Dinners for ….

Winners?

Well what were the chances of that? I knew was in with a shout but that maybe added to the pressure.

After doing a rain dance all day Saturday, it was tipping it down when I arrived at Helwith Bridge Duathlon. Its a 4 mile hilly run, a 21 mile hilly bike (using some of the Circuit of Ingleborough TT course) then a repeat of the 4 mile run.

Run 1 – Very quick off the mark trying not to give too much time away

Bike – My top tip. If it’s raining, leave you visor at home. Alternatively spend a couple of miles trying to remove it (I can honestly say I made a good job of fixing it to my helmet) then try stuffing it down the front of your tri-suit. Then back to the racing. Catch a few and try and work out if you are actually at the front of the race. Are there any more athletes ahead or are they a relay team?

Time to hit the climbs and Mark (my favourite for the win) is starting to drop back a bit. Ever attacked up hill on a TT/Tri bike before? No me neither and I can honestly say it ain’t really the tool for the job. I then had to put the hammer down and get as much time as possible.

Running out of T2 and Mark is just coming into T2. I reckoned i needed 30 seconds advantage. this didn’t look good.

My mind started to wander. How much time would I really need. Was he gaining. No. I can’t actually see him. Followed by, where the hell did he com from? I thought I was going to get caught and couldn’t decide whether to just keep running or ease off hoping that I could then put the hammer down as I was about to be caught.

Thankfully it didn’t come down to that. I came in 48 seconds clear.

I learnt a few things on that final run.

To have more faith in my abilities – I expected to be caught

I should have gone sooner on the bike and attacked from further out expecting to maximise the damage.

Anyway, the 15 cans of Carlsberg will come in handy plus the vouchers for KuduBikes in Hawes.

All in all it was a very wet second “last ever duathlon”.