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| Crossing the finish line |
On
Saturday my dad and I completed our first duathlon. It was a small
charity event at the Bluebell Inn in Farnah Green, Derbyshire. Dad,
despite being a keen cyclist, hasn't entered many competitions in the
past, so I'm glad he agreed to do it. All his falls and metal
hip/elbow has made him cautious of pushing himself too much in case
he comes off again (as he should be). So Saturday morning and I'm up
before 7 for the first time in a while getting ready for the 9am
start. Dad being Dad decided to cycle to the event saying it'd be a
good warm up. I passed on running there and got a lift off my
step-sis Mel, cheers Mel.
It
was a pretty low key event. When we turned up there was only 1 car in
the car park and no one to be seen, had we got the right place? But
shortly after more and more people turned up, most of them bringing
fancy bikes just to tease me and spark off some bike envy. Dad
arrived shortly after and noted that he was by far the oldest
participant there and I was the youngest. Most people round at the
time were male and in their 30s. This all changed and by the time
we'd completed registration and were ready to line up, the field had
23 teams (plus some random people that seemed to be there just to do
the bike leg and 1 psycho woman that stormed through the whole thing
and smashed the majority of the teams) with a mix of ages from a
lopsided pensioner to a boy that hadn't long walked out of his
pampers.
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| Unprepared as ever at the start |
To
demonstrate how low key the event was here's my account of the start.
The guy giving some basic instructions about the
route, I'd picked up my bit and was only half paying
attention. The roads were quiet but not closed and I'd noticed a van
coming up behind us. Just as I was wondering if I should say
something about the van, I realised the
guy had just calmly said start and everyone was off. I spun round and
got going as quickly as possible. I enjoyed the race. It wasn't too
long but it was a challenge. There was never a flat bit and the hills
were steep, just as difficult to descend as ascend. I tried to pace
myself with the first run and I felt I did pretty well coming in
around half way and off Dad went.
From
my view and what Dad's told me I'll explain the bike leg. The first
rider to come in was very fast and very muddy. He skidded over the
line, covered in mud like Arny hiding from the predator. His runner
was off and frustratingly he was the guy that won the run leg, guess
who won the race. A steady trickle of cyclists came in, each as caked
in mud as the last. The steady arrival of cyclists stopped. 4 of us
were left. This was when I started to worry Dad might be dead. Time
passed and still nothing. Then Dad arrived. Luckily he wasn't dead,
unluckily for him his calves were. He'd been pacing himself, noticing
that others around him were killing themselves up hills and looked
shattered early on. He said he'd tried not to corner too fast as the
mud had made the road slick. But then his chain came off. He got off
to fix it, but then both his calves started cramping. He stretched
out, carried on, stopped at a junction, cramped up again, got off
stretched out, carried on and still managed to come in ahead of 2
others. He didn't have as much trouble as the guy who came in last,
it sounds like he managed to get a flat tyre then get lost and cycled
all the way to duffield!
I
set off for the final leg with the majority of people about to
finish. But that didn't matter, I was determined to at least take 1
place. A guy left not too long before and I thought I might be able
to catch him. I paced myself and decided when he was in my sights I'd
burst ahead and take my own little victory, sadly this didn't happen
and I never caught him, but I did gain 1 extra place before the
finish. We were nowhere near winning but we weren't last and I
enjoyed myself. It was great to be able to do it with my dad too. I'd
recommend the race to anyone. The profits go to a charity that the
guy running the duathlon runs in India. It was a challenging and a
good way to spend a Saturday morning if you ask me. If anyone wants
to check out Team Brindley's time or other events, here's the site...
It was a "Grand day out"
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