Calderdale Duathlon, Sunday 22nd April 2007

Report by Viv Slack

My thinly veiled attempt at avoiding swim sessions for a bit longer was to enter some duathlons. Without a swim to worry about, things would be easy right? Well, erm, not exactly...

The Calderdale duathlon is a run-bike-run format race run by a local club based near Halifax. Two other man tri members were racing, the fact that neither are fond of the whole water based exercise thing was pure co-incidence. Like me, Mick was a duathlon virgin so Harshan was our guide, a seasoned pro having done the race last year and come back for more.

With an entry of just over 100, the atmosphere and setup was great - friendly and straightforward. There was the usual display of impressive carbon bikes, flash wheels and assos kit on display and then those with baggy shorts, t-shirts and trainers - the ones you really have to watch. The police had informed the club last minute that they had also approved a road race on the same day so run no 1 route had to change. The good news being the overall run was going to be 500m shorter, the bad news it was going to be 'undulating'. As the organiser explained, there was as much down as up, so that was alright then.

We all managed to avoid the temptation to join in the mass start sprint for the initial 6.5k and set off sensibly with Nicks track paces in mind. Mick had the joy of overtaking me part way through the run where I had stopped for my usual feeling sick / panic break (grr). Other than that, it was a pleasant run through country lanes and over reasonably quickly.

So onto the main event of this race, the bike. The hills we were prepared for - the hills AND the wind, now that was just mean. The first few miles of the bike were great, as the gradient went up it was satisfying to overtake people (sorry Mick!) and the run faded into a distant memory. Tri bars were a godsend as both the big climbs were into a headwind. Further into the bike leg it really started to hurt - the constant climbing was pretty tough and there wasn't much let up even on the rare flat sections as the wind tried it's best to push you back.

The bike leg was similar to a hill climb with one big exception - on this one you got to turn round and go down again which was AWESOME! The ride back had one significant climb but then a great swooping descent with a tailwind to boot. If you could hold your bottle and stay on the tri bars you could get maximum speeds of over 40mph which was a fantastic feeling. Harshan was meanwhile loving this too, while Mick was...well Mick was trying to ride in neutral as he realised he had a broken freewheel. Unfortunately it was race over for him but i think he was secretly pleased to get a lift back instead of having to ride it. He certainly arrived back with a smile on his face, he could have at least tried to look disappointed!

Harshan and I made it back to transition, the final 3.5k run again on country lanes, and the finish. The eventual winner was a Planet X rider which is no suprise considering the crux of this race lies in the tough bike course. I never got close to catching the first two women but was relieved to get back in third despite a poor run. Harshan made big improvements on last year and we all agreed it was a great race. How quickly you forget the pain!

I would definately recomend this race and I am informed it is significantly easier without the wind. The scenery is beautiful, the race is friendly and close by and it was really satisfying to complete. I'll be there next year, feel free to tag along.

Results

Pos	Name	Gender	AG	Run 1	Bike	Run 2	Total	Club
1	Ashley Norrie	Male	40-44	0:20:22	1:04:08	0:15:29	1:39:59	Planet X
52	Viv Slack	Female (3rd)	30-34	0:25:41	1:22:31	0:18:44	2:06:56	Man Tri
61	Harshan Gill	Male	30-34	0:26:38	1:25:58	0:18:58	2:11:34	Man Tri
DNF	Mick Dumbell	Male	35-39	0:24:23	DNF	DNF	DNF	Man Tri

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