It was a cool, sunny day at High Shincliffe when we met for the final in the Winter duathlon series but, thankfully, there was no snow or ice on the route this month. I arrived in plenty of time, nicely surprised to see quite a number of Striders taking part (well, five anyway) – Emma Detchon, Dougie Nisbet, Louise Bilcliffe and Alan Smith along with myself, unfortunately, none of us had competed in the required three events for any of us to have a chance of winning the league.
After paying our dues we were told which handicap group we were to start in, Emma first – purely because she rides a mountain bike (there will be no stopping her when she has a road bike!), Alan, Louise and myself a few minutes after with Dougie being the last Strider to start (fast bugger!).
We had a chance to cheer Emma on as she started her second loop of the run just before we started. I tried a new tactic of starting a bit harder than usual in the hope of getting a big enough lead to try and become first Strider home. How wrong can a tactic be? I had a very strong first run, catching up a runner from the group in front and a good bike section, but I blew up drastically on the second run. My second run was over three minutes longer than my first.
I managed to get in front of Emma on the bike section but Alan and Dougie both sailed past me on the second run along with quite a few other runners, Alan finished about two or three minutes ahead of me, Dougie had finished, been to MacDonalds, had a sleep, woke up and was taking photos well before I finished.
On the bike route, I managed to see quite a few Striders out and about – Andrew Thompson was out for his run at Coxhoe, Jan Young and Nina were flying along by the Rose Tree pub and Joanne Porter made an appearance at transition.
The summer duathlon series will start in May and should be held on a Thursday evening, the Tri club will announce the course soon.
Results
Pos | Name | Run 1+T1 | Bike+T2 | Run 2 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Phil HATZIS | 11:45 | 28:45 | 11:38 | 52:08 |
8 | Hilary ROSS | 13:38 | 36:31 | 13:24 | 1:03:33 |
20 | Dougie NISBET | 17:39 | 39:52 | 15:43 | 1:13:14 |
26 | Alan SMITH | 16:28 | 46:10 | 15:07 | 1:17:45 |
27 | Peter BROOKS | 16:08 | 43:25 | 19:22 | 1:18:55 |
31 | Louise BILLCLIFFE | 17:30 | 51:39 | 17:22 | 1:26:31 |
32 | Emma DETCHON | 20:10 | 50:06 | 20:36 | 1:30:52 |
33 finishers.