The Duathlon Nat Champs were held at Milton Keynes on the 13th April and, coming off the back of decent races at the Kingston Breakfast Run and Clumber Park, I went into it hoping for a top 15 finish and a sub-2hr race. Looking at the start list, despite the absence of Jez Cox, the top age groupers were all present; Lee Piercy, David Vaughan, Justin Webb (who had finished third at the Ballbuster), Dan Corner (resident bike demon) and top runners Dave Mitchinson and Matt Gunby. On top of that Tom Davey, who had beaten me to first place in the 20 - 24 AG at Clumber was also present...it was always going to be a tough day.
Despite sporadic rainfall during the Friday and Saturday, Sunday morning was clear but cold. Fortunately the mist lifted just in time for the 7:ooam start. As expected the initial pace was blistering with Mitchinson et al. storming away. Having made the rookie error of trying to stay with him at Clumber 4 weeks prior (and having paid for it later), I stuck to my own pacing hoping to come into T1 in 35:00. Having dropped back a bit on the first two laps I began to pick off a few people who had gone out too fast and entered T1 in 35:14 and 28th place overall, more than 4 minutes slower than the leader and about 2:30 of the main group.
I had recced the bike course the day before and knew it was fast so was hoping to get as close to the hour as possible for the 40k, I managed to reel in several riders quickly and over took a large group about 10k in before the climb. It was at this point I overtook Tom Davey and knew I was going well. It had taken me nearly 35k at Clumber to overtake him and the advantage I'd taken into the second run there had not been enough. Only Matt Gunby was ahead of me in my age group and as I finished the first lap my trusty race informant (thanks Mum) told me I was in 7th. The second lap was not quite as successful in terms of placing as I only over took one more rider and was unable to reach Gunby and the lead group. I found out one possible reason for this later.
Coming into T2 I was in 6th with Justin Webb just behind me. My bike had taken 1:02.08, a time I was fairly pleased with and what turned out to be the third fastest split of the day (only due to a Dan Corner puncture, and I still only beat him by 52s!). The final run was all about attrition as myself and Webb battled for 6th place. Corner was way ahead in 5th and with the top 5 being phenomenally strong runners I knew there was no chance of me moving up any more, had Webb not been on my back it would have been slightly more relaxed.
Webb pushed me right to the line in one of the toughest second laps I have had the pleasure (?) of running. He took the lead on numerous occasions and I had to dig very deep to stay with him. It was only in the final straight that I got a small gap and ended up with just a 3s winning margin.
Given my targets at the start I should have been pleased with 6th and second in AG, after all, Matt Gunby had beaten me by over 2mins. However, as you will find out if you read my blog posts in the future, I am rarely content with whatever result I produce and left Milton Keynes feeling as if I could have done more. In reality I had an incident free race and could probably only have squeezed a matter of seconds out of myself, but this rational thought seems to not matter one jot. Roll on the second Thames Turbo race where I will be hoping to improve on the 5th place I got on my race debut.
P.S. Whilst I myself didn't see it, I have been told by various sources that there was drafting going on in the lead group and it may well have effected the outcome of the top 10 places. If this did go ahead then I would like to add that in a non-drafting race blatant cheating of this type should not be tolerated by anyone, be it marshals, draft busters or competitors.
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