While everyone else was thinking about what they were going to be drinking around the dinner table on Easter Monday, I was again getting up to line up alongside my team mates from Coalfields Race Team at the Morpeth Duathlon. This is a race I won last year and saw my first victory in multisport, so I was naturally feeling nervous as though the weight of the world was on my shoulders.
One great thing about this team, is that each and every member lives their sport and has pride and passion about wearing our extremely distinctive Orange and Blue Kit. We all bring our own individual motivation to the team and by doing so are making everyone look on and admire how we are uniting every member we have. It does not matter whether you are racing to win and qualify to wear the Blue GB kit or racing to beat you personal bests, what we all have in common is that we all want to get out their and race and represent the club that we love and all have a sense of belonging being attached to.
We are a new racing team that was established at the end of last season. And are already growing with fantastic members commited to travel all over the country to race.
One great thing about this team, is that each and every member lives their sport and has pride and passion about wearing our extremely distinctive Orange and Blue Kit. We all bring our own individual motivation to the team and by doing so are making everyone look on and admire how we are uniting every member we have. It does not matter whether you are racing to win and qualify to wear the Blue GB kit or racing to beat you personal bests, what we all have in common is that we all want to get out their and race and represent the club that we love and all have a sense of belonging being attached to.
We are a new racing team that was established at the end of last season. And are already growing with fantastic members commited to travel all over the country to race.
This time round, the race doubled up as a GB World Duathlon Champs qualifying event. I was targeting this event to perform as if I was aiming to qualify for the team, however on this occasion, I decided against registering my intent to race over in Ottowa, Canada, as I am already booked to race in Turkey in June at the European Triathlon Championships.
Racing was quick and I expected it to be tough. Dave Thomas, who pipped me at Stokesley last week was back up in the region from York to try his hand at qualification. Running strong, I had entered T1 back in 10th place from the 300 or so that were in the race. Shortly after I had found myself riding up into 3rd place on the road and by the half way turn Id secured a comfortable second place and continued to build on the gap but with 1st place nowhere to be seen. Leaving T2 I was informed the gap was around 40 seconds but it was just to much. I ran well, he ran better and finished convincingly over my overall 2nd place.
Racing was quick and I expected it to be tough. Dave Thomas, who pipped me at Stokesley last week was back up in the region from York to try his hand at qualification. Running strong, I had entered T1 back in 10th place from the 300 or so that were in the race. Shortly after I had found myself riding up into 3rd place on the road and by the half way turn Id secured a comfortable second place and continued to build on the gap but with 1st place nowhere to be seen. Leaving T2 I was informed the gap was around 40 seconds but it was just to much. I ran well, he ran better and finished convincingly over my overall 2nd place.
Morpeth was certainly an exciting place to be this Easter Monday with a
fantastic turnout for the Morpeth Duathlon, a great event hosted right in the
centre of this historic market town. The multi-lap run route takes in the
riverside and lovely town parks with a cheeky little climb around the mediaeval
Mound, and with the town centre roads closed, made this a varied and fantastic
experience for competitors and spectators alike. The feedback on the new format
has been brilliant on both run and bike courses.
A great start list of just under 300, some of whom had plans for representing
the GB Age Group team at Ottowa, starting outside the 13th Century Chantry at a
leisurely 10am. Early leaders were together for the first of 3 laps and only
spread to 30 seconds going into T1 for the top ten apart from leader Scott
Ellis, the only sub-20 minute split of 19:38 who led by 26 seconds. Run 1 often
leads competitors to over-reach themselves and it would be interesting to see
the fast run times impact the bike and second run legs. First female Alison
Dargie at 21:46 led Angela Campbell by 1:28 with Georgia Campbell a further 22
seconds behind going out onto the bike.
The strong cyclists started reeling in the leaders and Garry Walker, posting
the fastest bike split of 47:13, moved up from 10th to 2nd place, but still 65
seconds behind David Thomas who had now moved up from 4th out of T1 and now led
by a considerable margin going into the final run leg. The chasing pack of
Brown, Addyman, Elliot Gowland, Niven and Oguona had just a few Km to pull back
the gap, and judging by their expressions when finishing, none held back, giving
their all. But it was Thomas who ran out an easy winner in the end, with Garry
Walker keeping his 2nd place with Brown in 3rd who managed to ease away from
Oguona by 13 secs. The other chasers came home in close order; great racing.
The female race developed out on the bike course, and it was Jessica Bacon
who dominated the bike leg by almost 3 minutes over nearest rivals Kerry Gowland
and Georgia Campbell. All 3 paced run 1 well leaving plenty in their legs for a
strong bike and second run. It was Campbell who came in 2nd and Gowland 3rd.
Once again, great organisation and superb support from the amazing marshals,
making sure everyone finished with a big smile. Congratulations to everyone who
completed their first Duathlon, let’s hope you have the multi-sport bug!
Feedback from everyone has been brilliant, it appears the new format is going to
become a firm favourite in the race calendar. As ever, all feedback that helps
to improve the event are most welcome, please tell us what you think via our
facebook and twitter pages (links in the footer below).
Race photography will be available shortly courtesy of Rob at http://www.double-i-photography.co.uk.
- Getting off to a strong start
- I was like a caged animal driving out of T1 before my bike leg.
- Just wondering how far down I am leaving T2
What Is a Team - I Looked into a definition of team and this is what I found. "A group of people with a fullset of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project.
Team members
(1) operate with a high degree of interdependence,
(2) share authority and responsibility for self-management,
(3) are accountable for the collective performance, and
(4) work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s).
A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.
I Strongly believe we are achieving this with Coalfields Race Team. What follows is what I believe to be the ultimate team.
Team members
(1) operate with a high degree of interdependence,
(2) share authority and responsibility for self-management,
(3) are accountable for the collective performance, and
(4) work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s).
A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.
I Strongly believe we are achieving this with Coalfields Race Team. What follows is what I believe to be the ultimate team.