Carsington Short Course Duathlon

5th October 2003

The 2nd staging of the Carsington Short Course Duathlon took place on a glorious autumn morning, although the relatively early start of 8.30 was extremely cold at the race HQ of Carsington Water. The event, promoted by Punishing Events, is based from the same venue and uses a very similar course to that of the Powerman UK event that took place earlier in the year so athletes were ready for some tough racing ahead.

With 178 starters the event was split into 2 waves with all men under 40 going off at 8.30 and all male vets and females starting 10 minutes later.

The event started with an out and back 5K run within the grounds of Carsington on the bridle path that could be described as rolling... Mike Jubb (Tri Force) fresh from his age-group silver medal at the recent World Duathlon Champs set a blistering pace that could only be matched by that of virtually unknown Mark Mckay who matched Jubb's pace stride for stride. Mckay recently beat Jubb at the Milton Keynes GP Duathlon and was only beaten by National Champion Martin Yelling. The two runners hit T1 in 15:37 with a cushion of 38 seconds from John Pike (Wene Valley Harriers) and Paul Rogers (Black Country Tri) a further 5 seconds adrift.

Meanwhile in the women's race Christine Howard (Derbyshire Police) showed her strength returning to racing just 10 weeks after giving birth to her 2nd child, by taking a demanding lead from Sandy Meiser-Meredith and Julie Moore (Black Country Tri) by hitting T1 in 18:19.

The bike consisted of a lap 30k course, which provided the athletes with an occasionally technical yet challenging bike course, which went through the villages of Hulland and Igridgehay before going through Wirksworth Market place and turning up the now famous Middleton Top climb. This would give the stronger riders the opportunity to break away.

At the front end of the racing Jubb was the slickest through transition and set about putting time into Mckay. However, Mckay kept him in sight and then took the lead at the 10k point. Meanwhile, last year's winner Ashley Long (Coalville Wheelers) was a man on a mission when he hit T1 in 14th place some 90 secs down on the race leaders. By the time they hit the half way point Long had already overhauled Jubb and set his sights on McKay on the climb towards Middleton Top. He eventually took the lead about half way up but McKay managed to keep him in sight without putting too much time into him. Long stretched his lead on the long drag back to the Reservoir and hit T2 with a 35 second advantage knowing full well he would need a strong lead to hold off the fast running duo behind. Long recorded the fastest bike leg of 44:52, nearly 2 minutes faster than any other athlete.

In the women's race Christine Howard had an uneventful bike to extend her lead on Meister-Meredith, Moore however pulled back valuable time to record the fastest split of the day to hit T2 neck and neck with Meister-Meredith. Long set about the final 5k run, but visibly appeared tired following his efforts on his strongest discipline and was clearly a man running scared. McKay in contrast was running smoothly and managed to take the lead after the first mile. Meanwhile Jubb too was quickly making inroads into Long's lead. By the finish McKay was a comfortable winner in 1:19:20 with Jubb managing to overtake Long towards the end to claim second and Long having to settle for third. The fastest run split went to McKay who just edged out Jubb.

In the ladies race Howard extended her lead and was a clear winner in 1:31:23 some 4 minutes clear from Meister-Meredith who managed to beat Moore into 3rd.

The winning team prize went to Derbyshire Police (Tony Caulton, Karl Webster and Del Pitcher) who just edged out last year's winners Derby Tri Club.

Full results can be found at www.punishingevents.com

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