On Sunday, Mike and I took to the Borders to take part in the Tweedbank Duathlon, part of the Borders Triathlon Series. This was the second duathlon we’ve raced together this year, in what’s fast becoming the most fiercely contested two-man contest in Carnethy. As ever, talk on the way down was cheery and light, and we both managed to hide our deep desires to beat each other in the race. Previous duathlons have seen me nudging ahead despite Mike’s superiority on the bike sections, but in my heart I knew that my winning streak of 1 would end fairly soon. Despite some oversubscribed triathlons in the series, there were surprisingly few people at the duathlon. In fact, it seemed to be Mike and I, along with some very serious faces with some very serious aerodynamic triathlon bikes. We were perhaps a little out of our league, but no matter, as I’m sure you’ve probably realised that in my mind there were only two people in this race.
I was sure Mike would win this time, but had two aces up my sleeve:
- I don’t wear cleated bike shoes, so my transitions are a bit faster.
- Mike’s sense of direction is notoriously, and sometimes hilariously, bad.
So to the race. About 16 starters, lining up on the Tweedbank athletics track. A group of 6 fast-lads bounced-off into the distance for the first 5k run. I struggled to catch my breath and led a small group of about 5, before being overturned by Mike in the final mile. Onto the bikes, despite about 5s lead on the run Mike was about 30s behind due to the transition (see 1, above), and at the first roundabout he managed to go full circle to find himself heading back into transition (see 2). A quick Strava analysis shows that these two factors put him two minutes behind. No matter, my clumsy bike handling meant he was always reeling me in, by small amounts on the flat and chopping great chunks off my lead on the climbs. Coming back into Tweedbank, my lead had been reduced to a few seconds, but again the transition would hopefully buy me some time….and it did. My lead increased by another 30s, and on the final 5k run I managed to hold that gap until the finish. Again, I got lucky, as Mike was definitely faster across the athletic parts of the race (by around 2mins!), my strengths were on the procedural side (transitions and…em…going the right way). We both finished around 1hr 24mins, 7th and 8th positions – Mike winning the MV40 trophy. We did get some printed results, but I left them in the house this morning, so until the results are published online you’ll have to rely on my memory: Ahead of us both was Paul Davies, winning in about 1hr 15mins despite crashing his bike at one point (ouch!), and losing his car key in the process (double ouch!!). Hayley(?) won the women’s prize and the women’s vet prize. Results here , at some point.
Jim Hardie