How goes it you guys? Got another blog for y'all.....
A few months ago Steve talked me into the idea of competing in the High Terrain Events Duathlon Series which consists of four off-road bike and run races stretching out over the winter months. The first one being at Whinlatter in the North Lake District. The race can be done as a team relay or as a solo event so I decided to team up with my close friend Jenni Campbell and Steve was with his pal Chris Dunn. Both of our friends did the 13k run whilst we rode the 18k.
The day before Jenni and I had been caving and after walking through tunnels for 3 hours hunched over like Gollum from the 'Lord of the Rings', it might not have been our best idea but hey-ho, nothing a bag of Jelly Babies couldn’t put right!
Jenni & Angie somewhere in the caves deep underneath the North Yorkshire fells...
None of us had ever done a Duathlon event before and so we were all unaware of what to expect and how really best to approach it, nice to do something new though!
Racing began at 10am on the Sunday, there were about 180 entries and it did feel a bit weird looking around and not knowing anyone. We were used to being at DH/Enduro events where we know everyone and could look around and know who is fast and who isn’t, who’s been training and who hasn’t, but here we were totally oblivious! The runners went off first, Jenni and Chris had been doing some good training leading up to it. Jenni is in a running club and I knew I could count on her to set a good time, similarly with Chris he’s got the world’s longest legs so one stride and he was round the course…
Steve was 29'er mounted, wagon wheels ahoy....
The first run was 7.5k and we were expecting to see the runners at around the 40min mark, in they came and passed us the dibbers, there was only 1 minute between them both. We grabbed our bikes and ran to the start line, jumped on and set away up the first hill. Steve was overtaking people left, right and centre, cutting into berms. I got stuck behind some dude on the first section and had to brake hard over some sharp rocks giving me an instant flat!!! My god I was so angry! I began changing my tube but had no tyre levers…arrggghhhh! Trying to prise the tyre off the rim with my freezing cold finger tips was awful, eventually I did it as people were passing me shouting things like “ bad luck mate” aye, you're telling me, grrrrrr! I pumped it back up to 50PSI to make sure it didn’t happen again as I had no inner tubes left!
Don’t think I sat down in my seat for the rest of the ride as was adamant to try and make up some time. I soon began passing people and have to give my apologies to guy who fell off his bike and then down the hillside after allowing me to overtake, sorry stinky! A few minutes later a sharp climb appeared so I shoved my gears down but ended off snapping the lever, oh balls! I was now stuck in a hard gear for the rest of the ride, good job I wasn’t wanting to sit down much cos I had no choice now! The route took us around the blue route and then the south red loop. Towards the end came a stinker of a hill climb, having no gears I just couldn’t push any harder without snapping my chain, or my legs for that matter, so I got off and pushed my bike up as quick as I could, my calves felt like they were going to snap trying to cramp up.
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Taking no prisoners......
Last descent into the finish where Jenni was waiting, I handed her the dibber and she ran off like a bullet, I think she knew there must have been a problem. Steve was already back and changed, waiting for Chris to get back. He had a great ride admitting he could have gone harder, but was scared to push it as he was not used to racing that kind of distance. When Chris came in after a great second run we got the results, they had finished 4th in the men’s teams. Woop! For their first ever duathlon event I think it's fair to say they should be pretty happy!
Next in came Jenni with a very close time to Chris, about 36mins for the 5.5k which apparently went straight up the hillside and then, steeply, straight back down. We got our overall results and were 2nd in the womens teams not too far of the winners. Very happy with that considering the troubles, I wasn't expecting to place so highly.
Next Duathlon is at Kielder Forest in a few weeks and we are both super excited to get stuck in…Steve is on ebay now buying the lycra! Now back to that bag of Jelly Babies....
Angie & Steve
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