Stirling Duathlon

Before I booked this race, I did not know it was Mother's Day.

Having never done a Duathlon before I was unsure in how I should tackle the event. Should my first run be as fast as I can run a 5K? So many questions running through my head even before I got to Stirling.

Got up early as I was travelling through on my own, it was way to early to get everyone else up. I was away by 7:20am. The weather looked terrible on the way through. Wee pitstop at McDonalds for......................Porridge and a coffee. The drive through was as expected on a Sunday morning very quiet. When I did arrive at Stirling University the car parks were filling fast, I managed to get one of the last spaces what felt like a 1/4 a mile away from the registration and transition.

Went down got myself registered. Then realised that I left my bike shoes in the car. Back to the car to get them. I was in time so there was no need to panic. I did forget my race belt, so had to pin the number to the front of my trisuit which was fun as I needed the toilet after I attached the number. Just left it and decided it could wait till after the race. Racked the bike and time to do stretches. Saw some people from the Glasgow Triathlon Club.

At last it was time for the race briefing as both the sprint (me) and the Scottish Championships (not me) were running basically at the same time (10 min delay between the races). There was about 90 people doing the sprint. As soon as the race briefing was finished it was time to head to the start line. Then the horn went and we were away.

It started on a running track, which was nice and then it took us out and up a steep embankment, which did not look like much until you ran it lol. I decided at this point that I was going to run an easy 5km and progress from there. Felt okay heading to the bike. I will say that looking at the results I was 53/90 after the first 5km. Onto the bike and for the first time I was in and out of transition in just over a minute. However though for some reason I just could not clip into the pedals after what seemed ages I was in and could start the catch up. I am pleased to say that no-one overtook me on the bike and I passed at least 15 people. After looking at the results I was 12/90 fastest on the bike. I really enjoyed the bike if it was not for some junctions and not sure of the road turns I am sure I would of been a bit faster. Got back into transition quick change of footwear a gulp of nuun and off for the final 5km run. This time I was going to give it my all had nothing to loose now. Over took a few more people, during the run though I could feel my right leg start to get sore..........so eased off slightly.

Finished the race, got handed my goody bag and it was time to cool down and stretch. While of course checking the goody bag,

Bag
Hat
Water bottle
Milk
Water
Protein Bar
Flapjack

Fantastic goody bag.

Results

Run 1   00:25:18
T1         00:01:07
Bike      00:40:39
T2      00:00:54
Run 2    00:23:54

Overall time 1:31:49 
Position :- 28/90 
Age Band :- 5/26

Really happy with my first ever duathlon even got a negative split for my run which I am over the moon about. Think this could be on next years race calendar. i might even step up and do the Scottish Championships