Varsity Duathlon, 12 Feb 2022

I had a very stressful start to the day. Arriving at Eton Dorney only 25 minutes before the race began because I got lost driving and took a long detour to the race venue was not ideal! Collecting my race pack, sorting my race numbers, racking my bike and setting up transition, as well as plaiting my hair, going to the toilet and changing into race attire, meant no time for a warm up!

I had about a minute to spare on the start line before the Varsity wave were off for the first 5 km run. Nonetheless, I settled into the first leg fairly well. My legs were well rested and the run felt good. It wasn’t the most inspiring route – out and back twice alongside the lake before into transition to prepare for the 20 km bike. There was a bit of faff with putting on my shoes in transition that didn’t make for the fastest T1 time, but I was happy not to have any major disasters actually mounting. I managed to make up some time on the bike, whilst having fun too! It turns out my lap times were quite consistent, so I paced it well. It was two years since I last raced this bike course and, in that time, I have made such an improvement that my average pace increased by 3 kmph! It was a little crowded on parts of the course which made passing people a bit difficult, especially around the bends. Tim advised me to shout louder at people next time!

I hadn’t really been fuelling up to that point, so made sure to have a quick gel in T2 before I was onto the final 5 km of the race. The brick run was mentally the toughest part of the race and felt twice as long as the first 5 km. My pace was inevitably slower than the first run but I was still happy with where I was. A final dash to the finish line and I positioned 2nd woman and 14th overall. I was very pleased with the result and it was great to have the support of Coach Tim on the side-lines to cheer me on. Perhaps most importantly, Oxford shoed the tabs (meaning we beat Cambridge)! 

Jenny Carter