Wheal Jane Duathlon, 22 Mar 2026

This race was a twist on the usual duathlon format; each competitor is randomly placed into one of two heats, with the top 50% from each heat being put into Final A and the bottom 50% being put into Final B. The overall distance of the two races is the same as a normal sprint duathlon, just raced in two halves. I was thinking about tactics before the race, do I conserve my energy in the first round so that I can put my all into the final, but then potentially risk not being in the top 50%? Or, do I just go at race pace and see what happens…

I was in the second heat, and the course was quite small, with multiple laps, so we had to wait for the first heat to finish before we could start, meaning that I had a chance to see how the others were tackling the course first.

The run started off on a smooth road, before heading down a steep rocky hill into a quarry area and then right back up again. This lap was run twice before heading onto the road and then up a gravel track to transition. The bike course was 6 laps of a closed private road with a fast downhill section and a short, sharp uphill section. The second run was then another lap of the first run.

I set off as third lady but overtook the others after a few hundred metres and joined the back of a group of men. I was worried about tripping over the rocks and uneven ground when I got to the trail section, but I managed to control my feet and avoided the mud at the bottom before making a sharp U-turn to head back up the hill and repeat the lap. 

I remembered where I had put my bike this time and set off on the bike course. There was a downhill pretty much straight away, which made a nice start. The course then headed through an industrial site, around a sharp corner, then up a fairly steep hill before flattening out and going up a more gradual hill. There was then a U-turn to start the next lap, where the immediate downhill section was great for getting up speed again.

I returned to transition after 6 laps and found that the space where I had racked up before was much narrower since the next bike was closer to the end of the rack, I struggled to get my bike in and had to move their bike across in the process, getting flustered and running out of transition with my helmet on. A marshall reminded me and another athlete that we still had our helmets on and we ran back to put them with our bikes. Luckily it was close to the exit!  

I then headed out on the second run. A couple of men had overtaken me on the bike, but I was confident that I was in the top half of the heat and had retained my position of first lady in my heat.

There was a gap of around two hours between finishing the heat and starting the final race as there were also junior races going on, and then the B Final took place before the A Final. Luckily, it was a nice sunny day, so we sat on the grass and had some snacks while we waited for the start.

In the final race, I quickly became first lady and maintained my position for the whole race, at each turn on the run I clocked where the next lady was and didn’t think that she was closing the gap, so I got into a comfortable race pace, although the hill felt harder this time around! The bike section went well, although I felt it was more of a struggle up the hill each time. Transition went much more smoothly this time as I just slid the other person’s bike along as soon as I got to the rack and remembered to take my helmet off! As I was running past transition, the next lady was running in with her bike so I just kept my pace and didn’t feel like she was closing the gap, I felt strong on the second run, apart from when I was going back up the hill and my legs started feeling tired but I just pushed on to the top and ran comfortably over the finish line in first position. My first duathlon win!

Sarah Hunter