Dragon Slayer Duathlon 2006
Eastway cycle circuit, London. – Sunday 2nd April 2006
Run 3 miles / Bike 20 miles / Run 5 miles
As preparation for the treble of triathlons I have planned later in 2006 I decided that this early season test might be a good way to see how much (if any) I had improved since last year.
Having handed over my £22 some weeks before it was with some nervousness that I cycled the 5 or so miles to the historic Eastway Cycle Circuit in east London. This annual event was being hosted by the East London Triathletes club and was the last year the event would be at Eastway which was making way for London 2012 Olympic redevelopment in October 2006.
>My aims for the race were simple:
1. Finish the race (absolutely essential)
2. Try not to finish last (would be nice)
This all sounds very simple you might think. However, I wasn’t in the greatest of shape so my I felt my aims were no more than realistic. I knew it was going to be really tough. On reflection it occurred to me that in future it might be cheaper and easier to invite some friends around to my house to smash up my legs with hammers. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that this multi-sport lark is all “fun”.
With my excuses fully prepared I rolled up at the track in plenty of time. Virtually everyone who was racing seemed to be in triathlon clubs. Looking around at their jerseys I read club names such as “Full-on tri”, “Oversize Codpiece”,”Hammer of Thor” and my personal favourite, “My arm is as big as your leg” or “M.A.B.Y.L” to give them their shortened title. The M.A.B.Y.L. boys in particular looked like they meant business.
I was soon underway at about 11.15am with a 3 mile cross country run. I’ve never been a good runner but it seemed clear that my running legs had been left behind that morning. Within the first 1.5 mile lap I was on my own having been pretty much left for dead. I was struggling so much that I considered calling it a day.
Having struggled around I made it back to transition hoping that I could try and catch up a bit on the bike. The bike course consisted of 20 laps of the 1 mile bike track. I was using both my bike counter and a lap counter supplied by the organisers to prevent a repeat of my Blenheim Triathlon debacle of 2005, where I got the number of laps wrong and ended up getting disqualified.
First thing to go wrong was my bottle cage coming off in my hand with the bottle when I went to take a swig of my drink. I can live with that but with my left gear shift refusing to operate I was left on the small ring the whole time and unable to do much on the flatter faster parts of the track. This was quite disappointing to say the least, although I must stress that I wasn’t riding very well anyway.
With everyone flying past in flashes of blurred speed, I decided to just try and dig in get to the end. The skies then opened and a torrential hale storm followed. The sun then came out before the hale continued once more. The wind was blowing a gale and I was wishing I had stayed in bed.
Eventually I got back to transition for the second time and set off on the final leg, a 5 mile run. The rain had drenched the course by this point leaving large parts of the course a giant muddy mess which I could little more than creep through for fear of falling on to my slow fat ass.
I was very near the back of the field if not last and really wanted to quit. My legs were in full agreement with this, barely managing more than the slowest of jogs. I would love to tell you that my heroic spirit is the thing that carried me through but in truth, it was the fact that I had paid out £22 and I wanted to get my moneys worth.
Having finished I quickly saw the positives of the situation. OK I was dreadfully slow but a year ago I could not have contemplated finishing a race like that. It was easily as hard as an Olympic distance triathlon and I was able to finish it in early April. I had something to build on but I knew I going to have to put a lot of work in between now and 11th of June when I start off at Windsor.
Time: 3 mile run / 20 mile bike / 5 mile run – 2:47:09
Position: 94th of 117