ITU World Duathlon Age-Group Championships – Pontevedra, Spain

By Dom Sharkey

27th April 2019

About 13 months ago, I qualified to represent Team GB at event by winning my age group at the Scottish Standard distance Duathlon Champs in Stirling, so this race was preceded by a prolonged build-up of stressing over things like flights, bike transport, hotels, insurance, kit, a change of race date thanks to the ongoing political disasters across Europe… plus a little bit of training too.

After an eventful few days getting to Spain ahead of the race, registering and bike racking – which I could write a whole story on in itself if I ever get the time – I was eventually standing on the start-line of the Age-Group World Standard distance Duathlon Championships, surrounded by Spanish, Italians, Kenyans, Canadians, Americans, Colombians etc etc, along with a few other British guys. Having spoken to a few guys beforehand who said things like – ‘this was their 7th International Championships’, ‘they were on the podium in such-and-such a year’ - I felt like the only one who was a total noob at this.

Gun went and things started fast!!! We ran round half the athletics stadium, then out onto the road to a 2.5km loop round the town centre of Pontevedra for 4 laps. Things were really tight and twisty going through the narrow streets, so I made an effort to try to stay ahead of all the bottle-necking, but after 2km I looked at the watch and realised I was running significantly faster than my straight 10k PB pace, and was already behind what felt like about 30 other guys. So I really had to rein things in to not absolutely blow up – wise decision, but maybe the damage was already done... It appeared that lots of other guys seemed to have let the occasion do the same thing to them, as soon enough, through the 2nd and 3rd laps I seemed to be passing a good number of them who were obviously slowing down. Running through the town on each lap there was a narrow climb through a few tiny wee streets in the Old Town – which today were packed end to end with supporters lining the course. This one particular section was filled with other GB athletes who had competed in the sprint distance Duathlon earlier in the morning, and so were out celebrating and supporting us doing the longer distance. Running through this section, having the crowds parting in front of you to make space, all of them absolutely screaming my name was unreal, and for a few seconds I could almost pretend I was a proper athlete.

The final lap of the 10km run passed, and soon it was time to get back into the stadium to get on the bike for the hilly 36km course. This started with an almost constant 10km of climbing out of the town to the surrounding hills, and it was around 3/4s of the way up this I started feeling the dreaded cramp in my calves, and realised that maybe I had been a bit too keen on the 1st run. This caused me to have to ease off on the power slightly at times, but luckily I was nearing the top of the first climb and so was able to use some of the descending to spin the legs out a little to shift the cramps. I didn’t seem to have anyone in sight for almost the first half of the bike ride, which was a little disappointing as I’m usually used to catching loads of people on the bike in races – but this was playing with the big boys now, so unsurprisingly I wasn’t making up any ground on a lot of them. Once I seemed to have got back control of my calves I was able to push a little more on the return to town, much of which was back down the long climb we had just climbed up. I think I clocked a max of 72km/h, and had a few hairy moments drifting across the road hoping the corner wouldn’t run

out of tarmac on me, but thankfully I kept it upright and actually caught another 4 or 5 guys on the long descent back to transition, the last of which was Kenyan boy who had run something ridiculously close to 30mins for his 10km, but was obviously lacking in bike experience.

Surprisingly there were only a handful of bikes in transition when I arrived, so at this point I realised I was actually not too far down the field at all, and was even dreaming of the slight glimmer of hope of a podium finish…

Myself, the Kenyan, and a Spaniard came into, and out of, T2 all pretty much together, so I knew these would be the guys I was racing for positions now. It soon became clear – if it wasn’t already! – who the better runner of the three was, as the Kenyan swiftly disappeared around the twisting bends ahead, as we returned to the 2.5km loop of the town for another 2 laps. My calves which had been quiet for the last 20 minutes of the bike decided to remind me they were still on the limit, then I started getting a bad pain in my left foot, then my left hamstring just seized up with a stab like I had been shot in the back of the leg, and for a few moments I was really worried this was going to be an utter walk-of-shame job. Remarkably however, after hobbling for a few steps the legs decided it was going to be our day after all, and having lost about 10 or 20m to the Spaniard by this point, I slowly managed to claw him back. Then we hit the street lined with the GB fans - which seemed to get dubbed ‘GB Corner’ after the race – and via their cheers I found it in me to push on ahead of the Spanish guy on the climb and shake him off on the downhill. 1 lap to go.

In my memory now the final lap seems less eventful than the 5 which had gone before. I was running alone now, no adversaries other than my own thoughts and pain. I remember high 5-ing a few of the supporters at GB corner who were chanting “Sharkey, Sharkey” as I went up the hill for the last time – a memory that I’m sure I’ll not ever forget. Somehow I maintained the pace until the end, when I turned into the stadium and took the left turn this time onto the blue carpet and down the finishing chute. I tried to savour this a little bit, but I was also so desperate for the glorious feeling of elated relief when I crossed the finish line, which was the greatest I’ve had at any race finish. Definitely the happiest I’ve ever been in my life for a race to be finished - which seems strange now, as one week on, I would do almost anything to go back to that start-line and do it all over again.

Male 25-29 AG – 5th Place

Overall 47th Place

Run 1 – 36:44 Bike – 1:05:48 Run 2 – 21:05

Overall time 2:06:16