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Winter Duathlon Series 2 - What a result!

The second Duathlon race of the Alive Outside Winter Series was another success. Yet again 263 or 2/3 of entrants comprised Newbie participants, signing up to try their hand at a new sport. Out of an overall entry list of 321, to have so many beginner’s entering is very encouraging for the sport!

The weather was a big plus for February with a crisp dry day and light winds. There was a great pre-race buzz around Registration and Transition with music in the background. The Alive Outside Marshals were busy checking bikes into Transition and helping beginners with their bike rack and general Q&A’s around the race.

Alive Outside has deliberately targeted the grass roots level of Multi Sport. In order to do this; separate transition zones,  separate newbie male/female race starts and specific Marshals to instruct ‘newbies’ have been facilitated throughout the Alive Outside Duathlon Race Series.

It was evident that all abilities were taking place with varying assortments of running gear and bikes with baskets and panniers. This is very encouraging for the future.

As if to highlight the lack of experience and newbie element participating on Sunday, despite the web info and pre race briefing. One newbie competitor in their maiden duathlon, got completely carried away after the run section and mounted their mountain bike inside Transition getting ready to proceed on the bike course. Thankfully the Alive Outside Transition Marshals were quick to spot this and the over eager duathlete dis-mounted with no harm done.  Instead of a 2 min time penalty, 2 penalty pts were added to that persons’ drivers licence. 

The Series 2 Duathlon Experienced Race was a considerably stronger field this time around. The women’s race was won by Bronagh Ni Bhriain (Wheelworx / Piranha) in a fantastic time of 43:51. Bronagh finished 14th overall in Race1, and lies in 4th place on the Alive Outside Leader board.

Second in Female Experienced race was Kitty Perle (3DTri) who won Series 1. Kitty had another great time of 47:02 (which was a 1 min 24 sec improvement on previous race time). Kitty has come 1st & 2nd in both races and currently tops the Women’s Leader board on 22 points. In 3rd place was Vanessa Fenton (3DTri) in a time of 48:41.  

The Men’s Exp race was a competitive one with only 11 secs separating 1st & 2nd place! Congratulations to Mark Doyle (Wheelworx) who won in a very good time of 36:40. Following hot on his heels was Bjorn Ludick (Wicklow) in 36:51.  In 3rd place was Niall Somers (Belpark) who finished in 39:11. Well done to Niall, who has a 1st & 3rd place in the Alive Outside Duathlon Series and currently leads the Men’s Leader board with 21 points.

The Newbie Male and Female races had large numbers taking part and there was plenty of testosterone around in that race with no quarter asked or given.

Congratulations to Suzanne Kenny who won the Newbie Female race in a time of 37:06. This was Suzanne’s second win in a row and now will move up into the premier league for future races. The Newbie Men’s race was won by Peter McEntee in a very fast time of 33:14, so well done Peter!

All competitors were met by friends and family across the Finish Line and received Alive Outside beany hats or water bottles with a VIT-HIT boost drink.

The 3rd and final race in Alive Outside Duathlon Series has been sold out! But hopefully participants will think about our upcoming events:

• Alive outside Aquathlon, Good Friday 2nd April, 4 – 7pm  in Shoreline Greystones Pool
• Alive Outside Sprint Triathlon @ Slane Castle, Meath.  Sat 29th May.

Well done again to everybody who participated and we look forward to seeing you again in future Alive Outside events.