We lined up at the start for a sprint across a wide grassy field and onto the tarmac path that ran beside the Hutt River. I made a strong effort to stick with the front runners, as the first ten kilometers was almost completely flat, so we stuck in one big group and drafted for the first twenty minutes, which was pretty good fun. There was unfortunately one pretty gnarly crash where two guys just in front of me piled into a bollard in the middle of the path at what must have been at least 30 km/h. I was lucky to avoid it, as I felt something hit my knuckle hard, and something else cut my knee, so I was happy to make it through safely. In an interesting twist, rather than crossing State Highway 2, we went under the road and through a 50 meter long culvert, after which we ran up and onto a short tarmac section, then up into the hills.
The first climb was pretty sizeable, but constant and mostly gravel so I got into a good rhythm and it took me about 27 minutes to get to the exposed and windy top, and I made an effort to keep within sight of the next guy up ahead, and on some sections I could see the leaders, so that kept the pace and motivation high. We then dropped down along some high speed, open, grassy descents, which were awesome fun, hopping and jumping over the terrain, and I dropped 300m of elevation in about 5 minutes. We then went up and over a smaller hill, after which there was some very technical rock sections and stream crossings, so I ended up running a fair bit of it.
We then started the final big climb of the day, which didn't go too well for me. I started heading up the gravel road climb and felt like my brake was dragging, I just felt like I was going far too slow for the effort I was putting in considering it wasn't particularly steep and seemed reasonably fast rolling. I made my way up the climb a little bit when the next guy behind me passed me. I stuck on him for a bit, but lost him at a small rise where he just had a bit more power than me. I continued on up the undulating climb, trying to hold my pace and not waste too much energy.
At the top there were a few small undulations before the final, very steep decent that I was looking forward to. Knowing that the last of the hills were done I went for it, picking my lines carefully as there were some big rain ruts and some fairly slippery sections. It was awesome fun though, hauling down this steep, techy fire break, just the sort of thing I like. I then came out along a stream at the bottom, where I did a couple more stream crossings and up into the transition in 7th place.
Exhausted and cramping up, I happily handed my bib over to Jordan, who took off towards the finish for his 15km run.
I stayed for about 20 minutes while to help Scott with his transition, and he came in a bit later than expected after getting two flats and having to run, in bike shoes, down the final downhill, so he was not in a particularly good way. Luckily he had packed plenty of gels to keep him going, so with full pockets he ran off as well.
I packed up the car and drove off to meet them both at the finish, arriving just after Jordan came in from an awesome run, finishing us in 8th place for the overall duathlon (MTB/Run), and 3rd out of the teams.
Scott came in a bit later for his 3rd straight win in the masters duathlon! Awesome work by him, especially considering 2rd place was only a minute behind.
Overall it was a really fun event, with a great atmosphere and some impressive athletes
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