After a nice bit of 'TV time' following his win at the Hever Castle Gauntlet Triathlon, Karl Alexander was out racing again. This time it was The Devil's Duathlon, on the same course where he raced and won earlier in the season.

No win this time around, but Karl was "more than happy with the result".

Earlier this year I raced and won the Butlers Bonk Duathlon, and on a cold and wet Sunday morning 80 athletes took the start line of the same course for The Devil's Duathlon.

Comprising Sprint (5km/20km/5km) and Standard (10km/40km/5km) options the field was evenly split for the 10am start. The first few hundred meters was the usual fast paced start, before settling down to something more sustainable. At least that was the plan, obviously Alan Murchison, the 2013 European and World Age Group Sprint Duathlon Champion never got the memo and he moved clear of the field. The two loop 5km course comprises road and cross country sections and it was on the uphill XC section that I was relegated to third place as I was passed by Harry Gee.

Harry was running well and I upped my tempo to pace off of him and for the second 5km loop we ran line astern in pursuit of Murchison and as I entered T1 after 35:19, I was just shy of two minutes down, and after a quick transition I was out on to the bike.

After less than a mile I had passed Harry and was hunting down Alan on the four lap, 10km bike course (http://www.strava.com/activities/88782551). On the first lap I recognised one of the marshals as Callum Hughes and shouted to get a time gap, and was told about two minutes.

With the driving wind and rain the course was tough going but I kept to my strategy… ride hard. On the second lap Callum had his stop watch ready and the gap was 1:30. I was riding well and was gaining at about 30 seconds a lap, I pushed on racing past the rear markers on their first lap and got the third time check down to one minute. On the fourth lap it was down to 30 seconds but I was running out of road; I entered T2 just over 20 seconds down with the fastest bike split of the day and racked my bike. With cold and numb hands I tried to put my trainers on, but I could barely feel my fingers, and for what seemed like an eternity I struggled before finally heading out for the final 5km run.

The 5km run was a single loop of the 10km course and I could see Alan up the road. My feet were freezing and I felt like I was running on blocks of wood, I pushed as hard as I could and crossed the line 1:49 after Alan into second place with Lenny Brown taking the final step of the podium. The women's race was won by Julia McHale with Leonie Watson in second.

As my last race of the season I was more than happy with the result and am looking forward to a few weeks of downtime before I resume training for next year and plan how I will top this season. With successes over all distances and disciplines this year I'm going into 2014 with a lot of motivation and confidence and am keen to talk to any organisations or individuals that would be willing to help support me.