This weekend James and I took part in our third Dirt Duathlon in the dark. It started at 7pm and we kept going until about 11:30pm.
Having done a few of these already we were much better organised, but as we’d only done them during the day so far there was another element that we couldn’t have readied ourselves for…although actually the darkness wasn’t an issue because we bought some new head torches and bike lights.
What is a Dirt Duathlon?!
With the Dirt Duathlon series you have teams of 2, 3 or 4 people and you navigate to markers over three legs: navigation on foot, on mountain bike, and then on foot again.
It’s set in a clover leaf style, so each leg has you locating markers that you check into. After each leg of the race you come back to a Hub where you check in and set off for the next leg.
This time we ventured to Queen Elizabeth Park. It’s a huge park that sits along the sand dunes and coast between Raumati South and Paekakariki. The terrain was mostly grassy, muddy and wet, with some areas that were fully paved (I think these are the cycle trails around the park).
The race itself was relatively easy. Being in the pitch black, I would assume that they need to make the night races slightly easier than the other two races! I can’t imagine navigating the rolling hills of the previous races in the dark…
Anyway, the race itself was incredible, despite being pitch black and cold, I had a great time! This time around the cycling was really fun. It was the muddy farmland that got me! I can’t remember how many times I slid about on the tracks, or put my foot into a puddle deeper than anticipated.
Overall we didn’t do too badly…however we were still one of the last teams back!
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