This year’s Jekyll & Hyde Park Hallowe’en Duathlon had the highest ever number of finishers in the event’s nine-year history – 178 in total.

Even before the race started, it was clear that the prize for best fancy dress was going to be hotly contested, as witches, skeletons and ghouls of all sorts arrived at transition to rack their bikes/broomsticks. The large crew of helpers managed to keep up the cheery Serpie spirit, despite arriving in Hyde Park incredibly early on a freezing cold Sunday morning. Remarkable stoicism was shown when the more varied tasks being asked of them included cycling round the park in the dark trying to find a truck full of barriers that had got very lost; and sweeping up the gift deposited by a passing horse right where the duathletes would be dismounting from their bikes.

The men’s race was won by Danny Russell of Tri London in 1:08:41. Our own Andy Greenleaf and Richard Phillips finished in 2nd and 3rd respectively, Andy in 1:09:48 and Richard in 1:10:06. It was a Serpie 1 and 3 for the women, as Becky Glover made it two wins in a row, finishing this year’s event in 1:17:56. Lucie Custance of Clapham Chasers was 2nd (1:21:35) and Sarah Pemberton’s 3rd place time was 1:22:15. The Serpentine men and women also won the team prizes.
Full results are here. Many thanks to DB Max for the excellent chip timing which helped the J&H results be the first received by Tri247 from the weekend’s events. You can find extra details like bike laps on the DB Max website
The great photos that accompany this story were taken by TNT Sports Agency and there are lots more from the event on the TNT Sports Agency website where copies are available for purchase.

The Jekyll and Hyde event was the last one in the 2012 London Triathlon League. Optima Racing have already won the league, but we await the details of Serpentine’s final place with great anticipation.