Thruxton Sprint Duathlon World Championship Qualifier, 2 Oct 2022

This World champs sprint duathlon qualifier was a perfect way to end the duathlon season. A new race format, a competitive field and a performance I was proud of, with some great take-aways.

I started strong, setting out slightly faster than my usual pace but managed to hold on somewhat to this with the psychological boost that I had a 3.8km rather than 5km first run … a new one for me!

Running not being my strongest out of the disciplines, I often find myself playing catch up on the bike leg (19km). The draft-legal format of this race definitely added a new flavour to this, as I quickly became too comfortable forming a part of a group that I had latched onto out of the first run. I made a bold move by breaking away halfway through the bike leg so that I could catch up with a faster group ahead. I became more and more determined as I got closer until I reached them a lap later, by which point I was mighty relieved to finish the bike leg strongly with Catenary team mate Alli and others!

I certainly don’t regret putting down the power on the bike in order to catch the group ahead, and this was definitely my highlight of the race. However I felt somewhat depleted for the final run leg (3.8km), this time longer than the 2.5km of a typical sprint duathlon.

Overall I was pleased with my times amongst a very competitive field, not surprising given this was a World duathlon qualifier! No qualification for me from this race, but I do have a place on the AG team for Europeans 2023 which I look forward to training for in the coming months!

Lucy Hoade