Duathlon Number 2!

Well up until last year I had never taken part in a Duathlon and to be fair even last year I only did the bike leg as a member of a team, @dashing_divasuk had entered one but then put out a twitter plea for a cyclist to ride the bike section for her.

This year I thought it would be a good idea to take part in f3events duathlons and as I am preparing for ironmanUK in July the Olympic distance didn't look too long. My thoughts betray my lack of Duathlon experience!

So race 1 for me was the 2nd in the Winter Duathlon Series and I managed to get round in a time of 2:41:31 which was better than I was expecting.

Then yesterday was my 2nd duathlon and the final one in the Winter Series, I was still wondering why I had opted for the Olympic distance but was determined to give it another go.  As in my first event Dame Kelly Holmes was taking part, not that I saw much of her in the race except for the cross overs on the run, oh and the fact that she had finished and was collecting her bike from transition as I came off my bike and on to my second run.

There was again a smattering of GBR vests on display, including 1 who was obviously doing the super sprint distance as he was starting his second run as I was finishing my first.

So after what felt like a reasonable first run of 5k I was out on my bike for the 40k ride which again seemed to go well I was catching a fair few people on the way round the 5k lap, having said that I was caught by a few as well.

On returning to transition and trying to ignore all the people that had already finished their events I started out on my 10k run, my legs just did not want to work and it was hard work on the 4 lap course especially when most of the people that I had caught on the bike came past me again.

Eventually I had started my last lap and felt the end was in sight, then coming towards me was @lazygirlrunning who was out supporting rather than competing, as she is my cousin I may even forgive her for taking a photo!

Anyway I managed to finish the event in 2:36:49 so about 5 mins quicker than my first outing, when I looked at the results online it said that I was the slowest over the last 10k run. These have since been added to and I am no longer listed as the slowest but not far off.

In fact looking at the splits my runs were almost identical across both events and all the time I improved was on the bike! Looks like my running needs most work prior to my trip to Bolton!

An extra feature of the online results was that I seemed to have become younger in the second event dropping down from the 45- 49 age group to the 40 - 44 age group, if I can keep up that ageing process I may well enter more duathlons!

Brighton Marathon

Today was my fifth running of the Brighton Marathon, it has only been run 5 times and I have run them all. I have also registered for next year for which I need to complete entry on Tuesday.

I decided that I would get the train to Preston Park from Burgess Hill, the train was packed and it seemed to take for ever to get off the platform at Preston Park but I was soon in the park, just in time to catch Dave and Jennie before they started the 10k.

Having had a quick chat they were on their way and I got changed and handed my bag over the the lorries to be transported to the finish.

The weather forecast was for rain most of the day but it was quite warm so I decided against the long sleeve top and went for just vests. A decision I was really pleased with later on due to the promised rain not arriving.

Having been for the obligatory couple of visits to the loo I lined up in the start coral, now when I first ran this event 5 years ago I was in the last coral but over the years have moved closer to the front. Now I am sure that I will not get into the front coral,unless I lie about my expected finish time.

The gun, or rather horn, went off precisely on time and we were on our way filing thorough the start past Paula Radcliffe who was the official starter. She must have had sore hands as was high fiving as many runners as possible.

The first part of the run goes around the park and up the hill were loads of cars and a skip on the side of the road which made for a rather narrow gap forcing us to stop running and walk for a while.

Once past this section the rest of the course was wide enough to allow for running all the way, well when the legs allowed!

I seemed to be going well and was quite regular on 9 minute miles by my watch, that was until I reached mile 16 when things started to go astray and my legs decided that it was a bad idea to be running!!

I managed to push on and run / walk for the last 10 miles, it was nice to get a cheer from Zoe Ball sat on a wall about mile 23, lots of people all round the course cheering me on, a definite benefit of having my name on my vest!

The last 3 miles as usual were hard, so much so that as soon as I crossed the line I sank to the floor and attracted the attentions of the marshalls to check I was OK. After a few minutes rest I did manage to get back to my feet and wish Jenni Falcolner good luck for London next week, she was at the finish working for TV but had time to ask me how I had got on in the race.

Then on through the finish area to collect my bag and out through the village to get back to the station. On the way out I bumped into Andy Rossiter, an old colleague from my BBHLC days, I probably haven't seen him for over 15 years so was good to catch up.

Once again the event was great and Brighton certainly didn't disappoint on setting or organisation. If there was one slight gripe it was the amount of time it took to get out of the finish area and across the course, whose bright idea was it to have a bridge with steps this year?? ;-)

Well in the end I set another PB at Brighton and enjoyed most of the run!

Thanks must go to all the organisers and volunteers that make the event possible.

Thanks also to all of the people who lined the streets to cheer on complete strangers who are mad enough to run 26.2 miles around the city!

Thanks to all the people who sent messages of good luck before and during the event and congratulations after.

Thanks also to Jenni Falcolner for taking time to chat after the race and also for not saying anything when I sank to the floor which happened just in front of her!