http://www.duatlonsantapola.com
Picked up my new MTB on the prior Friday in Santa Pola, not on the prior Wednesday as planned, yes the manyana effect, but it fitted great and I quickly felt at home on it - a nice piece of kit which has a fork lock-out lever that I hadn't anticipated when I ordered it but was very handy for locking the fork suspension for the flattish sections and the climbs.
In beautiful sunshine, and not too warm, course was 5km run, 18.8km Bike, 2.9km run. Doesn't sound much but it flippin' hurts as you're going full tilt the whole time. From the off it was fast - halfway through the first run I felt like stopping (but didn't, of course!) and was wondering what was going on until after the race when I saw I'd been running at 15s per km faster than I ever had in training. Course was more suited to strong runners as it's easier to overtake on the run sections, but I smashed it as hard as I could on the bike section, where my albeit limited CX experience was really useful and I took plenty of places, wasn't overtaken by many apart from at the suicidal downhill section at the end which I was more concerned about finishing (having seen some earlier nasty offs on the rocks requiring ambulance attention) than not being overtaken, even though I was barreling along at 56kph down the rough rock-strewn slope.
Last 2.9km was 'orrible. Sounds pathetic for the distances involved but it was just survival - keep going. By now it was hot too, with some just stopping to walk. Being overtaken by some that I'd passed later on the bike was galling, but turns out I was actually running only 15s slower than my training pace, so much better than it felt at the time.
Results-wise it went better than I had anticipated; placed 559/1169 in GC and 29/87 in Vet B category, with an overall time of 1h31m45s. No other Brits were there from what I can make out; going by names alone I'd say all participants bar me were Spanish.
A well organised event and good fun. I plan to sign up again for next year, but need to become a better runner (and of course a better cyclist
) .Got some pics but need somewhere to upload them to if anyone interested?
