The Perch 6.25 mile multi-terrain race

Ahhhh.....there is nothing quite like the warm glow of the podium, the handshake with the race organiser and a nice crisp voucher and a tasteful bit of granite to stick on the fireplace! After finishing 5th the week before it was good to come back into form in this testing multi-terrain course that started and finished at Epsom Downs race course and get 2nd.

A terrifically hilly start saw the field almost climb onto the race course. After such a start I was surprised to see the fairly tasty first mile go past in 5.14. Even at this stage though it was clear that the race was just a two horse race, (oh dear!) with me and Eddie O'Gorman already with a huge lead over the other 600 competitors. Eddie managed to build up a steady lead all the way up until about 4 miles where a sustained attack on a long descent brought me back up to him and I briefly took the lead.

Unfortunately, there then followed a horse trail and Eddie's superior traction, (or my feeble cross-country skills!) came to show and he re-built his previous lead. Never mind, 2nd place isn't so bad for a townie with an allergy to mud!

http://www.epsomoddballs.org/perch.php

1,000 yard stare, sugarcubes at the ready



















Almost finished, super course.....despite the mud



















Always a good feeling, nice bit of marble and a voucher

F3 Events Duathlon (Dorney Lake)

My first duathlon of the season and a bit of a tester for me really. The now familiar course at Dorney Lake was the setting for what was an exceptionally cold start. The format was the standard 5k/20k/5k distance but with a completely new bike and run course.

I can't say I'm happy with coming 5th but after almost 70 minutes I was only 20 seconds off 2nd place. Funny how these things don't really count though!

The first run was really brisk and it took me until about 2.5k in to assert myself into 2nd place behind a super fast pace set by Hugh Mackenzie. Into T1 and a super transition by me, (18 seconds) destroyed Hugh's lead so we started the bike neck and neck. Unfortunately my bike, although reasonable, was someway shy of the best on the day (7th quickest overall). Another super quick T2, (17 seconds!) recovered some of the damage but even the quickest 2nd run of the day wasn't enough to quite make the podium......sniff

http://www.tri247.com/results_7747.html

It was freezing!

Closely chased by Scott Cousins

Coming into T2