The short and long of last week

Last week I raced over the short 3x1mile run relay at the meadows midweek and then the Long hard Durty one which was also the British cross tri champs.

The midweek run really boasted my confidence for the World duathlon champs in 4weeks with a new pb of 4:36. I know it's only a mile, but it shows me that I have leg speed at the moment which should equate to fast 5and 10k times.


Form there I went to the cross tri British champs at St Marys Loch for the Durty tri. I was looking forward to the race as my mountain biking has come on from previous years particularly my climbing, I've climbing really strong this year and the course is favourable to climbers.

The swim was great, St Marys Loch is a wonderful fresh water Loch to swim in, I was feeling strong the whole way round the course and was in a good pack. Entering T1 I noticed that Sam Gardners bike was still racked beside mine so I must of had a good swim to be out before the race favourite. Saying that though he was just behind me, and with his off road experience he got out of transition before me.

On to the bike and I was climbing well, picking off some of the riders who came out of the swim before me. Things were going well, however it would not stay that way. Coming down the 2nd descent which was a mix of boggy sections and loose rock I managed to go arse of tip on the loose rock, and came down hard on my left hand side on the rocks. When I got up I could barely walk, I really thought I have done some serious damage and that was my race over. After sitting chatting to Rik, one of the marshalls at the next turn I decided it was time to get back to the transition to get changed and warmed up. However as I was riding my hip began to ease off, so I decided to do the second lap, I hate DNFing. I got round the rest of the bike safely, I wasn't trying any heroics to catch up on the field, just get the bike done and run like crazy to at least get a good training session out of it.

I was really pleased with how I run, coming from the back of the field I had a constant stream of athletes to pick off which always help. I've not seen the splits yet but would like to compare my run and swim time with the winners to see where I stand on those grounds, I just need to work on my descending skills to really be up there in the off road races, which is definitely something I'll be looking to focus on in the next few seasons.

A big congratulations to Paul and his team for organising the Durty tri, it was a great race and the hog roast afterwards was brilliant, I wish every race had that post race.