First Duathlon

All started with Sunfeast World 10k on 31st May, followed by 70kms cycle ride on 7th June. In this weekend, it was mix of both under different circumstances.

India’s first duathlon conducted by Runners for Life happened today (14th June) early morning hours here in Bangalore at Inventure Academy. Our cycles were delivered to the venue by Track & Trail guys.

(Photo Courtesy: Deepthi)
Morning after reaching the venue, I checked my cycle and everything seemed to be in shape. I had registered myself for 10k running and 20k cycling. This was split and we had to run 5k first, pedal 20k then run 5k again. There was also a track of 5k running & 10k cycling. The event was well organised and the weather was just perfect. The sun never tried to come out till we were out of the course. The chief guest was Mr.Bhaskar, Commissionaire for Road Transport & Safety. He is also an avid cyclist & runner.
There were cops along the course managing traffic and this was very helpful. They stopped the traffic whenever a cyclist was taking a turn onto the main road and also when we started off after the flag off.

After the flag off, we had to run till the 2.5km mark and then return. This 5kms looked to be easy. I did not sprint since I wanted to save energy for next cycling and the last 5kms of running. On returning we need to pick-up cycle from the transition area. From the transition area till start/finish point we cant pedal. We need to run with the cycle. Then we pedal for 5kms and return and go again in the loop. Once I managed to overtake a lorry also! (when he was picking up speed after slowing down for a speed breaker)
The course by no means was a very easy one. There were up’s & down’s. Luckily it was completely on the road and no cycling on the mud or sand to make it a more tougher course. My new cycle (Her Thunder Racer with 15gears) did help me to a large extent. But there were other imported road bikes which just zipped past me. No issues, I had my target and wanted to do within the target. My max speed in cycling was about 35km/hr though not consistently throughout the course.
having finished 20kms of pedalling, we get off the bike, run along with it leave it at the transition area on the same place where we picked it up from. Now we again run to the start/finish point and begin running for the last 5kms. By now, my thighs seemed to be getting heavy so I slowed down slightly at the up climb and speeded up while coming down.
In all I finished with a timing of 1hr 58mins which was well below my target time. The timing includes the time taken to pick-up cycle from transition area and also to leave it back there. Since I was not fit last night, I had planned to finish between 2hrs – 2hrs 15mins and not beyond. And I dont think I can reduce my timing far far below this. Maybe by 5 – 10mins is possible. But am happy on completing in less than 2hrs.
I noticed that I cant take a U-Turn on the bike without putting my feet down and this not only reduces my speed and I need to almost restart from 0km/hr but also add few seconds to my time. It takes few kms for me to get into the groove of pedalling.

The brunch after this was amazing. Then met up with few friends and we had some crazy photo shoots.

(Pic courtesy: PeeVee)
(In the photo: Manjula Sridhar, Ann Maria, Anita Bora, Ramesh Palani, Myself)

Now looking forward to Ultra Marathon in November and this time I would complete 75kms.