This year, I’ve been concentrating on the European Sprint Duathlon Championships in June so when I saw that there was a sprint duathlon at Darley Moor three weeks before the event, I thought it would be a good practice run. However, when I got there in the morning and it was chucking it down, I wondered why I was there! I went for a bike recce and got sprayed by both my wheels and the other riders - drafting isn’t going to be fun I thought! The transition area was on grass which was sodden and becoming muddy, especially as the men had already done their race before us.

I did a warm-up in the parking area and then headed to the start. The race is set at a motorbike racing circuit, with the bike route on the track in the middle and the run around the perimeter, on a rough gravel track.

We started the run on the race track before heading on to the gravel track. I lined up on the front row so that I could avoid a bottleneck going onto the track but got a little bit too enthusiastic and shot off in front of everyone, leading the race, until I hit some water-filled potholes on the gravel track. I slowed down to dodge the puddles and got overtaken, I then tried to maintain a more steady pace for the rest of the run, two laps of the course. I came into transition and put my soggy shoes and helmet on before starting the bike section, eight laps of the course! I caught up with a group and three of us took it in turns to lead, taking on the wet and windy ride with hairpin bends and sharp corners. On the last lap, I pulled away, thinking that others would follow so that we could leave the rest of the group but I was on my own and then as I slowed down to come into transition, they caught up with me. I’m pleased that I had pulled away in front though, as it meant that I wasn’t bunched up with everyone else trying to dismount.

I ran through the muddy grassy area to put my bike away, swapping for more soggy shoes and then started the run, almost forgetting to drop my helmet by my bike! My legs felt heavy but I caught up with some other women and ran past them, ending up keeping pace with another woman who I’d been running next to in the first run. As we got to the final corner, we overtook another woman and started to get a bit faster, she was keeping pace with me even though I started to go a little faster. I didn’t know which age group she was in but I knew I’d be disappointed if someone had beaten me by a couple of seconds so we both started sprinting, knocking each other's elbows to try and get ahead of each other. Eventually, we crossed the finish line and I was a second ahead of her, I later found out that she was in the age category 10 years below me and I had come third in my category, meaning that I’d qualified for next year’s World Championships!

Despite the weather, getting some good practice for Portugal and a qualification place meant it was a worthwhile trip out!

Sarah Hunter

Darley Moor Sprint Duathlon, 26 May 2024

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