It’s that time of the year again and as how most my years start, I’m at the DB Max Chilly Duathlon. The race at Castle Combe race track consists of a 2 Mile run, 10 mile bike and a 2 mile run.
Normally, the duathlon is in February, but due to Storm Dennis it was postponed and moved to Sunday 1st March 2020. This worked well for me as during February, unfortunately I picked up a small injury to my sartorius muscle. This stopped me running for a couple of weeks. However after a series of appointments with Chloe Witts, my sports therapist and Anna Hawrot, my chiropractor, I got back to run training at the start of the week with my race on the Sunday. A huge thank you to both of them for their support and treatments and for getting me to the start line fit and feeling strong.
On the drive to the race the weather just could not make its mind up raining, sunny then really windy. So we all just knew that it was going to be a exciting race. Fortunately, the rain stopped when I arrived and I went straight to put my bike into transition, so I could get a good warm up done. After the warm up was complete, I got into my race kit and went straight to the race start. I lined up near the front and I could see there were a number of people that I recognise on social media and knew they were very good racers.
The gun went off and everyone flew off at a quick pace. I found a gap and tucked in behind a couple of runners who pushed their way through to join up with the front group. About 200m into the race the front two already had a clear gap and I knew not to go with them as they were just far too quick and I knew I just had to run my own race. I ran as hard as I planned for the first two mile run and came into transition in 5th place. This was a bit of a shock as I wasn’t used to being in a position this high up the field.
I got straight onto the bike and settled in at my ideal race power within the first couple of minutes. I was passed by two very strong cyclists on the first lap and then after that no one passed me and fortunately I overtook two people in front of me which put me back into 5th position coming in off the bike.
I was still not used to being this high up in the field. But I knew I just needed to push on through and not lose any more places. I got straight onto the run and pushed hard the whole way, managing to hold onto my position.
I crossed the line in 5th position and with a time of 46 minutes and 43 seconds.
The 4 people that beat me are amazing athletes. The top three; Sam Wade, who won the race, was thought to have broken the course record and is part of the National Triathlon Performance Centre in Wales, 2nd place was Ben Price, an elite duathlete and the English National Champion 2019 and in 3rd was Alex Doherty an European Duathlon AG Champion 2019. They are all incredible athletes and true inspirations in the sport.
I would like to thank my sponsor Glen from Infrastar for the new kit that I am wearing this season. It was very comfy which allowed me to race fast, Smith Heath Accountants for their continued support as always, Greeper Laces for allowing me to have fast transitions and some very fast run splits for me, and finally my coach from T3, Mark Threlfall for all the coaching and support! I have seen some huge improvements since starting with him four months ago.
Please don’t hesitate to email me any questions or advice that you have for me, and follow me on Instagram and my facebook page (see link at the bottom of my page) so we can go through our triathlon journeys together.
Ryan Coombs Triathlon 