A Journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step

Chilly Duathlon Castle Coombe - Mar 2007

Saturday had been a fantastic clear, sunny day with views of the lunar eclipse in the cloudless sky at night. Sunday was a bit different, raining and windy.

These were the worst conditions I'd done a duathlon in over the last 3 years, the wind was certainly going to be a problem. Initially I had thought I'd do the race in Ron Hills and a t-shirt and maybe putting my waterproof jacket on for the cycle leg, but on arriving I quickly revised my plan to wearing my waterproof jacket for the whole thing, it was windy and cool.
The first run started well and I think that I did it in under 13:30 minutes which is the fastest I have done a lap running.
I started to cycle out of the transition, and straight into the wind up the rise which was certainly more of a 'hill' than I remembered! I battled into the wind for about 3/4 of the course and only had the wind behind for 1/4. This cannot be the case but this is how it felt.
There was at least one person who passed me twice on the 5 laps of the circuit, I knew it was the same person because he was the only person braving the elements in a tri-suit! Maybe that was why he was so fast, so that he could get in the hot tub to warm up.

On the straight, downhill into the wind

The second run was ok, I passed a few people. Some of them more than once, because I had to stop to retie my shoe lace at one point. This was the slowest I had done a lap, so I the wind on the bike leg must have affected my running of the second run.
The effect of the wind was evident from my finishing time of over 1:02, which is slower than my first go at a duathlon on my mountain bike.

Finishing the last run