Race Report - Knockburn Duathlon

Update: Full race results are now: here.

I couldn't decide if I really wanted to do this race or not. Even on the morning of the race I thought twice about just going out for a steady pedal instead. I finally convinced myself that I would go to the race, not push it but work on my TT position on the bike, and practice my transitions. 

I tested the bike and my planned race outfit on Friday, in 7 degrees and a stiff breeze. As I left the house it was cold enough that I went back in for my arm warmers, fleece hat and gloves. But when I arrived at Knockburn it was 15 degrees and still. I had to strip off pretty much everything I was wearing and even in just my tri-suit I was too warm. I had to dig around in the car to see if I could find some suntan cream as well. Judging by some of the burn marks I didn't do a very good job of putting it on.

I didn't warm-up properly at all. This was not high on my list of smart choices for the day. I had been slapping on the sunscreen and trying not to think about my dodgy hip and how tired my legs were from the rest of this week. I convinced myself again that I wasn't here to race, just to work on some smaller things. So I could jog into the first lap and take the first mile as a warm-up. 

I started off steady, didn't even try to get in the fast group. Still managed to go through the first mile much too fast. I was around the right people. A couple of my clubmates have recently raced 10k races and I had them to compare to and I was in about the right place. Especially given that I have trained heavily enough through the week. The new route wasn't comparable to previous years as the course had to detour majorly to avoid the ongoing works on the site. It is about 500m longer than previous races, but I came in to T1 in about the same time. As I came in I heard the crowd cheering the first lady just behind me.

20:51 for Run, 2.9 miles. 

I flew through T1. Taking 3 places just for being organised and making a quick change. 

The bike starts with a climb. It is fairly tough to get into the bike and I just ignored the couple of people that passed me in the first mile. The first lady passed me, but not the same one that had been behind me on the run. After the hill though the course is very different. It is fast but twisty, a bit of a rough surface in parts. There are two tight left handers where I had to almost dead stop the TT bike due to the bad surface but on most of the flat and downhill sections I was flying. I was passing cyclists that in previous years would have been making big chunks of time on me. Even on the climbs I wasn't losing a lot of ground, despite the TT bike being hard to climb on. I was yoyo-ing a bit with the first lady and a couple of men. They would climb or corner away from me but then I would make it back on the faster sections. I am really happy with how I rode. 4 minutes faster than I have previously gone for this course. That is pretty much 30 seconds every mile.

30:22 for Bike, 9.1 miles.

I really flew through T2. I was stood on my shoes well before the stop line and my dismount was smooth. The bike went straight on the rack and the run shoes went back on first time, no issues. I dropped the first lady at this point. Taking another three places as I shot out of T2, so fast that I actually forgot to take my helmet off. 

I know there is a potential penalty for discarding your helmet outside transition so I didn't just toss it aside. I left it on, since it was comfortable enough (I hadn't bothered with the aero helmet since I wasn't really racing). The heat made me change that plan though. It was still getting warmer and back on the run it was getting too hot so I took it off and carried it for a while. Eventually with the last mile to go I decided it was so annoying that I would risk the penalty and I laid it down (carefully, no need to guarantee a penalty) next to one of the marshals. Then I got back on the run. I was struggling a bit on the second run but I think it was more because I had done too much through the week and pushed hard on the bike. I was a minute slower for the second run. 

21:49 for Run, 2.9 miles. 

I am really happy with this race. I am clearly biking even better than I had expected. On tired legs I still ran fairly well. The run is where I am going to have to make some gains if I want to be seriously racing with the groups ahead of me. 

I beat a few people that I really didn't expect to. Normally I am competing against (and often losing to) female podium places rather than taking minutes out of the lady winner. I am still off the pace of the guys that I really want to be racing, but not by much. A little tidier and a better race prep and I might be there, or thereabouts.

Next race: Probably Turriff Triathlon on April 19th.