Day 150 - Legs like Jelly Babies

So, another day of training ... this time it's the 'F3 Duathlon Sprint' event back at Dorney Lake. It was weird being back there 1 week after the 'Race Your Pace' event, especially as the layout of the event was completely different, however I managed to win a place in this event so time to add it to the training.

Today's event was a 5k Run/20k Bike/5k Run duathlon - so a chance to get my old bike out, old is an important word as its a 20 year old Dawes Mountain Bike.

Ok, back in the later eighties and Dawes used Pink & Black alot...   

I guess my bike was the oldest there (and probably the heavy-est too) and kept the off-road tires on for the race. I saw so many uber-light racing bikes there it was like a 'Chris Boardman Display team' - I did get a little concerned. Nick who came with me was not helping with jokes like 'you did remove the basket and the dynamo?' or 'the Post Office called ... they want their bike back'.

OK, armed with two bananas and a half packet of jelly babies off I went.

The first 5k was like a normal ParkRun except I had to keep to pace myself as their was a lot more to come,
and felt good.

Still smiling ... must be the first half then ...

A quick banana at the transition, then on to the bikes - 6 laps to make up to the 20k, now to see what the 'old bike' can do ... well I discovered that it can be overtaken a lot... my bike is set-up for terrain not for the flat - i guess my top speed had twice as many teeth as some of their bikes - owww! The cross wind was not pleasant but do-able, it would have been better if the bike had decided not to let me use the top set of gears for half the race (pedal faster then I guess).

Final straight (back to the Billy Whizz hair)

Phew, after that 'extra peddling' back to the running for the final part of the running, this time not so pleasant compared to the first one, but after giving  by the power of Jelly Babies I managed it (I may have given out a few to some of the other runners to cheer them up).


Overall, a great race, and I completed it in 1:42:20 which was about the time I expected - now back to running.