FirefightersDuathlon

Good hose-down needed after the Firefighters' 2-Up Duathlon

Saturday 16th March saw around 300 competitors assemble for a unique event - the 2-Up Firefighters Duathlon. An 18-mile '2-up' time trial sandwiched by two runs of approximately 4 miles.

Greg Callaghan and I paired up for this. Greg and I both do quite a lot of running and, perhaps to our embarrassment competing under the Southport CC banner, it was the running that proved to be our strongest element. Both members of the team are meant to stay within 50m of each other throughout; the tactics differ for each of the elements - the weakest runner should lead, perhaps being tracked closely at the shoulder by their partner, then, as cyclists will know, it is easier to be paced by the quicker rider. However, much care is needed to keep the team together. Furthermore, the rain and cold temperature (it was just 3 degrees) made decisions about clothing tricky - it's easy to generate lots of heat whilst running, but it can get perishingly cold on a bike.

We ran strongly as a pair on the first run, covering the muddy, potholed ground in about 22 minutes.

After the first run, Hard-Man Callaghan decided not to put on gloves (I was ready to go and he didn't want to hold me up). As a consequence, Greg rode in the freezing rain in a short-sleeved skinsuit and no gloves. After an erratic start over the first mile, we settled into a comfortable pace, completing the bike ride at about 'evens'.

At the next transition, our hands were so numb (and I was wearing gloves!) neither of us could remove crash helmets particularly easily, and putting on running shoes caused Greg to cramp badly. It then took about a quarter of a mile to get going properly, Greg nursing his sore leg, and we splashed on, re-taking many of those that had passed us on the bike ride, to finish in 1:47:15, 53rd place.

At the end everyone was covered head-to-foot in a nice mahogany veneer of Lancashire's finest silt, somewhat reminiscent of Paris-Roubaix on a bad day. We could have done with some of those firefighters' hoses to wash down afterwards.

Richard Cary 18/03/2013

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