My first ever Duathlon (a 4 mile run, a 23 mile bike ride then another 4 mile run), held at Helwith Bridge between Whernside & Pen-y-Ghent in North Yorkshire could not have been held on a worse day. The forecast was pretty bad, and as soon as we set off for the run it started to spit with rain. I was happy at the time, because it kept me cool for the 40 minutes that I was on my feet. As I got on the bike however, the big raindrops began to come down, and by the time I’d done a mile I was soaked to the skin. The rain then just got persistently worse, the wind got up, and in all my years as a cyclist, I have never been out in such bad conditions! The fact that we had over 700m of elevation to contend with on totally exposed roads didn’t help, and it was even impossible to gain time and respite on the downhill sections, because we had to go slowly so that we could see where we were going through the horizontal stinging rain! At one point, I saw a brave little Yellowhammer fly sideways into a hedge!
I feel good today; a bit saddle sore, and my legs & back ache alot, but just from being wet and cold & tense I think, nothing damaged. I’m giddy with achievement though! Everyone else had thousands of pounds worth of proper racing bikes & gear, and I had Graham’s old mountain bike, Alex’s helmet & my trusty old running stuff on. The bike stuck out like a sore thumb in the bike rack at the start; a complete case of “spot the amateur”. So to only finish 5 mins after people on “real” racing bikes is a huge buzz. Mind you, I think that for under-water cornering and for not getting blown away the heavy bike and lumpy tyres were an advantage! And, to be fair, riding a pushbike is one thing at which I am supremely confident so I wasn’t scared – I was very cold, & becoming increasingly worried about changing gear from about half way round because I couldn’t feel my hands, but at least I wasn’t fearful! I must have emptied about a pint of water out of each trainer at the end of the cycle ride! Those big old legs come into their own though and did what (I am sure) they were designed to do, and got me round without stopping once, and the 23 miles took me 2 hours 10 minutes and brought me in last! A couple of the steep uphill cycling sections were actually slower than my running sections (guess who’se been messing around with her Garmin data?)!
Carol & David (my sister-in-law & brother-in-law), came up to support us and were magnificent – they stood in the rain for 3 hours and photographed, encouraged and generally looked after us all; and had even brought big flasks of coffee for us at the finish! In fact they did everything that “holidaying Graham” would have done (apart from the mickey taking!). How kind! They must have been just as wet and cold as we were, and probably more fed up! I rang them last night to thank them again, and they said they got talking to one of the winners who has been doing this stuff for many years and he said that he has never been out in anything that bad and described it “like climbing Everest in the Apocalypse!”. And he was only out half the time that we were...... Betty has got bruised ribs from getting blown off her bike but is otherwise OK! I am so glad that the organisers were on the ball and were able to pick her up in the van so quickly after it happened. The route was brilliantly signposted, the event was great, and, (spoken like a true Englishwoman), only the weather spoilt it! I’ve a score to settle with that place, I’ll be back next year!Pictures will follow when David's camera has dried out........
http://www.vlaevents.co.uk/vlahelwith.html
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