Well the last race of the club calendar finished on a high note. If you have a look at the results from the Jekyll & Hyde Duathlon it will appear that both Sarah Allen and Hannah Troop chicked me and I guess officially they did. Read the fine print beside my name and you will see the ability to count from one to eight this morning eluded me and I completed an extra lap on the bike. So unofficially, if you removed four minutes for my extra lap, I would have beaten them both…but not by much!
Sarah entered T1 just five seconds ahead of Hannah. They posted the second and third fastest splits for the first run. They were closely matched on the bike with Hannah posting the fastest bike split in the women’s field just four seconds ahead of Sarah who had the second fastest bike split. Hannah has her transitions down to a fine art, she tore out of T2 in thirty-two seconds gaining fifteen seconds on Sarah as they headed out onto the final run. While Sarah may be all smiles when you see her racing, she is tactically very astute and secretly very competitive. She worked her way slowly up towards Hannah, managing to catch her on the second lap of two just before a small climb and then put the hammer down on the climb. It’s a tough option but the most difficult part of the course is a great place to make your move. Sarah posted the fastest split in the women’s field for the second run, Hannah the fourth, to take the win from Hannah by just thirty seconds.
Congratulations Sarah for taking first place overall and Hannah for taking second place overall. Congratulations to Kath Brazier for taking third in her age group and being part of LFTC’s women’s team who took first place in the team event. Congratulations also to Judith Crichton who took second in her age group and Beccie Goldie who took sixth in her age group. Unfortunately Dave Slovak had a shoe malfunction which meant he had to pull out on the second run and with my extra lap on the bike things were not looking good for the boys. Thankfully Sam Walsh saved the day with third place in his age group. Thank you John Kennedy for coming down and supporting the LFTC team.
I can’t say that I am not disappointed with my inability to count eight laps on the bike. I was having what felt like one of my best races of the season but in the end I still did OK and worse things can happen when you are racing. I can see the funny side now. The look on Sarah’s face and Hannah’s face when they thought they had actually covered the same distance as me in a faster time was priceless. That alone will motivate me to make sure it never actually happens for the rest of my competitive life! Thank you all for a great season. See ya, Tim (LFTC Coach).