Clumber Duathlon May 11th
Definitely no snow now, though a brisk blustery wind was blowing strong enough to ruffle the “bouffants” of the select band of MVHers who had dragged themselves out of the pit on Saturday morning. (Have I mentioned before that as a club we have great hair?)
Before we proceed the editor of the website-aka “The Highlander” has hinted that a bit more factual content might be relevant in these reports. So be it then. To celebrate the great news that the new “STAR WARS” movie is to be shot in the UK, this report was to have had a “STAR WARS” theme. I’m writing this so I was going to be Han Solo, naturally, but no more. John; no Chewbacca costume for you, sorry. Mick, Lynn; dead ringers for Luke and Princess Leia, I know, but we have our orders. Crocko, Nick; as far as I was concerned you were Darth Vader and Darth Maul. Great method acting guys. Alex and Sylvia; Put away your light sabres you Jedi.
Back to the race. There were two races: The sprint- 5k run, 20k bike, 2.5k run, and the classic- 10k run, 40k bike, 5k run. A little bit of confusion was present at the start of the more senior gentlemen, Am I in the right place? How old am I? Do I need to go again? Then, honk! We were off.
There were some fast runners across all age groups and the pack got thinned out quite quickly. The track was undulating and passed through over a bridge and up through the woods. Very pleasant and nicely sheltered from the wind and lots of Ewoks to cheer us on.
Into transition and into our X-wing fighters or “Bikes” as they are called in a galaxy far, far away. (OK Colin, I’ll stop it now.) The bike course consisted of rolling hills with few flat bits for sustained head-down speed. It was particularly galling to find a great downhill section where the course turned back into the park, only to discover the strong headwind meant you had to pedal hard downhill to maintain speed
Out of T2 and into the second run. There was tumultuous applause from the gathered spectators in appreciation of our mass impersonation of C3PO running for the last Portalloo with paper. Cramping seems to be a problem for many during duathlons myself included, however all thoughts of pain vanished as we saw the line and used the force in our sprint for the finish.
We all got a fleecy hat! Brilliant! But no cup of tea! Boo! However, I can thoroughly recommend this race, and duathlons in general as good toughen-up races at the start of the season, and you don’t have to get wet.
Go MVH!
Jonny Fitton
