Three days ago, I was sent an email saying “Hi Paul, we noticed you haven’t signed up for the Holdenby Duathlon yet”. Hmm, so I haven’t! Within a few hours I’d corrected my mistake. Who says targeted marketing doesn’t work?

This race is run by ‘On Your Marks Events’, a great little company that organises local runs, duathlons, triathlons and cycles in the Northamptonshire / Midlands / East Anglia area. They tend to be relatively small events but are always very well organised, reasonably priced and often take in the best of the local countryside. Having completed many of their events in the past and having nothing better to do on a Sunday morning, I entered the Sprint distance Duathlon.

 The race start and most of the run route are in and around the picturesque estate of Holdenby House and make for a very nice location. Living less than 5 miles away, being a 10 am start and starting the morning after the clocks went back led to a nice relaxing morning to get ready for and drive to the event. It’s so rare that I can get a decent night’s sleep and not have an awful 4am alarm call before a race these days. It even allowed me to get half way to the race, realise I left my Garmin watch at home, drive back to get it (after all, if it’s not on Strava / Garmin it doesn’t count) and still get to the start 30 minutes before it started.

Registration and racking was quick and simple and after a quick check of the transition layout and a brief warm up, I was all ready to go. It’s a mass start for all 4 events so for the first 5k run you don’t really know who you are racing. The run itself was nice but challenging. Lovely country views as you made your way along farm tracks, bridleways and the side of farmers’ fields with a few challenging hills to overcome on the latter half of the lap. Thankfully the ground was quite dry and firm. The run would have been much harder in wetter and muddier conditions.

Then on to the bike, along very quiet Sunday morning country roads, through some quaint Northamptonshire villages and over rolling (and a few challenging hills). There was a bit of wind today but nothing too strong, however it was a great boost about halfway round the cycle route when the tailwind coincided with a night straight flat road on decent tarmac.

I haven’t actually ridden my roadbike since I rode into transition on the Outlaw Traithlon this year so whilst it was only a short ride I did notice my legs struggling a little with the mix of trail running and cycling

Through most of the cycle I had 2 guys cycling a few hundred yards in front of me who were mates and clearly wanted to do the whole ride together. Nothing wrong with this, however they were clearly drafting on the cycle leg, something that is against the rules as it allows them to save energy by reducing drag. Whilst they were around the middle of the pack and were never likely to challenge for a podium, it does make it frustrating for other competitors who are playing by the rules and putting in more effort. This spurred me on and after a while I went past them and put in a decent effort for the rest of the ride to make sure they didn’t come back past me.

Back into the Holdenby estate and just the 5k run left. I took it a bit steadier this time around, saving my legs a little for the hills to come. Every so often I’d check behind me to make sure the ‘drafters’ weren’t about to overtake me, and after about 28 minutes and one last hill the finish was in sight. Whilst there weren’t many spectators, it was nice to be cheered in by a few of the competitors’ friends and family whilst crossing the line.

All in all, this was a great little Duathlon. Great scenery, faultless organisation, a nice little medal to finish and I managed to avoid being beaten by the drafters!

Unofficial time

Run 1 – 27:13

T1 – 1:53

Bike – 50:14

T2 – 1:45

Run 2 – 28:30

Total – 1:49:35