African Duathlon Champs by Dylan Nortje

The day had finally come to compete in my second ever Duathlon. It was SA and African Duathlon Champs held at Baba's Lodge  just outside of Pretoria. Our race was scheduled to start after the long distance men had finished, but there was a delay giving us more time to get warmed up and in "the zone'. 

Eventually it was time to start, I got as far to the front of the line as what i could manage. Before I realised what was happening, the count down begun, the gun went off and the race began with a mad dash straight into a single track forest! The run popped out onto a gravel road where the leading group split away from the rest of us. After completing two laps of the semi flat sandy run course it was time to transition and head out for a 20 km time trial. The first 7 km was extremely fast until I was struck with a puncture in my front tyre. Fortunately enough I was given a front wheel and was back on track. I tried to hunt down the lead group who by then had pulled about a 5 minute gap on me. Coming into transition I racked by bike slipped on my shoes and sprinted out the transition area in what seemed to be the fastest 2,5 km run of my life. 

The gap the leaders had pulled was to large to close. Over all it was an awesome race and i am more than happy with my position. A huge thank you to all the support from family and friends back home.