Posted at 16:18 on Oct 21, 2011 by Fuel Blog
Challenger World Triathlere Wins Dalby Forest Duathlon fuelled by Maxifuel.
Sunday 16th October was the arrival of the Dalby forest duathlon, this was my second ever off road duathlon the first one been the mud man duathlon at Haworth when I was about 15. I remember this race quite well, it was a cold day, I’d never been mountain biking before but Phil wanted to do it so I did it too! The first run was fine then came the bike, I think it was quite a long one and I didn’t enjoy it one bit! I was on my dad’s bike which was far too big for me. The bike was one big lap and after about half of it I was on my own, couldn’t see anyone in front or behind me, I though I was lost! Out in the dales never to be found again! Well I spent most of the rest of the bike in tears wondering where I was going and just wanting to get back, I was of course going the right way; it was just a long way! It obviously didn’t put me off!
So Dalby, it was a 2 lap, 5km run followed by a 28km, 4 lap mountain bike around the black and world cup trails of Dalby Forest followed by another 5km run. Dalby is only about 40mins away from York so it wasn’t too early a start to get there for 10am. It was a nice morning, chilly but a nice temperature so we wouldn’t be getting too hot. There was around 50 of us setting of on the first run, around the field before hitting the undulating trails, after 2 laps it was onto the bike, as soon as I jumped on my seat went backwards…great! After unsuccessfully trying to bash it down myself a kind competitor came over and hit it back to level so I was off again, I’ve been to Dalby a few times so I knew some of the routes that we went on so I wasn’t going round totally blind! Least 4 laps gave me time to get it all right! The part I was most worried about was riding up what I have called “the slab”. Basically a few slabs of steep rock about 2.5m high that you have to ride up, I’d done it twice before so I knew I needed lots of power and speed in order to get up it so all was fine. Down worry gill on the first lap I lost my bottle, it was then up a steep long climb before a stint on the fire road then back onto the single track technical stuff back round to the start. I came off on one of the corners, bashed my knee, hip and shoulder but got back up and carried on. Too much adrenaline to notice any pain! On the second lap my bottle was in the middle of the track so I picked it up as I wouldn’t have been able to get round without a drink. After 4 laps I was starting to tire after been on the bike for 2hours getting thrown around, it was back into transition and onto the final run. It followed the same route as before, my legs were tired but I got round not feeling too bad.
I wasn’t expecting anything special and was pleased to get round without feeling too bad, it’ll have given my fitness a real boost and to win was a bonus, I’ve not won any races in a while so was a good boost. I’ve got a bit of a swollen knee and a sore hip and shoulder but back to training and onto the next race in a few weeks time, a local cross country before the Lakeland trails dirty double in November.
Vicky Graves, Powered By Maxifuel
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