due to my fractured elbow at the time, and this time it was one of the first post-Lockdown 3.0! When I saw the announcement, I was in two minds – 1) sheer excitement that I may actually be able to race again but 2) oh no I am really not race fit having had only about 3 weeks of consistent training due to various periods of time off with a few niggles since the beginning of the year… but ultimately the excitement to just be racing again won, and I entered!
Tim as always was fantastic and amended my plan last minute to account for the new race on the horizon and we managed to squeeze in one brick session in the build-up – which actually was on that super-hot day (remember our two days of summer before it then returned to winter…!). It actually went better than expected, which filled me with a bit more confidence for the race.
The weather forecast for race day though was a stark contrast – freezing temperatures. Brilliant… and as we were all arriving at the race venue it started to properly snow! If I wasn’t already faffing in transition to set up my stuff enough already, as I felt so out of practice and thought I was going to forget something, the snow then caused a last-minute panic about what layers I now needed to wear and additional alterations to all of my kit in transition so it didn’t get soaked! But miraculously, as I started to warm up the sunshine came out and it turned out to be pretty lovely (cue another quick dash to transition before the race started to grab my sunglasses for the run..)
The race itself was really well organised, with a great balance of covid secure measures plus elements to try and replicate the normal pre-covid race atmosphere such as music and tannoys – a big thank you to Tempo Events! One of the covid measures was setting us all off on waves, which has its pros and cons – obviously not knowing where you are in a race and effectively racing it as a time trial makes it much harder, but it did mean a much more relaxed start! We had 10 minutes to set off when we liked – which meant I could wander to the start line, stretch and set off when I was ready – lovely!
The run route itself was a particularly challenging one, made up of a 2-mile loop with a big hill you had to climb to get back to the start – we had to do this loop three times for the first run, and then another two times on the second run – ouch! If you have any underlying niggles, this course is certainly one to bring them out – which it did two years ago when I last raced here and had to drop out before the last run as I was suffering with super tight calves. Fortunately, this time around I kept my pace comfortably hard and got through unscathed – it still felt extremely tough climbing up the hill for the fifth and final time, although I am sure it never gets easier!
The bike course was one big 36km loop around the local countryside, with some punchy short climbs, but frustratingly quite a few sets of roadworks with traffic lights (obviously couldn’t be avoided) which lost a bit of momentum – we did have time deducted if we had to stop at any.
Overall, I finished 4th lady which I was pretty pleased with having not really had much of a build-up due to my recent injury. But one thing it has reminded me of is how much I love racing and can’t wait for some more – motivation to train and improve has now been elevated a notch! Bring on the 2021 season and fingers crossed for no more cancellations!!
Helene Wright
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