·In the 2009 edition of this race a very respectable 2:00 would have placed you in 13th position. On Saturday you would have come 54th.
·The 10th place finisher in 2009 completed the race in 1:57.59, on Saturday the same position would have required you to be a staggering four minutes quicker.
·Finally, in April 2008 I raced the National Duathlon Championships in Milton Keynes, in my opinion a far quicker course than Clumber. I finished 6th in 1:57.57. On Saturday at Clumber I beat all my splits from MK and finished the race in 1:57.08. Had my name featured on the results sheet (apparently I “withdraw before race” then turned up anyway just for the crack) I would have been a staggering 23rd.
If it was not already clear the standard of the competition at Clumber this past weekend was very, very high.
Despite the promise of a cool and clear morning, I had to put my windscreen wipers on about 17 seconds after I pulled out of the driveway on Saturday and these wet and rather chilly conditions provided the 750 or so participants with appropriate conditions for a duathlon held in the North of the UK in early March. With so many entrants OneStepBeyond were always going to have their work cut out getting everyone registered for a 9am start and despite a very organised system, I felt the tent by transition was a great idea; the briefing didn’t begin until slightly after 9am. That said this might have had something to do with the fact that about 8 people decided to register before 7:30 (thankfully I arrived at 7:25) and then the remaining 742 tried to register in the next 60 minutes.
As always the wave start worked well and, although a little busy, the well thought out and varied route never felt crowded or claustrophobic, transition, although damp, was manned by some great volunteers and the same can be said of the classic “four right turns” bike route. Inevitably when you have 750+ athletes on a 20k loop it can little a crowed and inadvertent drafting is inevitable, although I am pleased to say that I only really saw one instance of blatant cheating in my just over an hour on the course (I suppose if my “withdrew before race” classification actual means “DQd for drafting” this will all sound little hypocritical and I certainly don’t recall a) drafting or b) being told I was drafting but, as I said earlier, I have no doubt that just like 90% of the participants I at some point was less than a family estate away from the rear wheel of the cyclist in front).
On the final run it became two things became abundantly clear. The first is that I am a very slow man and should stick to Ironman where anything close to 7:00min/miles is considered lightning fast. The second was that the leaders during the opening 10k were not just club runners who would go on to struggle on the bike. This race was being controlled by a large number of very high calibre multi-sport athletes and the overall finishing times are testament to this. Huge congratulations to the overall winner Daniel McCarthy who went sub-1:50. I remember being outrun by him on the final leg of a Hillingdon duathlon two years ago, today I only saw him coming in the opposite direction when I still had a very long way until the turn around.
OneStepBeyond put on an excellent race in a great location and if it weren’t for the fact that it hurt so much, I’d happily return next year. As it happens I think I’ll pick something longer and slower and leave the 31 minute 10ks to the speedsters. When James Cracknel pasted me at rowing I could deal with it and I always knew he was going to be pretty nippy on the bike but when that behemoth of a man out runs you by over a minute, it’s time to leave duathlon to the lactic fiends!
Cold out?
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