Mallory Park 2021: My First Duathlon

The word "duathlon" was an unfamiliar one to me, until about a month ago. This year I decided to join my university's triathlon club  as I wanted to try something completely new. Having seen how a triathlon works on TV multiple times during the Olympic games and already doing some regular swimming and running, I thought "why not combine them both together and throw cycling into the mix too?". And that's a summary of how I ended up competing in the BUCS Duathlon on the 14th of November 2021.

For those unfamiliar with the term as I was, a 'duathlon' is a race where only 2 of the 3 typical tri sports are done: running and cycling. It's usually done in the order of run-->cycle-->run. This race consisted of a 5km run, 18km bike then a 2.5km run.

Overall, I had a great time competing and experiencing what a university duathlon meet looks like. Highlights off the race track included everyone bringing baking to share with fellow competitors, getting to know my teammates better and just generally enjoying watching a good day of sport. We were all situated in the middle of the racecourse, meaning we got to see people running/cycling right by us. The November Sunday morning provided cold crisp air, confirming my choice to bring lots of extra layers of clothes with me to put on post-race.

Mallory Park is about 2 hours away from London, so it was 'interesting' waking up at 2am to get ready in time to catch the coach from my university campus, to get me to the start line for 7:30am when my race was due to begin. The sun was just creeping up as I set off, having only had 30 minutes to register, change, and set up my bike at the transition point as the coach was late. My 'warm up and stretching' before the race was limited to whatever I could fit in at the start line in the minutes before I began due to the lack of time. That I do not recommend to anyone (you'll feel it the day after).

The first 5km run went well and was pretty comfortable, which was weird seeing as I managed to set a new PB for my 5km time in this race (22 mins 13 seconds). I found myself generally moving at a similar pace as the rest of the competitors, which is why I was in fact probably running a lot quicker that I usually do when I go for runs myself. It was pretty cool to be running around on a track made for race cars, and almost felt like I was in a real life version of Mario-Kart (minus the shells and bananas).

As I came into transition 1 (T1), it would probably be good for me to mention now that I had never ridden the bike that I was about to ride on since I borrowed it 2 days before the race. I was just hoping that I had set it up correctly as I didn't have any time to check before the race. We needed to do 6 laps of the course, which equated to 18km. That first lap ended up being me working out how to actually use the bike, change gears and learning what to do when 'on your left!' is shouted at you by a fellow rider. Some of these guys were well seasoned in the triathlon game, and I'm sure some of them even lapped me during the cycling bit. I came out of the biking part at the back, but happy that I finished the 18km. The 'spin' training sessions at university in the build up to this definitely helped. As I attempted to complete the second transition (T2), I got off the bike and my legs felt like absolute jelly. The most I could manage was a brisk walk back over to the transition point to mount my bike, and then began the final 2.5km run to the finish line.

The first 400m of this last leg was me basically trying to get my legs to function again after that biking session - running after cycling is something I was not well prepared for and I felt the consequences of that now! For future preparation I will hopefully incorporate some "brick" sessions into my training - where you do more than one sport back-to-back. Once I learnt how to run again I finished off the 2 laps and that concluded the race - coming in at a time of 1 hour 25 mins and 48 seconds. Checking the leader board later on that day, I came nowhere near the top but I was fine with that, my aim was to finish it, enjoy the experience and find out what the world of tri is all about.

And that concludes my experience Mallory Park 2021. It was a day of that provided challenges (waking up at 2am, getting race-ready in under 30 mins, very sore legs the next day), but also the opportunity to meet new people and push my physical and mental comfort zone. Would I do it again? Absolutely :)