Sherwood Pines (Duathlon, my first)

I entered my first Duathlon today it was called the 'Evil sheriff of Nottingham Duathlon' and was at Sherwood Pines Forest, it started near to the 'Go Ape' if you know where that is and was run by Pacesetter Events.



I entered at a cost of £25 as road running was getting a tad boring and I'd had me bike fixed of late.

I was up at the crack of dawn and off the Sherwood in the dark, we arrived in good time and registered, let it be done i had done no training for this event since my last poor marathon in Loch Ness less than two weeks previous....it could get messy er and it did.



It was a 6K run followed by triple the same distance (x3 laps of running route) on bike and then a short 4K run to finish, I was of the assumption that it would not be too hilly, and I was of the asumption that I was a good biker and would catch people on the biking sections.



The reality was that I pegged it at the start in the top 30 runners, but this soon faded as my lack of training kicked in, i really must stop trying to blag these events expecting a good time or position when I have not trained at all....I will learn.



The running section was longer than expected and alot hillier and this was to be ridden 3 times and that meant taking on 3 uphill sections which was so hard...



the transition was fun, you had to run the bike through and run the bike out, I undid my helmet strap and got warned to put it on, f**king H&S.... I could see from the Bikes left that I wasnt doing to well really but then what did expect, i hit the track and took about 6 people but then hit the hill, which in no uncerain terms killed me, i soon realised that any post Winterberg training was not going to save me as the run ahd nailed me, this was a slog and that was all I had to do, some of the biking was excellent through trees and crossing in between over a few jumps and had some fast downhills but also painfull up hills as well.



Stephanie was helping direct riders on the course and so saw me suffer 3 times...i must have looked a state ha ha.

The last part was a small run, but when you get off your bike, i found i could hardly run at all, and of course I was spent, i struggled but pulled away from my competitors near me on the hills.



I finished in 109 place (43rd of my age group 35-45)

To be honest its a bad result for me and its all due to being lazy and not geting the training in, but it was great fun and id definatly do another one....

I then went back to the car and in my tired state locked me keys in the boot...thats another story.

Cheers.