Jeremy Holmes – Krank Dirtwear Duathlon report

I have been preparing for the upcoming road race season, and as part of that I always focus a lot of my attention on my general fitness. This usually means km upon km of running and cycling after work and in the weekends. I like to think that if I am fitter than the other guys than maybe I will have a slight advantage come the last lap of a close race. Also, I have found that being fit helps prevent you from injury or at least to bounce back from one quicker if you are unfortunate enough to come a cropper on the track!

I see running and cycling by yourself is comparable to riding a motorbike by yourself, sure it’s great and fun (actually most people probably wouldn’t think that about exercise!), but there is nothing like the thrill of the race to help liven it up. So when Beans (aka Katrina, my wonderful wife) announced that she would like to do a duathlon I jumped at the chance to race. What is a duathlon I hear you ask? Well it is a run followed by a bike. In this case it was a 12km run followed by a 27km mountain bike in the hills around Hanmer Springs.

First race up was the ladies race where Beans was competing in the short course. I may have forgotten to mention that she is 5 1/2 months pregnant with our first baby, so this was no easy feat for her and she must have been incredibly uncomfortable! Her goal was to not come last, and she more than did that she finished mid field which was a huge achievement and I am very proud of her for even competing!

My race was in the afternoon. Funny, whether it is motorcycle racing or a running race I always get a really queasy stomach prior to the start. The race begins and I get swallowed up in the pack, I think to myself we have a long day ahead if I go out hard so I back off and let the leaders do the work. About 2km in everyone has settled into their pace and their first wind has blown out and the reality that they went out to hard kicks in. I start working my way up the field. I make my way round the course and find myself in 4^th overall at the transition from the run to the bike.

Now this is where it gets interesting, you stop running and jump on a bike and your legs think they are still running and start doing all sorts of crazy things. Whoever plotted the cycling course has a funny sense of humour as pretty much straight away we are faced with a small mountain looming in front of us. I drop it down to my granny gear and get to work. During the climb I got passed my one person who looked like a seasoned pro so I wasn’t too concerned. After some time I get to the top and find the joy that what goes up must come down. The rest of the ride was navigating the grassy, slippery wet down hill till the finish line. I crossed over in 1 hour 56 minutes. Turns out the guys in front of me were in other classes and teams, so I ended up in 2^nd over all for the open men’s race which I was very happy with.

Next event for me is the 4^th round of the Southland Motorcycle club’s winter series on the 6^th November, then the Burt Munro Challenge later that month which I am really looking forward to.

If you are in the South for this event, be sure to get to our Southland Honda Track Day on the 19^th at Teretonga featuring Aaron Slight.

For more details on this email sales@southlandhonda.co.nz