London Duathlon Ultra Distance 20k - 80k - 10k - Sep 12 2010
I had bit of company on the first run. Some nice fella from Oz so we discussed pace and agreed to run 70-72ish for the first 20k run. He ran 31mins for 10k last week so he was good company as I came into T1 slightly ahead of him in 72mins which was a reasonable start.
Having raced here so many times before I know the bike course pretty well but it feels completely different when you have to do 7 laps. Broomfield Hill 7 times was a killer and I got cramp on the second lap and had to ride up with one leg! My lap times were fairly consistent but slower than I was hoping for because it was pretty windy so my hopes to break 2 hours for the bike was very optimistic. Nobody passed me so I came off the bike in the lead but with a lot to do to break that 4 hour barrier.
The second run felt quick but cruisey as I thought I had a large lead I even stopped for a pee so I was very pleased to have the quickest second run by about 3 minutes. I came home to take the win by a little over 6 minutes from another Irishman, Kona bound Declan Doyle so I wish him all the best on the Big Island. My time of 4:01.16 is not sub 4 hours no matter how long I look at it. But the quickest first run, both transitions and second run is a good session and I learned a lot about how to tackle a race like this. Plus I did manange to run the last 10k three mins quicker than a fresh 10k back in '03!
Big respect for the Ladies winner, Eilis Connery from Belpark Tri in Dublin. She had never done an event as long as this before so it was very impressive to take the win. No bother to her!
