Alex at the Oulton Park Duathlon

In Road Biking, Running, Triathlon, on March 22, 2013 - 13:40

Team JMC’s Alex Lawton kicked off the 2013 season with another brilliant result at the Oulton Park Duathlon…

Sunday marked the my proper start of the 2013 season with the first multi-sport event of the year. The Oulton Park Duathlon took place on the Race circuit and started with a x2 lap run (8.6k) 9 lap bike (38.9K) and a final 1 lap run (4.3k run).

Once the gun sounded I set of quickly and was soon in 2^nd place, another racer had shot off and built up an impressive 30 second lead after the first 10 minutes. Rather than try to close this down I decided that it was better the race my own race and believe that I would catch him on the bike. I ran side by side with another guy for the x2 laps, making sure the gap to 1^st didn’t get too big.

I came into transition in 2^nd place, and jumped on the bike and set off onto the smooth, fast race track. I knew that Matt Moorhouse (last year’s winner and elite level duathlete) was about a minute or so behind on the run. Matt has achieved some incredible Duathlon results and I knew he soon make up the 1 minute deficit on the bike. Sure enough he came flying past on the 3^rd lap me to drop me into 3^rd place!

The bike leg then became a bit like the morning commute on the M60, with more racers starting the bike leg navigating the traffic and avoiding the risk of a drafting penalty became more prevalent. Going from run to bike is bit different from what I’m used to and it took a while to find my legs on the bike. By the 4^th-5^th lap I found a bit of rhythm and amongst the traffic recognised the 2^nd place racer, moved passed and continued to open up a gap. I continued to feel better as the race went on and came off the bike into T2 in 2^nd place, 3 minutes behind Matt in 1^st.

I felt good on the final run and completed the 4.3k in 13:43, but making up the deficit from the bike was going to be too much. I managed to gain 01:48 back on Matt in the final run leg, which saw me finish in 01:43:53, just under 2 minutes behind 1^st.