Sat 4th July - Everywoman's Duathlon

Well hellllooooo there!!

today i had my first duathlon - hence the subject.

It was daaan in the new forest, drove through pretty places with little ponies and foals, made me smiley I racked my bike in what i thought was an opportune location and made my way to the start area.

It was a little late starting and the local ladies gym were doing a warm up which i sat out of - i'm not co-ordinated for one and secondly i don't like wasting energy warming up before races.

It was a women's only race of 160 people, at the start i was eyeing up the competition.... lady in running club vest - got your number skinny whippet lady with super light road bike - check. Lady with incredibly long legs - yupl. ady next to me says to her bloke "she looks like she means business" pointing to me.. to which i pull my best bull dog war face expression. "Grrrr!"

The start was in two waves numbers 1 - 75 in the first one, 76 - 160 in the second one 2 minutes later... i was in the 2nd one, which irked me slightly but it's always a good idea.

The first lot set off and the 2nd lot lined up, i shimmied to the front and me and the lady next to me looked at each other and said "did he just say "go"?" but no, he'd said "1min to go" the first leg was 2.5k run So set off at break necks speed down towards what i think was the harbour or something, down this steep pebbly track nearly going flying asss over t1t but saving it by running on to the grass.

Small boy spectator was racing me so i pegged it to beat him! got round the corner and continued on the gravelly track - i had thought it was going to be road, but the whole way was gravelling - but not offensive. The route, was an out and back, through pretty woods, annoying dirty dog got in my way and i had to literally jump over it - his owner didn't seem to o bothered.... Coming back - annoying dog was there again, i said to the owner "he's determined to break my legs int he?" carried on,

Overtook as many of the 1st wave as i could catch (later found it was all but 4) came back round to the hill i'd flewn down, and had a really pleasant (not) 150m steep climb back up the b*gger to the transition area.

I did the first stage in 10:30 - i'd been aiming to go under 10 but ho hum. The transition stage was a bit of a pigs ear, it somehow took me 2 mins to get onto my freakin bike!! I had to tie a shoe lace, get my helmet and sunnies on, then run 100m to the road where i then had issues with my toe clips - i'm used to spds and the pedals were wet and kept spinning the wrong way, eventually i got off on the 10k 3 loop cycle section.

I was expecting to be able to ride it like a time trial that i've been doing recently but there were a few sharp bends and 2 hills on each lap. The first lap was pretty quiet but on lap 2 and 3 the whole field were out there so had to do a bit of "ooon your riiiiiight" type hollers. I took my specs off and shoved them in the back of my jersey cos it was raining. lady on road bike with incredibly long legs and I kept chasing each other down and she said "you're not trying to win are you?" - "damn right!"

I came to the last lap and one lady was ahead of me, she rode straight through the transition area and i got told to get off, so i did, i eyed up th racks and there were several bikes racked so thought they must be all running the last stage. I ran the bike back down to the racks and lobbed off my helmet and tried to get my glasses back out of my pocket but they were stuck and took what seemed like ages to free! i eventually did and ran back through the start and down slippery pebbly hill.

I got back to the run in 33;30 so the bike must have been around 20 ish... i wasnt sure how many ladies were in front, so asked a marshall on the way "eeermm.... one" - "woooo!" I was really surprised at how good my legs felt, as when i trained on monday they wre totally jellified after the ride, but i guess it was adreneline.

On tht about turn i saw the lady in front and caught her number - it was running club vest lady - but she was in the first wave so i still had hope of running quicker than her overall. I shouted well done and trundled on - no evil dogs this time!

Coming back i also spotted skinny lady and incrdibly long legs lady and coming back to the bottom of the hill exchanged woops and "well dones" with the lady i showed my warface to. Climbing up the last hill was a killer! The last 10m was "grrrrrr!" then "holy sh1t" as i crossed the line.

My overall time was 44.39 - which i'm fairly pleased with due to the fannying about that took place on my change overs. But what pleased me more was - I WOOOOON!!!!!WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! yay!

I hung about and chatted with people, got a massage (which i htink has made my thighs worse)

Also i'd like to comment that my diet has been attrocious this last few weeks... mostly consumed that of cider, pimms, rum, cheesecake, toast & muesli binges, b & J ice cream - so those of you concerned about diet affecting your training it doenst seem to have done me too much harm

Though that said, i wonder if i could have gone quicker if i'd not eaten such junk (i am a bit podgy too though) SexySuzie told me i had to come first, so i didnt want to let her down... really had a fun time, and looking forward to the next one now