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Stockton Duathlon Festival – Michael Vargas
So I’m new to this blogging lark but I thought I would give it a go. So what exactly is a duathlon I hear you say….. Well, a duathlon is where you squeeze a little bike ride in between 2 runs. 5 brave harriers took on the challenge of the standard distance which comprises of a 10k run, 38k bike then a 5k run. Those challengers were myself, Curtis Broadhead, Graeme Miles, Naomi Kellett and Paul Whitehurst (donning LBT colours for this one… Booooooo!). We also had our very own cheerleading squad in the form of Samantha Scarlett and Curtis’ parents.
After arriving on what was a scorching afternoon and registering, I then headed to transition to set up. I kept having a horrible feeling that my bag was too light, like I had forgotten something, I was used to bringing a wetsuit for the triathlon swim. I was pleased not to have to swim as I’m an awful swimmer, but with it being as hot as it was, the idea going for a little swim was actually quite appealing. While I was setting up I tried a new and interesting bit of race prep I hadn’t done before, which was to sellotape my bike glasses back together as I cleverly decided to step on them when I was packing them the night before…. yes, clever me.
So, gear ready, routes in and out of transition memorised. I then headed over to meet with the rest of the HPH crew. Sam was watching out for her brother Steven and his girlfriend Josephine, who were doing the shorter sprint race which was going on as the rest of us were gearing up for the standard distance. It was really good to see them racing. Josephine just pipped Steven home due to an injury he picked up on the first run. I’m sure she won’t let him forget it. I hear girlfriends don’t let you forget these things (cough cough Graeme). While just chatting away to Curtis, he asked me if I had any transition advice as he hadn’t done anything like this before. The only advice I gave him was the highly important advice I would give to anyone doing duathlon or triathlon…. Remember where you left your bloody bike! As I said this I recalled last years Tadcaster triathlon where I was running round transition like a headless chicken looking for mine. I needed the intervention of a friend of mine who was doing the transition security who politely pointed my bike out to me and said to me ‘It’s over there you daft (insert profanity here)’.
The run course is a 5km loop which you do twice, it runs along the river bank eastwards towards the canoe slalom course of Tees Barrage (which I have learned to really dislike as I have been swimming in it in December/January too many times with work), then you cross the river to the other side, come back along the bank, then along a main road, crossing a foot bridge just up from the transition area and then along the bank to transition. It’s a pretty flat course but a high standard event as it is used for Euro and world qualifiers. We headed to the start line and I was a little nervous, I really wanted to do well but knew it was a long race and I couldn’t just go for it like a lunatic. I had the most basic of tactics: go steady for the first mile or two and then speed up. Pretty sensible. So when the starting air horn goes I naturally got excited and flew off like a lunatic! The leaders opened a quick gap but I tried to chase down everything in their wake. I was targeting a 37 minute 10k and although I did my first lap in 18.30 I had gone off far too quick and was tiring and slowing after 2 miles. So after coming through lap 1 in around 12th my pace slowed to nearer 19.30 for the second lap and I dropped to 16th with a total time of 37.54.
Transition was a very quick in and out affair for me; run in, helmet on, broken glasses on, grab the bike and go! Sadly I don’t have clip in pedals which means I am not as quick as the other racers. But I’m also not really a cyclist so I was expecting to go backwards from this point. The course was a 6 lap technical course on closed roads, full of turns and hairpin bends which force you to come to a practical standstill while you take the turn. From a very early point, cyclists were flying past me left, right, and centre. To avoid becoming too demoralised I just had to concentrate on my own race and keep an average speed which is good for my ability. Generally that is around 27-32 kph as an average speed. By lap 2 that sat at 28.9 kph which I was happy with and I felt I was doing quite well. It was really nice to cycle past the start line knowing Sam was there to give me a cheer, as well as that section being quite fast, so I was getting up to 40kph, so I was hoping I looked impressive for her. It was on lap 2 that I caught up with Naomi Kellett, who was a lap behind me. When I passed her, I assumed I would keep on going. So I was a little surprised to see her fly past me not long later and we got into a little game of cat and mouse, and the lead kept changing between us until Naomi won and pushed on as I began to tire as I hit lap 4. It was starting to occur to me that I hadn’t eaten well before the race, I didn’t bring any water on the bike either as I wasn’t expecting it to be this hot (great tactics there Vargas). So I was getting pretty dehydrated and just weakening. It was my own fault, but I was stuck with it. I had been slightly clever though and left myself one of Aldi’s finest Titan bars on the bike to nibble on, which perked me up a bit and really helped me round the last lap. Having weakened and lost Naomi, my average speed had dropped to 28.4 kph by the later stages. To be honest I couldn’t wait to get off the bike, I was getting weaker, my back was really starting to hurt and I was frustrated seeing loads of people on the second run while I still had a lap to go. There also happened to be a water station just after the transition area which I had been dreaming about for the last 4 laps.
So I hit transition 2 with jelly legs! I had hammered my legs on the first run, followed by ruining them on the bike, so the second run was going to be tough. The aim was just to claw back as many places as I could before the end. I had lost a lot of places on the bike and I wanted to get them back! It was just a matter of working as hard as I could with my jelly legs and picking each competitor off one at a time. The toughest part was just keeping those jelly legs going as quick as I could. It wasn’t too hard when it was a small gap to the next racer and it gave me something to chase, but my pace slowed when the gap to close was really big. I was really tired and dehydrated, so much so that I really lost concentration and took a wrong turn even though I had already run 2 laps of the same course and it was very well sign posted. Maybe I subconsciously just really wanted to jump in the river and was heading for that. Thankfully there was a marshal to shout to me that I was going the wrong way. Getting near to the end I saw in the distance what looked like a HPH vest, as I got closer I realised this was Curtis Broadhead, my first thought was ‘you cheeky b*****d!’, mainly because I hadn’t seen him sneak past me on the bike. But the best part of a hundred people did so it was quite hard to keep track of them all. It would seem that although I was 9.5 minutes ahead of him on run 1, Curtis had been working himself into the ground on the bike to complete it 18 minutes quicker than me, which gave him an 8.5 minute lead on me as I got off my bike. When I ran past Curtis I gave him a pat on the back, told him he was doing really well and to give it all he had. He looked really tired, so I think he had been giving it all he had for some time. As I came off the bridge there was a hundred of so metre’s left and I summoned up a sprint to catch the last few people that I could. With the finish line in sight, I gave it all I could, legs ruined but in spite of the tactical errors I had given it a good go, we all did. Although I wasn’t happy with run 1, an 18.58 for run 2 on jelly legs wasn’t to be sniffed at.
Of the 263 finishers I placed 91st with a total time of 2:14:54. Curtis was not far behind, coming in 98th in a time of 2:15:48. Next up was Graeme Miles in 158th in 2:26:06. Followed by Naomi Kellett in 194th in 2:32:37. Paul Whitehust wasn’t far behind in 205th in 2:35:08. Comparing duathlon to triathlon, I would say duathlon is definitely the tougher because the swim in triathlon will ruin your arms but when you jump on the bike your legs should still be in good nick, but with duathlon you have already hammered them before you have hit the first transition which makes that bike ride all the more tiring. Saying that, I’d definitely give it another crack, but then again, I am a glutton for punishment.
Michael Vargas