BUCS Duathlon, 11 Apr 2021

On Sunday 11th April I competed in my first ever BUCS race representing Loughborough University. The duathlon had been postponed from October, so I was delighted that it could now take place. I was incredibly nervous before the race as I didn’t know what to expect. It had been almost 2 years since my last triathlon race and almost 4 since my last duathlon - it was definitely time to dust off the cobwebs! The race consisted of a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike and a final 2 mile run.

My first run went well. I set out at a fast pace, trying to stay with the leading group. I ended up dropping off from the group slightly but I was very pleased with my time for the leg (12:45). This put me at a 3.59/km pace, which Is by far the fastest I’ve run in a duathlon.

I had a slight hiccup in T1. The transition was neutralised giving each athlete 2 mins to go through transition. I’m very used to rocketing through transition in under 30s, so having so much ‘free’ time to cruise through transition completely threw me off. I ended up running to the mountline with my trainers still on despite having my bike shoes attached to the bike ready to go. I had to run back through transition, whip the trainers off and head back out again!

Overall the bike went well. I felt quite lethargic on the first lap and struggled to get any solid power down. After this initial lap, I felt like I got stronger with each lap that went by. The final lap felt really good: by this point I’d learnt where the fastest parts of the course were and used this to my advantage. If I were to improve my bike I’d like to work more on my TT position, and putting down the power into a headwind as I definitely found this the hardest part! Typically flat courses don’t suit me as I love hills and technical elements however I was genuinely really chuffed with how I performed amongst the other athletes. I recorded a time of 26mins36s.

The final run was a weird one. Cardiovascularly I felt really strong. My breathing was controlled and steady. At the start I saw a group of athletes in front and honestly felt like I had enough puff to run off and catch them. My legs however were not so eager to do this! I would have liked the 2nd run to be a bit quicker and did feel like I had a lot more in the tank when i crossed the line. However I managed to complete it in 13:22 giving me a 4:11/km pace. Last year I would have struggled to run anything faster than a 4:30/km so I am thrilled that I’m now able to push out much faster runs. I’m so excited to see how much more my running will progress over the coming season.

Overall I came 15th! I can’t wait to race again at the BUCS sprint triathlon in a few weeks time to push myself again and make a few tweaks to my performance.

Lilly Gibbs