A welcoming club on the North West of Edinburgh
World Duathlon Championship, Aviles, Spain 5th June 2016
By CoachKev | Published | No Comments
The 2016 Duathlon World Championships were held over two days with the elites, para and juniors on Saturday and the Age Group sprint and standard on the Sunday, my qualification events earlier in the year had been for the standard distance a 10km run followed by a 42km bike finished off by a 5km run. We had booked the full package which included flights, accommodation in the GB team hotel and land transport for the bike which meant no dismantling, a real boon when it came to collection for a group course recce the morning after we arrived.
We had 3Âdays prior to the event to relax, register, socialize with fellow team GB members, recce the courses, rack the bike and enjoy the atmosphere. Even 3Âdays before the event the route signs were out on the course and the local police were doing every thing to look after the athletes as they recced the course. We had a police car join us when 30 or so went out on the course and on a later solo recce I was joined by a police motor bike who led me out round the course.
The cycle course was two and half laps leading us through the town three times for the benefit of the spectators, two laps and one half lap back into transition. The run course adopted a similar spectator friendly route taking us back over the blue carpet twice as we did two laps of 5km for the first run and two laps of 2.5km for the second.
The team manager gave us a race briefing on Saturday morning before team photographs and racking our bikes. Sunday’s event included both sprint (draft legal) and standard (draft illegal) so the racking area included hundreds of bikes making navigation essential for both T1 and especially T2 where nothing other than your number and run shoes marked your place.
The sprint event was first giving me a long lie and time for a relaxed breakfast some two and a half hours before the start. The team GB hotel was around 10Âmins drive from the venue with shuttle buses leaving every 30Âmin, I opted to leave at 9:30 for a 11:30 start time. Once at the venue we had a second chance to check our bike and kit that had been left overnight in transition before heading to bag drop and around 30Âmin of quiet time inside the Niemeyer Centre out of the direct sun which was just beginning to crack out. 20Âmins to go before my start, stretches, toilets, warmÂup and the marshalls touring around the venue started to blow their whistles and herd us to the preÂstart area. Waves were called to a final starting area where we had two minutes before start.
Around 100 athletes from a range of nations lined up at the start for my wave as we waited for the signal to go. We’re off with one lap around the arena before exiting the centre and running along the river with two laps of a flat run course ahead. I stuck with my tactic of starting a few rows back and building up the pace weaving in and out of runners as the pack settled. It was a fast time and with no heart rate monitor to guide my effort level (I’ll add that to my lessons learned) I kept a check on pace, 3:43min/km for the first couple of km was fast but felt okay so I tucked in behind a South African athlete as we pushed on into the light but noticeable headwind. More people over taken and we start the second finger of the first lap
back into the head wind, turned and I went for a new mark having benefitted from the shelter. Back into the venue and one big mistake.
I had studied the route, I had recced the route, I had ridden it three times, but sheep mentality came in as we approached the first 5km turn and we followed each other past the turn and down towards transition as the supporters screamed at us to turn! Error realised by the front runners and they shouted at us to turn around and I set about catching those athletes, who had paid proper attention and that I had previously past.
Last lap and the pace had dropped with an average closer to 3:50min/km still well over a minute quicker than my pb but I had already made the decision to stick with it.
Other than religiously taking water both over my head and a couple of gulps at each water station the last lap was uneventful as we threaded our way between the finish blue carpet and that used by the elites for racking and us for our laps to transition.
Thankfully my bike was aligned with a group of trees between the C and D racks and with a green top to the water bottle stowed under the seat was easy to spot. Crash hat on, running shoes off, catch my breath, cycling shoes on, bike off rack and start the long run with the bike, over the blue transition area carpet, up a very steep rubber matted grassy slope and to the mount line. We skirted the side of the venue and on to the river side, spectator lined, town section of the course which we would do three times. I immediately starting to take on fluids as the heat was still mounting and I had visions of Jonathan Brownlee just finishing the world triathlon event in the Gold Coast this year and I didn’t want to suffer that fate.
Lots of bikes on the 2.5 lap course and a good number of official motorcycle marshals made staying out of the draft zone difficult with a risk of a 2Âminute time penalty if perceived to be drafting and two drafting offenses leading to disqualification. I settled into a steady pace catching many competitors and passing them quickly to stay on the right side of the rules.
One of the American athletes caught me on the down hill before a sharp left hand turn that ended some competitors race but I found he was not as strong on the climbs and he and I traded places a few times for the rest of cycle until he faded on the last half lap. Each of the three laps through town were fast motivated by the cheering crowd that grew bigger the closer we got to the event venue. A New Zealand athlete seemed to have missed his briefing and took wheels for the last 1.5 laps sitting firmly on mine for the last loop through town coming past me as I got my feet out of my shoes on the way into transition and taking my
3rd fastest bike for age group from me.
Dismounted, and I ran the bike cautiously down the rubber matted hill and into transition, the bike bounced and bounced again making controlling it from the saddle difficult as the shoes that were still clipped to the pedals caught on the floor turning over the cranks such that the shoe on the other side did the same  something to study post race. Bike racked, hat off and neatly attached to the bike to avoid a untidiness penalty, run shoes on and off along the line of bikes, up that rubber matting through the cheering crowd, through the finish area on along the river to start the first of the two 2.5km run laps.
It wasn’t many minutes until my New Zealand drafting buddy was in my sights and catching him seemed like a priority. It turned out easier than I thought trading placed for a few hundred meters before it came clear that I had the legs and he didn’t, not seeing him again until after the 2.5km turn when he was properly behind me. This time I remembered the run turn before retracing over the blue carpet and the mental relief that there was just 10Âmin to go. The “focus on form†mantra ran through my head as I dug in for the final 2.5km, along the river, feed station and a bottle of water over my head, over the bridge, the final bridge back into the Niemeyer centre in sight, more shouts from the crowds “go GB†and “go Smith†as emblazoned on our triÂsuits, over the bridge up the concrete ramp, finish line in sight, between the blue carpets, loop back on the finishing blue carpet, union jack flags waving along the finishing funnel, grab a flag from the crowd, Helen passes me the towel sized union jack, last few steps and over the finish line 2hrs and 16 min since the start.
A few minutes to gain composure behind the hoarding separating the athletes from the supporters, medals awarded to each competitor before being singled out for individual photos in front of the sponsors hoarding. Forming an orderly queue we took our medals for instant engraving which doubled as a memento of the occasion and included our official time. Water, water and more water, a massage if required and chat with members of the GB team as well as some of the other nations athletes with whom I had played cat and mouse before heading out to our supporter for more photos, chat and, for most athletes, a trip to the HQ cafe for a well earned beer.
Results started to flow in on the official website as we sat around chatting, often through text from friends in the UK who had been monitoring the live feed. Top 10 placing in the world Helen tells me, “you must be kiddingâ€, “no, no here is a screenshot from the official resultsâ€. I continue to doubt any official placing until I can open the website myself whilst drinking that beer  9th no 8th, as one was disqualified, and more doubt 3rd GB team member in age group  count it, count it again. Yep  it was official.
The last hour and a half were spent at the finishing funnel cheering on the rest of the age group athletes including the 75 to 79Âyear old category where team GB had an athlete before retrieving the bike from transition and cycling back to the team hotel to drop the bike for shipping to the UK that evening.
It’s tough to put the World Championships into words, we lived in a bubble for 5Âdays with a huge crowd of fellow athletes and supporters from the UK and 36 other nations where the common denominator was cycling, running and swimming  yes many duathletes share my swimming anxieties but are triathletes. The organisation, the team manager, the team mechanic, the team masseur, the travel company, the bike shipping company and the fellow athletes made this a magical and most memorable 5Âdays. We spoke the same language, shared similar stories, trained together, had breakfast together socialised in the evenings either planned or just met up by chance in the town and we didn’t know anyone until we arrived. We were all immensely proud to be there and representing Great Britain in sport.
I must admit I thought that would be it, I set out a goal to qualify this year and compete in the World Champions and I did, next years plans were going to be more about local events, but
the experience is addictive, and it turned out that I was fortunate enough to finish 8th in the my age group in the world and was 3rd GBR athlete for my age group which gives me an automatic pass to the 2017 World Duathlon Championships. So my plans have changed, I have some easy minutes to get back from transition training, the bike can give some more, running needs some work before giving it another go in August 2017.
Dave
