Darley Moor Sprint Duathlon, 18 Sep 2022

With the end of the duathlon season approaching, I thought I would get one last competition in. Initially, I wasn’t going to enter it as it would only be a week after the Great North Run but it was a European qualifier so as it became closer, I couldn’t resist. I was starting to regret entering it when I had DOMS in my quads after the half marathon, however that subsided two days later and I continued my taper training week.

The day of the race arrived and as the race didn’t start until 11:30am, I decided to make the three-hour journey on the day of the race rather than staying over the night before, luckily I didn’t get held up in traffic! This was the first competition that I was attending on my own so I was pleased to hear that a fellow Catenary athlete was going to be there. It was lovely to meet Lucy before the race and then have a little debrief afterwards.

The race was held on a motor circuit, so we all gathered on to the track to start, before filing onto the gravel track around the outside. I got a good start, getting into the top three runners but looked at my watch and thought “I’m going too fast, I need to slow down” and by the time I went into transition I was in 6th place. The bike section was hard, many people overtook me and with a strong headwind down one side of the track, I found it difficult to gain any ground. I was also worried about accidentally drafting as we had been reminded by the race officials that it was strictly a non-drafting race and any competitors seen to be drafting would be disqualified. The bike section was 8 laps of the motor circuit, which included a hairpin bend and about halfway through, not only did we have a strong wind but also heavy rain. I was counting down the laps to being able to get onto my feet again!

I got to the transition, ditched my bike and started running. I left transition at the same time as another athlete but managed to pull away from her, overtaking another and then set my sights on a group ahead where I managed to overtake two more runners as we got towards the end of the run. However, despite my efforts to make up time on the second run, I came across the line in 5th place for my age group, where the first four qualify. I did manage to get a much better time on the run and the bike compared to last year though which I am proud of, I just need to continue to work hard on my cycling skills and strength.

Sarah Hunter