1.3km run, 7.7km on the bike and a final 1.3km run. Those three disciplines are what made up Medway Duathlon for me as a Tristar 3, last Sunday.
I went to the front on the first run and dropped 2nd place towards the end of the run, on the hill just before transition. I exited transition with a small lead to start the bike leg. The duathlon was a draft legal race as it was one of the races part of the National Champs qualifiers. I rode the seven laps solo, cleanly coming around the fast, bottom corner giving me a speed to accelerate up the hill. There was a group of three, I was able to see at points from across the course, behind me and when I came onto the final run leg I had about a 20-25 second gap. The last run hurt (a lot) but I pushed hard, desperate to keep my lead as I could see second coming when I turned the bottom run course corner. The run is my favourite discipline and I opened up a bit more of a gap to take the win with a 40 second lead. I was very happy with my performance and pleased especially with my bike cornering and run form.
PB5K
I ran the PB5K yesterday (Wednesday) evening at 19:15. It absolutely hammered it down with rain beforehand – there were puddles above ankle deep. The course I liked and was fast with 3 laps and a closed road section. I had the intention of running the race hard and seeing how I would end up. My original PB I did here a year ago was 16.55 but a few weeks ago I ran a 16.05 PB parkrun.
I started in Race 1 and went off hard, completing my first km in 3.05. I hit 2.5km at just over 8 mins and was feeling good and confident – probably helped by the fact there were a lot faster, even 14.30 minutes runners in my race. On the last km I gave everything I had left with the road section and a final corner into the finish. I kicked at the finish as hard as I could hitting a 2:30/km pace, but looked at my watch. Mistake. Take it from me, never look at your watch just before the finish, I lost a second or so from looking and checking, taking my mind off my speed and running as hard as I could into the finish. I completed 5km at 16:00 minutes dead. A really good run I was very happy with but the one big thing I learnt – don’t look at your watch just before the finish. I missed out on sub 16 by less then a second, but mistakes are what comes with running and mistakes are what make you learn, so my target for 5k now is probably to hit under 16mins.
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