Gosfield Duathlon, 2 Jul 2023

My last duathlon left me frustrated when severe calf cramp on the bike leg meant I couldn’t enjoy it at all, or fulfil what I hoped was my potential in the event, so I knew I needed to do another one. Despite it really being triathlon season at the moment, I found a reasonably local duathlon that was being run at the same time as the main triathlon. The fact that the second run was also 5km (instead of the usual 2.5km) was a disadvantage but it was really the only event around, so I entered. Starting at the same time as the triathlon meant that all the sprint distance swimmers, and at least some of the standard, would be out on the bike course by the time we got there, so despite it being a non-drafting event I decided to ride my road bike. I reckoned I would be moving through traffic of slower riders most of the time, and so the road bike would make this more relaxing. It would also be a chance to try this versus the TT bike that I used last time.

After an early alarm for an 8am race, and a delayed start due to the timing company forgetting the timing chip straps(!), we were off, running in the opposite direction to the triathletes and out onto the run course. The hardest part of the course was an upwards drag through a cornfield which was quite overgrown and narrow, making it difficult to overtake and quite hard to run on at all. After that there was some confusing wiggling about in a residential street, then back downhill to the start of the lap, when you had to do the same thing again. Five or six runners went off ahead from the start and were clearly going to be faster than me, so I stuck to my threshold pace target (on average) and managed to finish the run feeling pretty good. The last section of the run course was also the start of the bike course, so you could see all the triathletes getting out on the course ahead of us.

Into transition and a brief schoolboy error when believing my number was 352 instead of 252 meant failing to find my bike for a few seconds – oops! I found it in the end, headed off up a hill to the mount point, and got out onto the bike course. There was an uphill drag for the first section, and I tried to settle into a decent pace, making sure my legs were eased into cycling, taking on some drink and making the first of many prayers for no cramp. As predicted the slower cyclists caused a few problems – slow cyclists being relatively easy to overtake, slow cyclists with a couple of cars stuck behind them not so easy! There were a few eventful moments along the way, including briefly going the wrong way on a route split (saved by the GPS), a multi-overtake/non-draft tussle with a guy on a TT bike, but mostly it was nice riding on a lovely sunny morning on a lovely course. My average power was much lower than I hoped for, but my legs felt ok and I was very conscious of how hard the second run was going to be, so was happy to save some energy. The only downside was that, amongst all the people I overtook, I saw virtually none of the duathletes who I had been hoping to chase down (from the results I had actually overtaken at least two).

Into T2, and another brief Mr Bean moment when I wheeled my bike into a hedge instead of down the hill back to the transition zone! Soon enough I was back in my running shoes and out onto run 2, which I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to by now. Luckily it wasn’t too warm, my legs got working in time for the cornfield drag and I was able to settle into a reasonable pace. My legs were feeling pretty dead by now and my back was hurting as well, but I managed to hold a reasonable pace for the second run and finished only slightly slower than the first one. I came 7th in the end – the top three were much faster but the next three were within a minute or so of me. Very tempting to assume that on my TT bike that time would easily have been made up… I was also 4th fastest on the second run which was pleasing. Overall, I’m happy with the result and the way it went generally.

Tim Phillips