ITU Duathlon World Championships

Crossing the finish line after a grueling race made me realize why I love triathlon/duathlon so much. Firstly the sense of achievement, knowing that you have pushed your body to its limits and that it not only survived but also gained you a good finishing time. Secondly it’s the camaraderie, although tri is an individual sport there is never a lack of support, encouragement and shared sense of achievement at any race. Finally, once the heart rate has reduced to a normal speed, I reflect on the race and although realizing I did my best, want to do better and cant wait to get back to training.

The ITU World Duathlon Championships was my first international race, and also my first race abroad. The prospect of racing in the heat of a Spanish late summer filled me with gloom and elation, likewise the fact that it was a closed route with no traffic to dodge or obstacles to face was thrilling and intimidating. James and I arrived on the Tuesday before the Sunday race. We justified this as an acclimatization period and spent the days pottering around in fairly nice weather, prepping bikes, going for wee runs, riding laps of the bike course and extensively sampling the local carbohydrates. In the build up to the race we both had the usual mix of nerves and the phrases such as ‘We’re just doing it for fun anyway’, ‘I think we will do pretty well actually’, ‘I’ll be gutted if I get under such a such a time’ and ‘Why the hell are we here?!’ were repeated in succession. Despite the nerves, I reminded myself that I had qualified for the worlds, and had done some great training. So come race day I knew that all I could do now was to push, push and push it harder.

We had a team briefing Saturday morning, and racked our bikes later that day. Once the bikes were racked that was it, all we had to do was rest and wait for the start gun the following morning. A sleepless night ensued, I tried my hardest not to think about the race, and the mosquitoes in my room served as a useful although infuriating distraction.

The morning of the race was bright but slightly cloudy, perfect I thought. We watched the sprint race, cheering as loudly as we could for all the Brits. Watching and cheering for the sprint raised my adrenaline and come 9.30 I was raring to go. A few warm up stretches and nervous chat with other competitors before we lined up for the start. The stadium speakers blasted out a slow heartbeat before the start gun, my heart was already beating double time and once the gun sounded went into overdrive! I raced off the start line aiming to get near the front and found a position that suited me well. The 10k pace was faster than I expected, or maybe it just felt faster. The first two laps of four laps were ok, running at thresh hold pace and feeling ok with it. The third and fourth laps, however, were quite a bit harder. The weather had got a bit warmer and the course was filled with all other age groups. Despite this, with every lap I had countless supporters shouting encouragement filling me with more competitive energy.

Entering transition I knew my mum and gran were watching me from the stadium, it helped me stay focused and also to mask my fatigue. Transition went pretty smoothly and I set off on the bike with a semi successful vault mount. I knew the course had a pretty nasty hill in it, but we had ridden it a couple of times and I calmed myself in knowing that it wasn’t anything to get melodramatic about. Having said that, we had ridden it with fresh legs and at a very slow pace. The hill all of a sudden seemed a lot harder and steeper, I tried my best to catch whoever was in front of me but it only resulted in a kind of very ineffective chain gang. The long down hill was a blessing, down in my tightest aero position I felt like I was flying and gave me some recovery ready for the next lap and the second attempt at the hill.

Finally the last 5k run had arrived. I’m not going to lie, I was shattered already. My legs felt like jelly and my entire body weighed me down. My fuel for the last run was partly knowing it was nearly over, but also knowing that running is my strongest discipline so this was the time to catch some people. I don’t actually know how many people I caught up, it was hard to tell as there was quite a few runners on the course. I crossed path with Finlay, Kieran and James and shouted words of encouragement to each other. It was a sprint finish between me and another GB athlete in my age group, I saw him on the last 100m and scraped the barrel for my last energy reserve, beating him across the line by 5 seconds. I FINISHED! I had completed my first World Duathlon Race! I was on a high, so happy that everything had gone well, and even more happy to find out my teammate James Adamson had nailed it and got 8^th in category! We bathed in the glory of accomplishment and told elated recollections of the race. It was my first ITU race, but by no means my last. Coming 12^th gave me confidence but also made me want to do better and train harder. But before the training began a night of celebrating, Gijon style, ensured. That’s the fourth reason I love racing so much, no better reason to party!

 By Alistair Hammer