Nottingham Dirty Dash Duathlon 2015

Having enjoyed the Duathlon at Cannock Chase I immediately set about finding another to enter.  One stood out in Nottingham, I lived there for 8 or so years so it seemed the perfect opportunity to race and catch up with friends.

Annoyingly it was the third race of a series, but despite missing the first two races I decided to go for it anyway.  The distances were slightly longer than at Cannock as well which meant I was going to have to be even more careful of my pacing.  My other concern was regarding which bike to use, my CX bike or my MTB bike, more on that later...

As race day got closer I started to think more about clothing, the forecast was for much colder and windier than I had previously raced in and I still could not decide on which bike to use.  In the end I went for the MTB bike as I felt I would be quicker on it over the terrain I was expecting to encounter.  As for clothing my decision was made for me when I got to the race though – it was freezing, I started with everything on.

Due to my faffing with what to wear I missed the race brief which I didn't think would be a problem as I would just follow someone else.  It also meant I was towards the back of the group when the race started which was something I normally try and avoid so that I do not spend the first part of the race overtaking slower people.  By the end of the first lap though I had got myself some space and was able to run at my own pace without having to worry about other people.  The rest of the run went without incident giving me time to think about the first transition.

Transition went perfectly and I was out on the bike and set about chasing down the people ahead of me.  It was at this point that I realised that a lot of people had gone with a CX bike which seemed to be the better choice as the course was a lot smoother than I was expecting.  Even so I was managing to catch and overtake people, especially on the latter part of the lap where it got more technical and much muddier.  However there was a long tarmaced straight at the end of the lap which put the advantage firmly back with the guys on CX bikes.

Pretty much as soon as I got onto the second bike lap I started to lap people which wasn't too bad initially due to the course being pretty wide, however on the second half of the lap where it got more technical it definitely started to slow me down.  What also made it slower was the fact that it had gone from being quite muddy to very muddy, all of a sudden I was very happy to be on my MTB.

I was feeling good as I came into second transition especially since all I had to do was rack my bike, take off my helmet and leave through the run exit...  Due to missing the race brief though I didn't know where the exit was and so I started running in the wrong direction, I was directed to the exit and so proceeded in the correct direction before someone pointed out that I still had my helmet on!  I literally had two things to do and I messed them both up despite doing far more complicated transitions throughout the year with no issues.  This also meant that I was overtaken in transition, I tried to stay with them on the run but realised that I just didn't have the legs to keep up so had to stick to running my own race and hoping they would fade.  They didn't fade and I spent the best part of 2km chasing after them eventually crossing the line 12 seconds behind them.

I finished 7^th overall and was first in my age group so overall I was very happy with how the race went.  I was also happy when I saw split times as I was 7^th fastest on the bike and only 1 guy was more than a minute faster than me so even though I was on a slower bike I had managed to keep up with the rest of them and not had to worry about changing shoes in transition.  Another really enjoyable race though and the series is definitely on my radar for next year.  After the race I was chatting with some of the other finishers and it appeared that I was the talk of the race due to the speed I kept up in the muddy sections but more due to the complete mess I made of the second transition.  The general consensus also seemed to be that the bike courses across the series are set up for CX bikes so I have already decided which bike I will be using next year.

It wasn't until I got back to the car and started to pack my bike away that I fully realised how muddy the course had been.  My rear dérailleur had actually started to work itself loose and there was so much mud around my bottom bracket that my chain was having to go through it.  I think I may well have been running before second transition if the course had been any worse as my bike it seems was right on the limits of still working.