Race Report: F3 Duathlon - Dorney Lake

Went along to the first F3 duathlon at Dorney Lake yesterday, where my main aim was to beat my time that I set in November. I'd played my first game of football on Saturday as well, the result of which was that my groin was a bit sore and hence cast a doubt for the duathlon on Sunday.

I turned up in Dorney in good time and registered. Weather was absolutely gorgeous for a early February morning, clear blue skies and hardly any wind. There was about 100 people registered, from the look of things seasoned athletes. Quite a few tri club kits on display and some seriously nice bikes.

Coming up to the start, and my groin seemed ok, but just done a few stretches and didn't bother to warmup. Done my usual thing of starting off a bit too fast, which meant that I just ran the first 2.5km non-stop although I'd done 5km a few times before in training. Run felt good in general, despite my stopping.

Done the first 5km in 31.15 (official time, I reckon more like 31.04). Was hoping to get under 30mins but this is still a personal best.

Off onto the bike, which seemed to go well despite people flying by me the whole time. The thing that really got to me was that they seemed to be in middle gears instead of their lowest gear, meaning that they hardly seemed to be pushing. Decided to give this a go and have to say that it seemed to work well enough and I got off the bike pretty "fresh". Overall, the bike plus the two transitions took me 45m 27s.

Off onto the final run, which didn't feel anything like as bad as the last time I tried it. Didn't really have to convince myself too much to do the second lap either, which was a real effort in November. I was well into a run\walk strategy at this part of the race though.

Still, completed the last 5km in 34.02 (official time) which isn't too bad for me.

Overall, my time was about 7 mins faster than November, most of that coming on the bike. All three splits though were faster, which is encouraging.

Next one is in March, which I'll probably be at. If I could knock another 7 mins off my time I'd be well chuffed with myself.