European Sprint Duathlon Championships, 15 Jun 2024

Although this was the main event of the year for me, I haven’t felt fully prepared. Moving house earlier this year and starting a new job has really affected my training so I decided to just complete it without any high expectations. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed due to fog in Porto so it was a rush to build my bike and get down to race registration for racking, leaving no time for a bike course recce. I did have a chance to walk the run route though so was aware of the obstacles and trip hazards!

The following morning I had a quick check of my bike, a warm up run and then we gathered at the start for the off, I decided not to go off too fast and soon got into a steady pace, but needed some water at the first aid station as it was already pretty warm. The first run was two laps of a scenic 2.5km course, crossing the river twice, with Coimbra as the backdrop. It was mainly flat, apart from the ramps up to the bridges, but we did have a few bollards to avoid and uneven flagstones. I knew a few people in the crowd so it was really nice to hear them cheering me on at various points.

I came into transition, a long run along a blue carpet, made longer by me not wanting to mount my bike going up hill over cobbles! My aim on the bike was to get into a group and when I saw some people ahead of me, I pedalled harder to catch them. I caught up with two GB women, there was another group ahead of them, but unfortunately, they got away too quickly after I had to slow down when someone almost took a wrong turn in front of me. I stayed with this small group for the rest of the race, which resulted in another three GB women joining us, this made the group stronger and gave me someone to draft off up the hill near the end of the bike course. It was quite a windy day so being in a group really helped!

There were warnings of people having accidents coming back into transition, due to severe bumps, loose gravel, sharp corners and cobbles, so I took it steady, meaning that I was the last of my group to go into transition.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the energy to catch up with the others on the last run, my legs felt heavy and I just wanted to finish!

I finished 6th in my age group out of 8, 35th out of 109 overall and being 3rd Brit in my category has secured me a pre-qualification  place for next year. The top two in my age group were first and second overall so it was a fast age group and I felt stronger on the bike than last year, not just keeping up with a group.

Sarah Hunter