DGtri Athlete - Bill Livingstone

European Powerman Championships : Horst, Holland.

Someone had the bright idea of entering the Powerman Duathlon as a good guage of how the winter training had progressed our athletic abilities.

Race Day Minus 2.

On a bright and blustery morning, it was a quick drive to the airport to collect Dermot, then another trip around the M25 to collect Luke, then off to Dover we headed.

Once at Dover, we were told (without any apologies!) that our ferry was cancelled and we were booked on the next one, 3 hours later. Dont you just love British customer services!!

After an uneventful channel crossing ( I was hoping for big waves) we arrived at Dunkirk and headed off for Horst Holland. Luke had worked out that Dermot had actually travelled in 5 countries that day, Malta, England, France, Belgium and finally Holland. I think the journey was starting to take its toll on us!

After our ferry delay we arrived at the hotel late and after the restaurant had closed. As we booked into the hotel, we asked if there was anywhere we could get any food. The chef had already finished for the evening, but willingly went back into the kitchen and prepared food for us, brilliant!

Race Day Minus 1.

A quick test of the bikes in the morning confirmed that everything was running well and no mechanical issues. However the run was a little different, with a certain 2 athletes afraid of some barking dogs. Well, they were BIG barking dogs, but they failed to notice the barbed wire on top of the fence, so the dogs could not get out!!

We arrived in Horst for registration and decided food was required first. A quick bite to eat then back to registration, which was very efficient. An excellent goodie bag was provided by the organiser and a few photos were taken of Luke and Dermot with the Maltese flag!

Race Day.

An easy 5km ride into Horst and we were right into the heart of Powerman! Straight into transition to lay out your kit, a quick warm up, then off to the start line.

Being a European Championship, we knew that the level of athlete would be high, but we were not prepared for just how high. The elite/pro men were running the first 15km as if they were running a 5km race! As the first run was 15km and 6 laps, you could follow what was happening in the race and track how well (or not ) you were doing.

6 laps done and onto the bike ahead of target time, although it was easy to find my bike in T1 as there were not many left! Even running 6:45 pace for 10 miles made no difference, back of the pack it was!

The bike was a flat but technical course, completely closed to traffic and very well supported. 3 laps of 20km soon went quick, especially for the elite/pros. I could hear the carbon rumble in the distance and soon the leaders overtook me at the end of lap 2 as if I was going backwards.

Lap 3 done and back into T2 which was not as full as I expected. I had a decent bike and was ahead of target but had actually overtaken quite a few athletes on the bike.

The second run was torture trying to run at pace without blowing. 3 laps around Horst and it was over. I dropped a few places in the last kilometre as the legs had finally blown!

Finally across the finish greeted by a huge crowd, cheering every single athlete that finished.

Out of the finish area and heading back to transition to collect my kit, I finally caught up with Dermot and Luke. We collected our kit, had a chat with other athletes then cycled back to the hotel as the slowest pace we had done all weekend.

Sitting in the restaurant that evening and analysing our performances, we all agreed that it had been a particularly hard race and it had certainly highlighted the differences between triathletes and duathletes. Even though we had all done extremely well and were way out in front of our target times, we certainly got our butts kicked bigstyle and recognised that!

The post race day analysis took place as we drove back towards England (with Dermot on his 5 country trip again), discussing and analysing the race. It was definitely a hard race but on reflection, an excellent race, and one which will certainly be done again.

Thanks to my 2 biggest supporters, Pam and Sophie, who had a quiet and tidy house for the weekend!

Thanks to Dermot for getting me in good shape for the race despite works best efforts to wreck his plans.

And thanks to Luke and Dermot for the company and laughs over the weekend.

Dont think you will be laughing so much at Antwerp 70.3 in July!!

Bill