Last weekend, Matt Walley of Newport & District Running Club took part in the European Duathlon Championship, having been selected as part of the Great Britain team. After the event, Matt was kind enough to write up this report of his experience!
Standing on the starting line racing for GB in the European Championship is something I never thought I’d be lucky enough to compete in. 9 weeks previously, I had an email from the British Triathlon team inviting me to join the GBR team in Caorle near Venice to race in the European Duathlon Championship. 9 weeks isn’t a lot amount of time to train for this but with my coach Sophie from SW Sports Performance we put a plan together and I got my head down and ramped up my training to be in the best shape I could be.
With 4 weeks to go, I took 2 weeks off from my work at Eurofins to be able to train as hard as I could, eat correctly (even if a couple of salt & vinegar crisps sneaked in here) and get the correct recovery to help for the next hard session Sophie had planned. At the same time my Canyon bike went off to get its pre-race service from Race Time Repairs at Market Drayton. I have had this bike for 5 years and every time I take it out it puts a smile on my face and makes me feel quick.
One of the things I’ve inherited from my mum is the enjoyment of a list. So I got my notebook out and wrote a list of what I needed for the weekend. With a Duathlon, there isn’t as much equipment needed compared to a triathlon but there’s still plenty to remember. So I started packing what I’d need and bubble wrapped my bike ready for its trip to Italy.
We arrived in Italy a day before the race, went to the expo and collected the race number (plus a cheeky bottle of Prosecco for being part of the race which Sammy was pleased about!), got to the hotel and built the bike then straight out the door to join the bike route recce. A few of us all left the hotel together to get to the meeting point for the recce. We saw about 40 cyclists coming in the opposite direction & panicked that we’d missed the start. Classic herd mentality: join the back of the group.
After 2 miles of flat-out cycling (some of the biggest power numbers I’ve put out for a long time), we realised it wasn’t the correct route & had joined the professionals that were doing their bike recce! So, with my legs feeling like jelly from the effort of trying to keep up with Spanish professional Triathlete Mario Mola, we made our way to the actual bike recce route. Thankfully this was a lot more relaxing.
In the evening we went back to the expo for the opening ceremony and flag parade. With 70% of the athletes being British, it was pretty impressive and a great atmosphere.
The horn went off and the race started. After a quick first mile I got into my stride and started to work my way through the field. Getting into transition after completing the 5k run in 17 minutes, 31 seconds, I was on the bike.
Being a draft-legal race, I knew the most important part was to get into a good group of riders & work together as a team, which made the bike section quicker and easier. I was able to get into a group of guys that were more powerful cyclists than myself. This was exactly what I wanted, as I could hold the wheel of these guys and they pulled me along. At the halfway point we came round a corner; the group broke up and I got dropped like a sack of potatoes! I put my head down and tried to get back with the group, but once you’ve lost that draft it’s so hard to get it back and I’d lost it. After a couple of miles on my own I got swallowed up by another group so joined them for the last part of the leg.
Back into transition, and onto the last lap of a 2.5k run. With the sessions that Sophie had me doing, I’d practised running on tired legs and knew that for the first few hundred metres, it was never going to feel great, but that my legs would come back to me and then I could pick up the pace. So, off I went round the streets of Caorle. I started by overtaking a couple of the guys I’d been on the bike with and started spotting people I want to pick off. I tried to pick the pace up for the last 800m but my legs didn’t want to move as quickly as I wanted them to. Then, a last 90 degree bend and 100m into the stadium and there was the finishing line.
After getting over the line and staggering for a bottle of water & banana, there are always some interesting stories from the race. From little old ladies crossing the run course to get to church, athletes having run either side of her, to losing water bottles on the bike leg to losing your bike position in transition and running an extra laps or going the wrong way.
After a bit of recovery at the hotel and some classic Italian lunch, I started to feel a bit more normal. Sitting in the hotel bar, me with an expresso and Sammy with something a little more alcoholic, I looked at my results and splits. I got 122nd out of 432 athletes. My quickest 5k run of the year and fastest 20k bike. With a total time of 1 hour, 12 minutes, 1 second – that 1 second is a bit annoying!
The next aim is to get below the 1hr 10min mark, which would have got me in the top 100. This experience will be invaluable for future races and I know what I need to work on to help get there. On the Sunday we spent time supporting the guys we met doing the standard distance Duathlon then got into Venice on the Monday before flying home.
It’s been an amazing 4 days packed full of great fun, hard racing, lots of laughs, great experiences & new friends as well. What else could you ask for?
There’s a few people that I couldn’t have done this without. A massive thankyou goes to DWS for sponsoring me, without their help I wouldn’t have the foundations for this season ahead. Sophie from SW Sports Performance, I may not always enjoy the sessions but when you train hard, racing is the easy part. My family (Mum, Isaac, Fi, Flo & Ralph) who shared looking after Vixie the dog whilst we’ve been away & kept her training up ready for racing on Saturday. Most importantly, Sammy, my wife, who puts up with the training & lugging the kit round at races. Hopefully a long weekend in Italy is worth it.
Next is a Canicross 5k run with Vixie, this will involve chasing round after my brother (Isaac) and his dog, then the World qualifiers for 2024 in 4 weeks’ time: that will be held in Townsville in Australia next year.
Newport & District Running Club 