St Neots Duathlon, 5 May 2024

I arrived early for my inaugural Duathlon event, taking plenty of time to take in the event village and figure out the various entrances and exits for the run and cycle legs, and watching the Aquabike competitors on their transitions to try and pick up some tips! After going back to collect my bike and equipment, I headed over to set up my transition area, making sure to take note of where I was situated in relation to the entrances. A quick gel and it was time to go to the start line. 

I had planned a slower than usual 5km first leg, but with a small field of competitors I found myself setting out at closer to my normal 5km pace than I had intended. I slowed down a bit on my 2nd lap of the 2.5km circuit, although in hindsight I probably could have continued on my initial pace.

Heading into the transition area I focused on getting the order right: helmet first then everything else! I did hesitate a bit, which I think was mostly first-time nerves running over the checklist in my head. My first transition was 1:24 from entrance to exit. The only thing I forgot was to switch to cycle on my watch which I rectified just after kilometer 2 of the bike!

The bike leg was the element I was most apprehensive about, but my nerves settled quite quickly. The course was luckily fairly flat, with a few hills nicely spaced out along the 24km. Once the course got out of the town centre and into the countryside I got myself into a rhythm and the miles soon passed by.

My second transition took 1:26, 2 seconds slower than the first. this time I remembered to switch my watch to run though! Heading back out onto the run loop, it took a while for my legs to adjust back to running, but they settled down eventually. I felt like I was going at quite a slow pace, and crossed the line feeling quite comfortable, so I know I could have pushed myself a bit harder across all 3 stages to take a fair bit of time off next time.

I finished in a total time of 1:28:59, which for my first event I am quite happy with, and can’t wait to get back out for another Duathlon event soon!

 Mica Covell