BUCS Duathlon Championships 2011 (by Katherine Lorrimer)

I was hard to decide how to begin describing this race experience. I thought I could mention getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to meet the coach, or the eight hours on a coach to Bath, or the pre-race drinking night in Whetherspoons, or getting very lost on the walk back to the hostel or lying in bed wide awake at 2am listening to the best of Bath’s night life right outside our window, or even the leisurely two hour mountainous ride to get to the start line on the day of the race. But I don’t want to dwell on the minor details....

This was my first race with EUTRI and my first ever duathlon. I was initially rather intimidated by the other universities when we cycled into the race course grounds (splattered in mud from our cross country ride to get there!). They all seemed very composed, very prepared and clean compared to us. We all arrived with a couple of hours to spare and got busy unloading the van full of bikes, registering and generally stuffing our faces with food before the race.

After setting up my transition and making a last minute toilet stop (essential!) I made my way to the start area for a race briefing with the other girls and some of the guys before our 2pm race start. I had been excited about the race up until this point but whilst the official listed the race distances I was sure there was no way I would finish it! But we lined up and before I knew it we were running. Then quickly onto cycling and then a wee run again. The second run was pretty sore and lonely (as I had had Alice running and chatting with me during the first run). During the cycling leg of the race it was brilliant to have the other guys from EUTri cheering us on from the side lines.

In what seemed like no time at all the entire race was over and I was being given a medal and an amazing, cold bottle of water at the finish line. Then it was back to the side of the track to cheer on the rest of our guys and make sure that EUTri was the loudest team of the day!

I love the post-race buzz and I definitely got this after the BUCS Duathlon. It was brilliant to compete in a race with so many team mates, to cheer everyone in and see everyone compete hard and do well.  The experience has also provided incentive to train harder, as we got to race against some of the best triathletes from British universities and experience how fast some of the students can go!

Once everyone had finished it was a rush to get all the bikes back into the van and find all our kit before our coach arrived again (and us girls went off for a baby wipe shower before the long drive home!). The epic road trip just added to what was such a banterous weekend. Thank you everyone for an amazing weekend, ‘the craic was mighty’ as the Irish would say!