On Sunday 27th February, I participated in the second duathlon organised by Chester Tri Club as part of the club’s winter league, consisting of a 5km run, 15km cycle and 5km run. The weather was very gloomy and as we prepared to leave, it started hailing and I wondered whether taking part was a good idea after all! Notwithstanding the weather, my friend Ide, who was racing in shorts(!), convinced me that I was a bit over-dressed, so I removed a layer of clothing and we were on our way.
From the first run, it was very close all the way between me and two other female club members, Kate and Kirsty, but my run of 21:48 was marginally faster than theirs. As soon as I got on the bike, I realised it wasn’t going to be easy. The weather on the bike was described in the tri club newsletter as “a howling gale and lashing rain”. But I worked hard all the way round the bike course and retained first place, having registered the fastest female bike split (32:07). As I entered transition, my feet were completely frozen and numb, which made changing my shoes on the wet grass really difficult and slowed down my second transition greatly! I started the second run, hoping that my toes would defrost and that I would be able to run fast enough to remain in first place.
However, Kate was running hard to overtake me and she passed me about 2km before the finish. As much as I tried to stay close to her, it was hard to increase my pace and the gap between us started to grow. I increased my pace about 800m before the finish and tried to reach her, but she was also sprinting towards the finish and she ended up getting there before me. Her run of 21:43 was faster than her first run, but I was very pleased with my overall performance, having finished the second run in 22:24. My finish time was 1:18:24, just 10 seconds behind Kate and over a minute ahead of Kirsty, who placed third.
My performance in the duathlon was also good enough to move me up into the lead in the women’s winter league. This weekend I also had a 1600 yard swimming time trial and a 5 mile race and my reports for these events will follow as soon as the results are out. My first triathlon of the season will be the Chirk Sprint Triathlon on 17th April.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AqN6PRn8NoRKdEV5ZUxqaG5jX0lpdHVOZndUbmwwYkE&hl=en_GB&output=html&gid=15
Johanna
From the first run, it was very close all the way between me and two other female club members, Kate and Kirsty, but my run of 21:48 was marginally faster than theirs. As soon as I got on the bike, I realised it wasn’t going to be easy. The weather on the bike was described in the tri club newsletter as “a howling gale and lashing rain”. But I worked hard all the way round the bike course and retained first place, having registered the fastest female bike split (32:07). As I entered transition, my feet were completely frozen and numb, which made changing my shoes on the wet grass really difficult and slowed down my second transition greatly! I started the second run, hoping that my toes would defrost and that I would be able to run fast enough to remain in first place.
However, Kate was running hard to overtake me and she passed me about 2km before the finish. As much as I tried to stay close to her, it was hard to increase my pace and the gap between us started to grow. I increased my pace about 800m before the finish and tried to reach her, but she was also sprinting towards the finish and she ended up getting there before me. Her run of 21:43 was faster than her first run, but I was very pleased with my overall performance, having finished the second run in 22:24. My finish time was 1:18:24, just 10 seconds behind Kate and over a minute ahead of Kirsty, who placed third.
My performance in the duathlon was also good enough to move me up into the lead in the women’s winter league. This weekend I also had a 1600 yard swimming time trial and a 5 mile race and my reports for these events will follow as soon as the results are out. My first triathlon of the season will be the Chirk Sprint Triathlon on 17th April.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AqN6PRn8NoRKdEV5ZUxqaG5jX0lpdHVOZndUbmwwYkE&hl=en_GB&output=html&gid=15
Johanna
1 comment:
wohooooo Go Jojo :) :) xxx
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