Its over and what a weekend it was. I arrived on the Friday just after 11am to see lots of athletes from different nations milling around. I had to chuck all my kit in the room, quick change into GB kit and then it was off to an age group meeting at 11:45. My first surprise was the amount of athletes from the GB but I suppose when you consider that we were allowed 25 per age group it kind of makes sense.
After the meeting it was back to my room for 5 mins before leaving to attend the parade of nations. What stood out most was the fact that all the nations had one version of their kit and were all in it, except GB, we had a kind of combination of kit from the ages. It was still a great experience and I felt really good to be a part of it.
Finally it was back to build my bike before the course familiarisation at 17:00, I did a couple of laps along with a few hundred others so it got a bit busy but I got what I needed out of it and I felt fairly good.
Race day was a little different though, my wave was last to go at 15:30, the previous wave having gone 1:30 before us so although we had them doing their 5k run whilst we were on our 10k the route was clear.
My 10k went well, I knew I could do around 39 mins so I kept my pace around there managing to come in at 39:37. The route was 4 laps, each lap being a long drag uphill for about 1.25k then back down.
T1 went well enough with no major hassles and the first lap of the bike was ok although I did feel it in my legs which was a little unusual as it was only 5 miles. The 2nd I started to really feel the hills and I was thinking at this point that maybe the recent Ironman distance I completed wasn't out of my legs.
From that lap on it got harder and harder on the hills and I was just managing to recover a little on the downhills. There were a lot of scary moments when I was getting tunnel vision which was not good, especially on the fast meandering course downhill. I managed 2 gels and 750ml of water but they didn't make me feel much better. Finally I had one lap to do but my legs had nothing left in them and I was dreading it.
The long drag uphill of about a mile went really slow and I just managed to reach the top for a gentle downhill of about a mile. Then it was back up the gentle hill to the worst part of the course, it was about 100m of very steep climbing.
On the 4th lap I had struggled badly to get up this section but this final lap had me, for the first time ever, really considering getting off and walking. I tried standing on the bike but I didn't have the strength to stay up, I had to sit down and grind it out. I don't know how I got to the top but I fought my way there it must have taken forever. At last it was just the fast descent left before T2, I had done it in 1:27:21 which wasn't too bad I suppose seeing as the fastest was around 1:07.
Running into T2 my bike decided to throw a shoe off so I had to go back for it but it felt so good to be off the bike. Then it was out on the same course as the 10k but only the 2 laps, I found it harder than ever to get up the hill and can honestly say I don't know how I managed to finish. I think I could have walked it faster, 26:03 for 5k what a nightmare.
02:36:22 my slowest duathlon but still only my 3rd ever, I think it will be my most memorable though and an experience I won't forget. I have learnt that I need a little more rest after a long distance in future. Time to look towards my half marathon at St Neots in November and getting a PB now though :o)
AFTER a little recovery!!
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