After a year away, I returned to Llandegla a couple of weeks ago for the 2011 Fearless off-road duathlon. Last year's event was my first race, and I returned this year as a seasoned competitor. Sort of.
Being familiar with the chaos of transition and the general procedure of turn up early / mooch around / register / check out start-transition-finish area / mooch around / get changed / mooch around / panic / mooch around at start line, I wasn't too stressed when the starting pistol went and the first run (6km) began. The initial 2.5km climb up fire road wasn't particularly interesting, and the off-road bits through the forest after that were so full of fallen trees and other obstacles that passing people was impossible. I finished in reasonable time and had a smooth transition onto the bike for the 18km red loop lap. Feeling the effects of taking on Fearless after a rather active week in the Lake District, I was slow up the long climb where last year I made up lots of places. Reaching the top of the hill, I got stuck behind several slow people on the singletrack, again frustrating my attempts at progressing through the field.
Applying the power at a point representing almost exactly halfway around the loop and the furthest point from the start / finish line, my chain snapped. To be honest, I was grateful of the rest as I broke out the chain tool and set about fixing it. It was really nice to be asked almost constantly during this operation whether I needed any help; the number of people obviously willing to add to their own time to give me a hand was very suprising. I sorted the chain without any issues though, and continued on my way back. The pace relaxed a little now, as I was confident that last year's time couldn't be beaten after my enforced stop. Enjoying the riding, I was somewhat alarmed when I lost all front braking on one of the downhill sections. Whilst this would normally result in a full-scale panic about the insides of my bike being damaged, in race mode I just carried out, to hell with the consequences! A post-race inspection has shown that this may not have been the best plan, as the lack of braking was caused by one brake pad being completely shed from it's backing, meaning I actually spent the rest of the race braking via metal-on-metal contact. Nice.
When disc brakes go wrong. Left - new pad. Middle - worn pad. Right - my pad.
Coming back to transition, I rounded a corner about 300 yards from the dismount line and the chain snapped again. Abandoning all thoughts of fixing it, I slung it over my handlebars and ran with the bike across the line. Ditching the bike gear, I started the second run. Last year's Run 2 was brutal, involving an ascent of a hill so steep you could barely walk up it. After a round of the reservoir, I was pleased to see that this year's run (4km) went down the steep bit. I was less pleased when I realised that it then returned up an even steeper section. People who had elected to run in road shoes were really suffering here, as the only way to make upwards progress was through slithering up a slippery layer of wed mud topped with a couple of inches of pine needles. My Inov8s made short work of it though, and judicious use of tree trunks for pulling on meant that I made up quite a few places over a very short distance. Then it was just along the reservoir dam and back towards the finish, or so I thought. At the end of the wall, though, we were directed to do another lap! A similar performance on the hill-climb saw me make up some more positions (although one of the trees I pulled on did become entirely uprooted and fall across the course, barring the way for subsequent competitors. It wasn't deliberate, so that's not cheating, right?).
Finally a short slog through the forest saw me crossing the finish line. I wasn't too knackered, and there were no stops to walk sections, unlike last year. My official time was 1:58:39, placing me 82nd out of 201 competitors. Last year my race number was 53 and I came 52nd; this year I was number 82 and I came 82nd. My plan for next year is to enter as soon as possible, in the hope that the pattern will continue and a low race number will magically drag me up the placings. I used my own stopwatch to work out the time I would have achieved without the pitstop to fix my chain, and that came out to 1h 50m, which would have put me somewhere in the top 25%, which I was pretty pleased about. A shiny new chain arrived in the post yesterday; I wonder if it'll be getting old and worn out by next year's Fearless?
Footnote: Sorry for the lamest photographic content in a blog post ever, but despite there being over 500 official photos of the event, it seems there's not a single one of me anywhere, despite me being shot at least at the start, on Run 1 and on the bike. Lame.
