No longer a virgin. Marlow Duathlon Race Report

Today was my first ever duathlon so let me say this, the legs are aching a LOT right now. So how was it?

Generally it was enjoyable but a lot harder than it should have been. My fault completely obviously as I did the 'not training enough' part again. I've cycled and run over the last couple of weeks but I have never done them both. In fact, I was thinking earlier that I don't think I've ever done them in the same day!!! Not a great start and I was pretty nervous.

The Marlow Duathlon consists of a 7km run, a 25km cycle and a 7km run. So 39km in total. Or not... Eatingtrees garmin read nearly 40.5km at the end which I have to say, didn't surprise me a bit as on the first run, I was 30:08km through 6km (pretty much bang on my 5 min/km pace) and then the 7th km took nearly 8 minutes???? How's that possible??? I'd love to know the actual distance of the 1st run as 7km it was not. Is it actually possible to run an 8 minute km. Surely that's slower than walking pace?

Anyway, first run out of the way and into my very first ever 'transition'. That's where you dump a load of your stuff before you start and then come back later and try to remember where you've put it all. It went OK. On went the helmet, buff, gloves and rucksack with the drink in it and off I ran (with the bike) until they let you get on it. I was expecting the run to cycle transition to be easy as I do a reasonable amount of cycling but ouch! The first 2km is at an incline which means you have to stand up and push when riding a single speed and wow my legs felt weird. I hadn't expected that at all! In fact, I was absolutely dreading the rest of the ride as it was just so strange and not enough speed either. Eventually I passed the 5km marker and realised that I was actually quite enjoying it and it felt a lot better than it had. Numerous comments from people on 'proper' bikes gave me some encouragement which I appreciated although was also aware some people were thinking 'mad/idiot/stupid/glutton for punishment' at the same time.

The cycle went well and I think I did pretty well  and overtook as much as I was overtaken. Now came the bit I really feared. The final run. The only experience I had of this is eatingtrees telling me that the first couple of km are very strange which they are... and not very quick but after that, km 3 to 5 felt OK if not particularly quick and then came the final 2 km over a muddy, slidey and narrow path and my legs had absolutely nothing left. They felt so, so heavy and I followed the same guy for the whole of the final 2km and he was only a couple of metres in front but I could not give myself a push to get past at any point. On the final half km I had a really bad stitch but refused to walk knowing I wasn't far away. Finally, I was at the last corner and it was time for the sprint finish. That wasn't going to happen at all.....

I shuffled over the line in somewhere in the region of 2hr 20min (time TBC) which I was extremely chuffed with and would definitely do it again although maybe with some training next time. Time to put my feet up and open a beer.....  

Running with company

Well I'm at least a week late with this post but never mind. Last weekend (not yesterday) was great as we had visits from both sets of The Boy's grandparents in the space of 4 days so it meant that me and the lovely wife could get out for a run together. Twice! Granted my pace is quicker as I've been running so much longer but it was just lovely to run together. We did a 7.8km loop and knocked over 2 minutes off second time round! Result

That puts us squarely on plan for a sub hour 10k for the wife when we run together in the Old Deer Park 10k. This course currently has my PB but we'll be running together to aim for that sub hour for her! If she lets me anyway. She's come back from her last few runs saying she runs better without me. Where's the love??

Prior to that I have a Duathlon to do and in hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to sign up for it. I'm never at my greatest of motivation at this time of year but I've always wanted to try it. Based on the previous line, you can probably guess that my training is less than perfect. I.e. none. a couple of runs with the wife and a cycling commute. Never on the same day obviously, that would be sensible. It looks like I'm going to have to wing it. Why do I do it to myself? This year was always going to be a bit of a slow starter as I'm trying not to overdo it so I'm ready for the marathon training come May/June but we'll see. It should be fun. Ahhem.

A week or so ago, I was also sent some rather lovely JABRA sports bluetooth headphones to play with. Basically, these headphones make it possible to listen to any music player that has a bluetooth connection without the wires that can get tangled everywhere. Genius. I have to say, as I pulled them out of the box, my heart sank slightly as I realised they were not in ear ones that I prefer, but rather the ones that sit on the ear. Not ideal but I have to say they were really good. The extra bit of genius with these headphones is they work along side the Endomondo Sports Tracker app, a running application for Smartphones with features designed specifically for Jabra SPORT, including the ability to get quick and easy status updates on speed, distance and lap time simply by tapping the headset. How useful is that!! This does work extremely well if you have a half decent GPS signal on your phone. A great little gadget which will get plenty of use on the bike as I don't generally enjoy running with music much. If you're after a bluetooth headset to use while working out, I really can't recommend this one highly enough. Almost perfect! 

It's not Grim down South - Grim Night Terror Report

'This has to be the most stupid thing we've ever done.... and we've done a lot of stupid things'

This statement made by both me and eatingtrees pretty much simultaneously at 5pm on Saturday night summed it up I reckon. Here we were, sitting in a parked car, wrapped in a lot of layers with snow falling around us, just about to run around in pitch black with only a head-torch for company on a course that can make your balls shrink just thinking about the cold and in which eatingtrees has fallen over into a puddle within the first 100m once and gone over on his ankle on a different occasion. Oh yeah and we paid £25 for the 'privilege'.

CAN YOU GUESS WHO IT IS YET?

Once we couldn't put it off any longer, we headed to the start and jumped and jigged around a lot trying to keep some feeling in muscles that were getting colder by the second where it was announced to a series of jeers and boos that they'd had to divert the course a bit owing to the 4 inch solid ice covering the larger puddles that 'would cut us to ribbons'. At that point, I wasn't overly disappointed as I was still expecting some puddles, just not knee and waist deep ones.

WHAT ABOUT NOW?

The route was 2 laps around the forest, in the snow, with loud speakers playing screaming and heavy breathing noises throughout the route. Think horror film, not porn. It was really well marshalled and all done in good spirits but it didn't take long to realise that even the smaller puddles were sheet ice and the only way you were going over those is on your arse. So pretty much everyone followed the same route diverting around the big puddles and 2 laps were completed in about an hour and 5 minutes. Pretty quick for me over 8 miles. Only is wasn't 8 miles because of all the adjustments the organisers were forced to make through not fault of their own. It turned out to be between 6.5 and 7 miles which is more than I usually run on a Saturday night in Feb I guess!

Would I run it again? Yes but only if it was a proper Grim. It has potential and this one could have been great but a week of below freezing temps leading up to it just gave the organisers no choice in shortening it and making it safer. All in all it was a bit tame. I've never been able to drive home in the same clothes and shoes from a Grim event before!!!

Running into the night

I thought it best to at least try running with a head torch prior to tackling Grim: Night Terror so I had a choice of getting up at 6am or waiting until later in the afternoon to go for a run. Not really a choice. 6am wasn't going to happen on a weekend!

At 5:15pm I found myself putting on my gear for what would be a very strange time for a run for me. I mean it's nearly beer o'clock not run o'clock! Head torch on and cap over the top to keep it in place I headed out on a route involving 2 pitch black sections. The first one is pretty close and through Ashtead Park. Pretty straight forward and managed to avoid the pot holes on a semi gravel road but job done. A road section followed around the roads before heading into Ashtead Common.

I won't lie. I freaked myself out a little. You literally can't see anything more than 10m in front of you and there's a lot on nocturnal animals out there making strange noises. I was a little apprehensive but then I turned into the wooded section. Oh Dear! The imagination went into overdrive. That mixed with the torch suddenly pick up a pair of glowing eyes that would suddenly dart off in a little unnerving when you've recently watched Sherlock's 'Hound of the Baskervilles'.

5 minutes later, I was back onto the relative safety of the roads and street lights! Torch seemed to do a good enough job but I do suspect Grim is going to be a bit of a nightmare with people turning round and blinding you but not a lot we can do about it really. 7.4km done! Bring on the bog, puddles, blackness and 8 mile dark miles.

A run of shame!

Today's run is sponsored by 'guilt'. That feeling when you finally accept you've been lazy throughout December and January and eatingtrees post yesterday reminded you that you only have 3 weeks until Grim Night Terror. Now had I been cycling at all, that wouldn't have bothered me as much but since a variety of things have stopped me cycling recently, it really was time.

I hadn't planned to run today. My experience of 'running's a damn sight easier when I've cycled a bit' meant I'd cycle a few times this week and then head out next weekend and all would be good. Then I saw the weather....

-2 C tomorrow morning when I'm due to be on a bike. No thanks, I already deal with enough tossers in BMW's* on a normal cycle commute so adding ice to that mix is quite frankly stupid!!

The final nail in the coffin was Lovely Wife has run 4 times in the last 8 days. Me? ZERO! OK, time to hit the streets. I'm extremely proud of LW but I can't let that go without a run! 9.4km were completed in a time slightly longer than planned but completed none the less and the guilt has subsided enough to have a glass of wine in preparation for dealing with (almost) anything tomorrow can throw at me.

I've also invested in 2 new pairs of running shoes that should get me through 2012. A white pair to lead me up to the marathon training and then these beauty's to get me through the training miles and the Berlin Marathon itself.

Now my sister reckons red trainers belong only to 'Stars of the HipHop scene' and as I'm neither hip nor do I hop, I can only assume she believes it to be a bad idea but as there's going to be 40,000 runners in Berlin, I've got to do all I can to stand out and I'm worried a long ginger beard just won't cut the mustard!

*tossers are available in other cars. Type 'German saloon car' into google for a starting point.