SANDY BALLS DUATHLON
On Halloween, Sunday 31st October I took part in the Sandy Balls Duathlon. For those that don't know, Sandy Balls is not some condition suffered by cyclists but a large holiday park in the New Forest where my triathlon race team, Team Feat are based, along with the New Forest Triathlon Centre.
Despite the day, there were no frights to deal with, other than the unexpected entry (not on the list) of the recently crowned amateur Duathlon World Champion-James Gilfillan.
The plan then became to try and stay with James on the first run at least and then probably watch him disappear ahead on the bike but hopefully use a strong start to hold a good finish position. The format for the race was to be 5km run-20km bike-5km run.
The first run, went as expected, I led a group of 6 of us for the first km, including our very own John Rawlins. This whittled down to three of us fairly quickly, including James and Doug Hall. The run was one loop which started nicely with a fairly steep descent but quickly became a tough climb in typically New Forest Off road fashion, it was this climb that separated the field. This levelled off for the middle period but then finished with another tough climb back up to Godshill and the final turn back to Sandy Balls. This final climb saw James pulling away from myself and Doug and I tried to power up the hill to close, knowing James would only do more damage on the bike. This got me home in second on the run, just in front of Doug.
A very quick transition saw me out on the bike and in to a very strong head wind. James was already becoming a smaller speck in the distance and soon Doug came past me whilst I was refuelling with some gels. I wanted to try and keep in touch with Doug but he also gradually pulled away and so I began concentrating on staying low and trying to cut through the winds. My watch was giving the moral sapping info that I was only managing about 18mph on the out and back cycle leg, which made me think a wave of cyclists would start passing any minute. Fortunately everyone must have been struggling, as at the turn I saw I still had quite a good lead over John Rawlins. It was all about to change on the 10km back, as we were suddenly wind assisted and my watch started showing a more impressive 30-35mph. At this point I knew it would be hard for anyone to catch and overtake when we would all be doing similar speeds, so it was going to come down to the finish run leg. This was to be identical to the first.
Back at Sandy Balls it was another quick transition and back onto the nice run descent. Doug was by now 2 minutes in front and was going to be difficult to catch and James was 5 minutes ahead and surely heading for a comfortable win. The second run was tough going as soon as the climbs began, especially as I had no pressure behind and nobody I could realistically catch. It became a steady effort to maintain third unless Doug appeared back in sight. This never happened, although looking at the splits I was running slightly quicker.
So it was, I came home in a fairly comfortable third overall in 1.22.53, with splits of 21.53 - 36.27 - 23.39. James in first, almost 6 minutes in front of me and Doug second 1½ minutes ahead.
I enjoyed the race and my first ever Duathlon and gives me confidence in my aim of qualifying for the Duathlon Amateur Worlds next year, representing GB in Spain. I need to get some killer intervals in on the bike to improve my cycle splits but with 4 months training before the qualifiers I think I have found my sport.
John Rawlins also put in an impressive 4th placing. Results link below;