Chester Tri Club Winter League Duathlon
The last duathlon of Chester Tri Club’s winter league was held on Sunday 3rd April. As we prepared to start, the sun was out and it was much warmer than it had been in the previous duathlon. (When I got home, I actually had a slight tan line of my shorts!)
As we started the first 5km run, Gill took the lead and I could immediately see that she was much faster than me (she finished the first run in 19:55!). Kate was just behind me most of the way and then led at one point towards the end and though I felt that I couldn’t get into a fast pace, it turned out that I was running well and Kate and I entered transition together in 2nd place having done a 21:31 run.
We set off on the bike and a lot of the time Kate and I were alternating between second and third place. As one of the male triathletes passed me, he said “If it doesn’t rain more, we’ll be ok.” I hadn’t even realised that it had started to rain slightly, but soon after he said that it was pouring! I don’t think I had ever cycled in so much rain before. Kate and I again entered transition together, this time in 3rd place as we had been overtaken by Becky. Notwithstanding the rain, the conditions were still a lot better than the strong wind in the last duathlon and my bike split of 29:38 was 2½ minutes faster than last time.
It was only in transition that I realised just how cold and soaked I was, which slowed down my transition quite a bit. As I started the second 5km run, I could see Kate ahead of me, who was quickly catching up with Becky. But somehow I just couldn’t get into a good rhythm. My feet were so cold that my toes were completely numb and each stride at the beginning was really painful. I eventually started to warm up again, and overtook Becky towards the end of the run, so I finished in third place behind Gill and Kate in a time of 1:15:11, over 3 minutes faster than the previous race. I wished I had run a slightly faster second run (22:31), but overall I was very pleased with the result.
I’m still in first place in the women’s winter league and I’m now looking forward to the Chirk Sprint Triathlon on 17th April, which will be my first triathlon of the season and the last event of the winter league.
Johanna
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