If time trialing up the Nandi climb is not enough to fry your legs, how about running up Nandi after cycling up the climb in time trial mode? The team at Bangalore Amateur Racing had dreamed up just the right event to fry your legs in a killer duathlon at Nandi.

The Killer Combo Offer: 

The solo participants had to ride one loop around Nandi, which was around 16km, before climbing the hill ( gaining ~410m in elevation in around 7.34km) on cycle. They have to then descend the hill, change into their running grab at the base and run up Nandi. The relay team cyclist had to do a couple of laps around Nandi before cycling up the hill while his/her running partner runs up Nandi. 

The descent both while cycling and running were declared neutral sections for safety reasons. 

Brave Warriors:

20 brave souls lined up at the base of Nandi to test the limits of their pain. There were 10 solo participants and 5 relay teams of one cyclist and one runner each. The individual participants were kicked off at 7:40 instead of the planned 7:30 am followed by the relay team runners and cyclists.

The loop around Nandi has a couple of small climbs out of which one is a particularly nasty steep climb. The route goes through Nandi village and skirts the Nandeeswara temple walls. The roads are descent with a few rough patches in the first couple of kilometers. But the riders had to watchful because of the narrow nature of the route and not be lost in their suffering in their race against the clock and the gradient.

The duathlon format can be tricky at times in terms of pacing. If you give your all in the cycling leg and don’t leave anything in the tank for the running part, all your effort might be a waste. If you play it too conservatively, you might not be able to make it up during running. So, it is a delicate balancing act.

Solo Dance:

The best of the athletes managed that balancing act of pacing themselves quite well and finished fast both in cycling and running. Kiran Kumar Raju was the solo participant in elite category and was the fastest on the day both in cycling(54:44 with 24:31 climb time) and running(39:52). 

Rajanikanth Puttabuddi was the fastest overall in the men’s open category. He blazed the track with a overall cycling time of 57:34(26:29 climb time) and running time of 40:33. Opendro finished second with a cycling time of 59:42 (28:34 climb time) and running time of 43:13. He was followed by Vigneswaran who had a cycling time of 1:06:22 (30:52 climb time) and running time of 41:37. Andrew Jerald who had the fastest cycling time in men’s open category with 55:30(26:45 climb time) clearly over cooked it during cycling and suffered big time during the run with a run time of 53:02. He missed the third spot by a mere 33 seconds to Vigneswaran.

The only female participant, Sapna Agarwal, showed tremendous spirit in her first ever race and finished the event in 3 hrs.

In the relay team category, the A2 combination of Arvind Bhateja(Cycling, 1:35:47 and 30:22 climb time) and Aditya(Run, 40:55) came up triumphant with a overall time of 2:16:42. They finished ahead of the super siblings Ankush Sharma(Cycling, 1:30:31 and climb time of 28:42) and Tim Tim Sharma(Run, 49:30) who finished with a overall time of 2:20:01. They were followed by the handsome pair of Aditya Kaul(Cycling, 1:47:26 and climb time of 35:29) and Geeta Bisht(Run, 58:37) who finished with a overall time of 2:46:04. 

Perhaps it wasn’t fair to put the mixed relay teams with the men’s relay teams but there weren’t too many teams to do separate teams. May be next time!

 

What went right:
– Timing and announcing results quickly. Great job by Suma Rao and the one and only DaLam.
– Volunteers: Superb set of folks who helped with transition area, registrations, timing and especially those manning the turns(not a single person lost the way).
– No DNF. This is amazing considering there were so many participants who were cycling/running up Nandi for the first time.

What could have been better:
– We started 10 minutes late / 7.40 AM instead of 7.30 AM, though we made it up and ensured every participant was out by 8 AM
– May be an earlier start time of say, 7 AM, would have ensured some benefit for the individual participants who had to run in the hot sun – but with the venue being so far and no chance of being moved closer to town, it is a bit difficult. 

– We could consider cut-off times because we did exceed the 11am cut-off time for the event completion as the last of the solo participants were finishing.

Check out some more photos on the BAR Page and from my cell.

A total of 8 events, in 4 months
4 Individual Time Trials
1 Climbing Time Trial
1 Team Time Trial
1 Flat course Duathlon
1 Killer Duathlon (Nandi)

It had been a great first season. Thanks to all the participants who enthusiastically came out and participated. Hope to do more next season! 

Watch the BAR FB page for updates on the next season.