Tri Force Duathlon

Darren Treadaway 00:59:50
Jez Cox 01:00:33
Howard Davis 01:11:13
Chris Carradice 01:11:38
Mark Heaney 01:14:10
Tamsyn Allen 01:16:03
Jamie Hamilton 01:20:47
Graham Meager 01:20:59
MarkWoolhouse 01:25:47
Trace Allen 01:28:17
Paul Carter 01:28:26

I wouldnt normally write a race report for what effectively is a training race but this one deserved a special mention.

There was a lot of talk and speculation beforehand about myself, Jez Cox, Mike Jubb and Dan Corner all showing up! Now I by no means would have been the favourite had they all shown as they have all won medals at various European and World Duathlons and I myself am training for Ironman. It arguably would have been one of the best quality duathlons in the country! But I know I am in good shape and was looking forward to bashing some duathletes!

Some were taking it rather seriously and there was talk of using pyro plates and waking at 3:30am to eat breakfast in preparation! But I myself was just looking forward to having fun and a good work out! Unfortunately it wasnt the show down I had hoped for and it turned into a head to head between myself and training partner and good friend Jez Cox.

Now Jez (top British ranked Duathlete 2007) has taught me a lot on the bike over the winter from bike position to maintenance to race nutrition so I owe him a lot and his advice given selflessly to me probably cost him the race today.

I knew to stand a chance of winning I would have to get a sufficient gap on Jez on the first run otherwise he would have used me on the bike. So I went out hard from the gun and managed to get 25 seconds on him into T1. A quick transition and I attacked the bike hard nervously looking over my shoulder to see if he was making ground on me, I still had a good lead. I held on to T2 and further extended my lead on the second run.

So could Duathlon be another string to my bow? I certainly now intend to give a few more a go and look forward to more battles with Jez who i'm sure will be up for revenge next time!