National Duathlon Champs

Saturday was the national duathlon championships in Clumber park,nr Worksop. It was also one of four qualifiers for the World Championships in Edinburgh. The top four in each category automatically qualify for a GB vest. You do however have to register your intent to qualify with the British tri association (£10). So if you haven't registered,the place then gets passed down to the next placing and so on. As well as that you have 9 fastest losers placings. So 4 events x 4 automatic slots is 16 plus 9 fastest losers. A total of 25 places per age group.
The standard distance for this discipline is 10k run -40k bike -5k run. Over 650 people entered the event which was sold out weeks before. I decided to stay in a travellodge the night before due to the early start of 09.00,they tend to start early to avoid the traffic as much as possible.
I woke up around 06.00 Saturday morning to eat breakfast and was greeted by overcast,cool and drizzly conditions outside. I'm glad I made my way to the event early as the queue to get into the park and for registration was unbelievable. On the line were the best of the best for this kind of event and any poor preparation would be severely punished by such a strong field. I'd love to know what the average price of each bike was worth,well into the 3-4k I would guess.
The pre race music and MC was something more akin to a night club,with the Tim Westwood style commentary coming from a rather over enthusiastic microphone. "This is it,there is no hiding place at the nationals,this is what you've all been waiting for,this is where all those miles of winter training are going to pay off,are you mentally prepared to be a champion...." etc
I certainly wasn't prepared for him,and so was glad to start and get out of his earshot. The first run was a lumpy 10k,pretty much climbing on the way out and descending on the way back. Two laps of fighting for position on a pretty busy course. I ran well,knocking the edge off my pace to save for the bike and final run to follow and entered transition in 34.38. So far so good and onto the bike. Transition went smoothly and I quickly got into a good pace on the 2 laps of 20k around the undulating roads on Nottinghamshire. As mentioned in previous posts my cycling has been the one area I have neglected something terrible over the winter,and compared to the people I want to beat I was seriously under cooked for the bike leading into the event. This is how it proved losing many places on the bike. I thought I rode Ok but this is the national champs and "OK" is not going to cut it at this level. I came over the line in around 64 minutes for the 40k (25m'ish). The final run was tough,the cold weather makes your feet like blocks of ice on the bike and my feet were numb and swollen starting the run. I ran well again to complete the final 5km in 18.20.
Overall finishing time of 1hr 59m with an overall finishing position of 48th out of 650 starters and 10th in my age group. I now have to work out where this gets me in terms of qualification. The results were depressing to say the least. In my age group of the registered entrants I was 5th,20s behind 4th and the last automatic GB qualification slot ! This might still be enough as a fastest loser,but I'd rather make certain,so I've just entered the next qualifier in April in Milton Keynes.
The second picture I've posted is of me chasing down James Cracknell,multi Olympic gold medal winner. He came hounding past me on the bike but I'd have got him on the run if it was another 200m. He was blowing pretty hard over the line.