Saturday 1 June 2013

Elite Duathlon Championships 07th April 2013


Location:
Prestwold Hall Loughborough

Megan McDonald
Youth Elite Triathlete

The first major race of the season for the Youth Elite Triathlete’s is the British Duathlon Championships which is part of the British Triathlon Super Series. The distance for the Youth Elite Females is a 2.5 km run, 10 km bike and 1.8 km run.

A strong field on the day included many of the top middle distance runners in the country so the initial 2.5 km of the race way was sure to be testing and so it proved. From the start the 25 strong field set a very quick pace with the superior runners pushing the pace on. I held on to the leading pack of 8 for the first 1.7 km but was dropped in the final 0.8 km finishing the run in 8.57 min some 30 seconds off the leaders in 8th place.

In T1 I achieved the fastest transition of the day at 26 seconds gaining a few valuable moments, however the task going out on to the 10 km bike (which I considered my strongest discipline) was to be difficult.  A pack of 6 riders had quickly developed ahead but I set to the task of closing the gap of 28 seconds. With a lot of effort and spent energy I bridged the group after the second lap of the 2.5 km circuit. Any further attacks on the group were in vain as the effort bridging the group had used too much energy. A time of 17.50 min and an average speed of 33.8 km/h took me in to transition T2 in 1st place, pleased but tired.

Exiting T2 it was clear that my earlier efforts had taken it out of me, as I was slowly detached from the group over the final 1.8k run. With heavy legs I finally finished a fair 8th place in 32.53 min.  “I am disappointed with the race as my training was going well leading up to the race and I did expected my runs to have been faster. So now I know this is something I will have to work harder on. My bike leg was the fastest so I have also a good positive to take from the race. My next race will be the 1495 Duathlon at Market Bosworth  so my aim will be to go faster and be more comfortable with the two run sections.”
Thought of today: “Things can only get better”


 

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