WADAC @ the Portsmouth Duathlon
Most of us dabble a bit with our dark side and get out to play on our bikes from time to time so sometimes it is great fun to mix it up with the multi-sport fraternity.
nThe Portsmouth Duathlon series provides some lovely informal opportunities to do that and 15th April was the last race of this year's series. This was the long one that the series builds up to and which offers a choice of short (5km run, 24km bike, 5km run) or long (10km run, 24km bike, 5km run) course events.
nFor most WADAC folks the duathlon is a story of being relatively fast on the runs (because we are runners), relatively slow on the bikes (because generally we're not full-on cycling beasts) and dead slow in transition (because we never practice that).
nSo it proved, we won't talk much about the cycling element here!
nMarius Kwint was there on the short course and flying our flag high. Marius is one of our best multisport competitors and showed his pedigree with 18'29 over the first 5k to be 2nd onto the bike, a position he was never going to give up. 2nd fastest on the first run, 4th fastest on the bike and then 2nd fastest on the closing run. Great consistency (he was possibly even the fastest in transitions) to take 2nd overall and a comfortable win in his age group.
nMost of the WADAC crew opted for the long course reasoning that that the extra running distance would suit us better. Tom Oliver led the way on the run, mixing it with the short-course speedsters over the first 5k and going on to post 33'50 for the 10k and be first out onto the bike by some margin. A sparkling 18'16 on the closing 5k enabled Tom to recover ground and be 5th overall at the finish.
nJames Webster was next WADAC runner home 20th overall and 2nd in age cat with 40'08 on the 10k and 19'09 on the 5k. Then Helen Oliver was 42nd overall and third lady with 42'12 for the 10k and 20'22 for the 5k (fastest lady on the final 5k). Martin Davis was 48th overall and 7th in age cat and finally Steve Oliver puffed home 51st and 8th in age cat.
nIt's all a bit of fun and a lovely informal atmosphere with lots of out-and-back sections where competitors can encourage each other and great to see the WADAC Black & Gold tri-suits out there.