Sunday, 22 February 2009

SUUNTO Winter duathlon no1

VICTORY is sweet
I'm not exactly sure how it happened and given that we are only 2 weeks away from the national ranking series I was hoping to crack the top 5 on this one. But I figured I may as well take it out on the first run and I managed to pull away straight from the gun only to be pulled back almost immediately by a strong contender from Thames Turbo.

After the first 2.5k, I eased into a slight lead and took a 10-15 second lead into T1 over Thames Turbo and perhaps as much as a minute on the rest of the pack. Transition went smoothly and I was expecting the rest of the gang to come flying past with the chilling sound of a disc wheel the usual forewarning.

But guess what? It didn't happen. Well, not until about half way through the 3rd of 5 laps and then not again until almost the end of the 5 lap course. Coming out of T2, I think I had about a 45-50 second deficit on Scott Cousins and I could just about make him out in the distance and he seemed to be running very smoothly so I settled into a rhythm and was expecting 2nd overall, maybe being 15 seconds behind first by the time we finished but gradually my run rate picked up and I could tell it was going to be close half way through the run. With just under a kilometre to go I managed to go past Scott and then put the hammer down. Coming through the line was a strange mixture of emotions. This one was special!

Sometimes I run also..................












Dorney Lake, boating lake of Eton College, Slough I believe. Tiny really.












Nessy was there all along and I didn't even notice.........












The podium. Podium girls just out of shot........




Wednesday, 11 February 2009

TCR show 10K


Nobody really seemed sure if this one was going to go ahead or not but in the end it was an amended course. All tarmac and enough hills to please everyone. The race was seriously competitive compared to last year being won in 30.47 by former GB steeplechaser Adam Bowden and Team Saucony also turned up with 5 of their runners. For me, the race soon felt like it was a Torq vs. Gatorade show with me and Steve Worthington in our respective jerseys, Gatorade drink stations all over the course and having to run past the Torq RV (a huge uber-cool truck that the Torq crew tour round in) 3 times! In the end it was pretty damn close and I just managed to pinch 5th with about 300 metres to go.