Moorland Mayhem Offroad Duathlon, Sunday 26th November 2006

Report by Rob Harper

In contrast to 2 weeks ago at Coed y Brenin the weather for Calderdale Tri Club's Moorland Mayhem Offroad Duathlon was perfect with bright blue skies and hardly a breath of wind. After a false start where I parked up at the wrong sport's club (lot's of Rugby League going on but no sign of any multisport) got registered and sorted out. On taking my bike to transition I got a taste of what was to come; the field was completely saturated and my feet were soaking by the time I got there. Just time for a quick warm up before heading to the start.

Lining up for the start it soon became apparent just how wet the field was - stand still for more than a few seconds and your feet were completely submerged. I also noticed that I seemed to be the only person with elastic laces, and visions of losing my shoes in some bottomless bog flashed through my head (luckily this didn't happen!). And off we went, going soft to... soft. It was like school cross country but without an evil PE teacher forcing you to run; instead it was completely voluntary! Down the boggy field, U-turn round a horse jump, back up the boggy field including going over a horse jump then up and down a bank before going out onto the road. The rest of the first run really wasn't too bad, mainly on reasonable trails across the moor with nothing to rival the mud at the start. Coming into transition I gave the crowd something to "oooh" about by very nearly falling over on a sharp turn but just about managed to keep upright.

The bike course was 5 laps of a 2k circuit, and started off with a loop round the same boggy field where the run started. I was really glad that I'd remembered at the last minute when racking to set the gear on my bike to something fairly low, as it had been on the smallest sprocket on the back which would have made getting started interesting! Finally onto some solid ground so picked the pace up a bit, before heading on a small detour down a bank, sharp off-camber turn at the bottom then back up. The top half of the circuit was more fun being mainly on packed sand with lots of twists, water splashes, fast bermed turns and even a jump (sorry, but even in a race I couldn't resist it!). The lap finished with a steep climb onto a bank, which was really tricky as you were looking straight into the sun so couldn't really see where you were going. Sharp turn at the top to go along the top of the bank before a ridiculously hard muddy off camber U-turn down onto the side of the bank - I only managed this cleanly twice out of five attempts. Finally down off the bank and more boggy field to contend with to end the lap.

Of course as the race went on the wet parts of the course got more and more cut up, and on the worst boggy section I think I had to use one gear lower on each lap! Lapping people also added to the entertainment, and I managed to crash into a bush when an overambitious move up the inside of two people on a hairpin bend didn't quite go as planned. I was lapped by a couple of guys going at an awesome speed, and as I was 3/4 through my 4th lap I saw the front runners already out on the second run. Came into transition at the end of my 5th lap and counted just 9 bikes already in - 10th place, that'll do. Into my trainers and away for the 2nd run.

The 2nd run started out down the road, and I could see the 9th place runner about 100m ahead. I was expecting the route to be roughly the same as the first run, but a bit shorter. However, when I got to the first marshall he was pointing right, not left as I expected. What was going on? The narrow path I was now following soon started descending steeply before the signs pointed right to a slippery traverse of a steep slope. This led to a stream and after crossing it once on slippery stones the path went steeply back up the stream, crossing it two more times and taking in some steep steps which were really exhausting. Emerged out of the stream valley but the final insult was sending us into the stream to go under the road bridge. Pure evil!

The rest of the run was a bit more "normal" back over the moor with a gradual climb before heading back down to the finish. Managed to close down 9th place to 50m at one point but he pulled away again and there was nothing left in the tank, and with no-one in sight behind I settled for what I had. Finally came back down onto the road and a 200m jog to the finish to complete the longest and toughest 3k ever (20:45 by my watch!).

Awesome fun. I thought I was muddy after Coed y Brenin but that was as nothing to the state I was in at the end of this race!

Results (5k/10k/3k)

Pos	Name	Club	Cat Pos	Time
1/46	Philip Graves	White Rose Tri	1	1:08:58
10	Rob Harper	Manchester Tri	3	1:24:49

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