Phoenix Park Duathlon

I don’t like duathlons. It’s just running and cycling. Triathlons are hard, and therefore worthwhile because it involves swimming and I am a poor swimmer. Also, it’s an Olympic sport. Running is good because I like running and again, it’s an Olympic sport. Duathlons are just this weird in-between thing. Nobody ever asks if you’ve ever done a duathlon.

I signed up anyway to race with the club but in the end, I was the only one there. So, I was feeling pretty fed up at the start. Work, university, and being a dad have all been getting on top of me recently and I’m just not feeling like myself. Hopefully, race season will fix that.

Run 1

The first run was 5k: two loops of the field by transition. I was in wave three and set off right at the back but despite my relatively easy pace, I soon began progressing through the field. I wanted to run at a comfortable pace so I could at least attempt to enjoy it.

It was good to see at least some mix of abilities. Ireland is typically focused on highly competitive athletes so having people in the race who were running a 30+ minute 5k made it feel more inclusive and a bit more like home.

Bike

The cycle course was 3 x 7k laps of Phoenix Park. Best of all: closed roads! The course was well marshalled, had a good road surface and few enough athletes on the course that it wasn’t overcrowded. Reasonably flat, too: you could pedal the whole way around with one easy climb at the end. Athletes with a higher FTP than mine will have used the big chainring the whole way around.

The best thing was probably the views. Phoenix Park is huge. Even though you are in the heart of Dublin, you would never know it if it wasn’t for the occasional glimpse of the Dublin skyline. The rest of the time you are cycling through trees, hills and grass.

Run 2

The final run was a single lap of the field. I set off at the same easy pace. Maybe a little faster as there was someone breathing down my neck. After the 2k point, I couldn’t help myself speeding up a little for the sprint finish.

Results

There were 260 finishers of which I was the 200th with an overall time of:

1:26:56

My splits were:

Discipline Time
Run 1 24:55
T1 1:23
Bike 47:46
T2 1:27
Run 2 11:23

They had a photographer at the end but they missed me at the start, end, and on the bike, unfortuntely.

Timeline

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2023 at 11:00 am and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.