Coed y Brenin Offroad Duathlon, Sunday 12th November 2006

Report by Rob Harper

Seeing as I'd got myself a mountain bike in September I thought it only fair to give it a good workout, and the Coed y Brenin offroad duathlon seemed like the perfect opportunity; 5k trail run, 20k mountain bike, 5k trail run. Sounded like a nice off-season canter... oh how wrong you can be.

Arrived at the race site and as soon as I'd got back from registration it started raining, even though the TV weatherman just 3 hours earlier had said it would be OK. Oh well, that's Snowdonia for you I guess. Also met up with Cathy and Marie who were racing too, and we discussed the finer points of tactics like where the hell do you balance your helmet in transition on a bike without tri bars?!

So, after a quick race briefing we lined up at the start for first a minutes silence (it being Rememberance Sunday) and then the off. The run route initially went down on a tarmac road before heading off up a gradually climbing fire trail. At the halfway point a sharp turn took you onto one of the MTB singletracks which was quite technical and needed some nifty footwork to get down it unscathed. Back onto the tarmac for a bit before a final rough slippery track into transition. Oh, by the way, it was still raining.

MTB shoes aren't really designed with quick transitions in mind so it was a bit more of a faff than usual. I also found out that if you put sunglasses straight on after a run when the weather is cold and damp they steam up instantly! This made the steep, muddy, rocky hill straight out of transition even more of a challenge (as if I needed it).

The bike course started with a technical climb up part of the Karrimor route before climbing a bit more easily up to the the main lap which was to be completed three times. Unfortunately the start of the lap was also uphill so by the time I got to the top I must have been ascending for about 20 minutes. The ground wasn't too technical although occasionally a foot down was needed, and it was just wide enough for overtaking - that's for other people overtaking me you understand! The payback for all that climbing was now a long fast descent, with the bottom section being on a good fire trail where it was a case of sticking it in top gear and cranking it. This was also about the only section where you could take a hand off to have a drink. All too soon it was uphill again to complete the lap, where you had to hand in a tag. My method of attaching my tags to the bars failed me badly here and I had to stop to sort it out, letting about 5 people past - doh! So, 2 more laps to do - grinding agonisingly up to the top before flying down the descent. At the end of the last lap it was back down to transition the way we'd come up, a more technical descent than anything on the main lap.

Just about managed to stop at the dismount line (it was at the bottom of probably the steepest descent of the day!) and into transition, which was actually not that full - maybe it wasn't going as badly as I'd thought? I also noticed that my shoes were waterlogged which was a nice start to the second run. This was the same route as the first but boy was it a tougher proposition this time around. The ascent on the fire trail which I'd hardly noticed earlier now seemed to drag on for miles. It also acted to destroy any last bit of energy in the legs, before you then had to descend the singletrack again - a bit more "interesting" this time with legs that I didn't entirely trust to do what they were told. Emerged in one piece and back onto the tarmac for the home straight which finished with an evil little climb to the finish. The hardest 5k I've ever run without a shadow of a doubt.

I was wet, I was muddy and I was knackered. Off season canter? Think it was probably the hardest race I've done all year! Later found out the bike course had 2000ft of ascent which may have had something to do with it... Cathy had a great race finishing first in her age group and 3rd woman overall, and Marie finished well with two strong runs. Included in the race fee was a free lunch at the visitor centre which was a nice touch and it was great to get inside in the warm and dry. At the presentations there were spot prizes galore, and a pair of fine trophies for the winning man and woman (who had an astounding second run - 8th quickest overall - no surprise really as she turned out to be a sponsored mountain runner!). The organizers (many thanks to them) hope to make this an annual event and if this is the case I would highly recommend it.

Results (5k/20k/5k)

Pos	Name	Cat Pos	Run 1	Pos	Bike	Pos	Run 2	Pos	Overall
25	Rob Harper	13/39	00:22:31	23	01:09:21	29	00:23:26	18	01:55:18
50	Cathy Atkinson	1/6	00:28:24	74	01:13:48	42	00:28:51	61	02:11:03
62	Marie McDonald	6/8	00:26:16	58	01:25:54	67	00:27:55	53	02:20:05

Full results can be found on the UK Results website.

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