Drenched duathletes dominate Gravesend

As the first month of 2016 came to a close, eleven duathletes from Imperial College London battled against the elements to achieve an impressive tally of podium finishes at the Gravesend Winter Duathlon.

At 8:50am on Sunday 31st January, competitors gathered for the pre-race briefing at the Gravesend Cyclopark in Kent. The course was slightly changed due to a “small lake” that had formed halfway down the originally intended run course.

The first run was now lengthened slightly to just over 6km with a lap around the cycle circuit before joining the first half section of the original run route. The second run was 3.65km and followed the same route but without the lap of the cycle circuit. Sandwiched between the two would be eight laps of the cycle circuit totalling 20km on the bike.

However, the total running distance was unchanged and Matt Douthwaite was salivating at the thought of being able to reel in his competitors with his lengthy strides.

As the rain started to fall, the race got underway and the field quickly spread out with Imperial Triathlon’s Milan Misak leading the way closely followed by Matt. Katie Slater took the lead of the women’s race. Lily Battershill, Anna Lawson and Nicola Mason clustered together to form a pursuing pack.

Disaster struck for Milan at the start of the bike leg as he struggled to slip his right foot into a particularly troublesome cycling shoe that refused to stop spinning. Matt’s euphoria of taking the lead was short lived though as the fully clipped-in power of Milan’s legs was able to retake the lead within a few seconds.

By now the constant drizzle had made the smooth tarmac of the circuit even slicker

By now the constant drizzle had made the smooth tarmac of the circuit even slicker. This posed a greater challenge to the competitors on a course that could already be described as ‘quite technical’ with plenty of bends and sharp corners. Surprisingly, there were no major incidences, although Katie did admit to misjudging a corner and veering onto the grass for a brief moment. She kept her composure, and more importantly her lead. The pursuing pack had dispersed and she now had Nicola hot on her heels.

Nearing the end of the bike leg, Matt’s “runner’s legs” were unable to hold onto second place and he was overtaken by a triathlete from Tunbridge Wells Triathlon Club. However, Matt’s sneaky tactic of simply not changing his shoes between bike and run during transition enabled him to quickly regain his position.

Having built up a comfortable gap ahead of Matt, Milan was the first male to cross the line in a time of 1:09:42. Matt joined him on the podium in second with a time of 1:12:04. Katie was the first female to finish in a time of 1:25:09 followed by Nicola (1:26:09) and Lily (1:28:46) to complete an Imperial 123.

Elsewhere on the course, Miguel Pereira, whose muscles apparently still ached from his impressive performance at the GO TRI Velopark Duathlon earlier in the week, put in another equally impressive performance to finish in a time of 1:18:19. Chris Lehrter finished just ahead of Katie in a time of 1:24:15 and Marcel Admiraal did well to come 3rd in the men’s veteran category in a time of 1:28:46. Qalif Razman struggled a little on a bike which was clearly too small for him, but his speedy running was able to make up for it and he finished with a time of 1:31:51. Anna Lawson completed her second duathlon in a decent time of 1:32:55. Sam was the last Imperial duathlete to cross the line in a time of 1:37:37 – a disheartening seven minutes slower than his performance two years ago. But he was pleased to have at least finished the race without any pain from his long-term shin splint injury; the road to recovery continues for the club captain.