Ashford Duathlon, Saturday 6th April, 2013

3 Rock hosted the National Championship Duathlon on the 6th April in Ashford, Co. Wicklow. I signed up for it thinking it would be a nice starter into the season. I was surprised to find out a couple of weeks before hand that the distance was a 10k run, 40k cycle and 5k run but thats what happens when you don’t read the fine print. I thought it was half the distance – and any of you who have trained with me will know how useless I am on the bike. What I will say is that while the race was possibly the toughest thing I have ever done, tougher than the marathon, it was also one of the most enjoyable. The race was probably more geared to the faster athletes. The day turned out to be a scorcher although it started off nippy enough. As the race started, people took off like bats out of hell, running at a pace of 6 minutes/mile or faster! I almost had a heart attack and from the beginning stayed in last place right through to the end, and no where near the 6 minute mile pace. The 10k was a lovely flat course, and while I roasting in my lovely Pulse winter jacket, I managed to get a PB……..wahoo! The cycle was a different story. It was a looped 10km circuit, to be completed four times. While not hilly, there was a particular drag which threatened to derail me. By the final 10k I had no control over my legs as they appeared to have a will of their own. Thank God Eamonn Tilly, who was an organiser, drove behind me shouting encouragement to finish it as there was champagne at the end for me. Well that spurred me on and even though I lurched my way through the final 5k run, I made it through, 25mins after the last person…..no champagne at the end though! Our own Pulse members did well with Mark Horan and Ian Farrell both finishing in the top ten for the lads while Aoife Lynch flew the flag for the Pulse ladies. So while I should never have signed up for it, the support and encouragement I got from the other athletes who had finished 2 hours previously and also a couple of fellow Pulsers and even the marshalls who were waiting to put everything away, shows that even the weakest athletes are welcomed anywhere.

Report by Julienne Paye.