What A Busy Two Weeks
Its been a busy couple of weeks to say the least
Where to start with the last few weeks, hectic doesn't even come into it, mad busy at work, The Firefighters Two Up Duathlon, a couple of marathons, organizing An Evening Of Ironman and to top it all off Mr Murphy has been giving it to me in preparation for Ironman Lanzarote in 8 weeks time. So here is a review.
The 2up came with a little bit of pressure this year as me and Andy Turner were defending our National Fire Service title. There were a lot more teams this year and a lot more talent to boot!! I have to say if we were a Breathing Apparatus team Andy would have been the team leader. Me being me on a race of 2 hours just wanted to hammer the whole thing from the start, which on reflection wouldn't have ended well. Enter Andy. On the first run he must have said 'calm down we're fine here' a dozen times. We followed his plan and by the end of the 1st run hit T1 in about 5th place. A couple of the open category teams passed us on the way up Rivington which didn't surprise me concidering the talent on show. One of the teams included one of my training partners you've read about before Adam Critchley and Uber runner Jullian Goudge. "Keep going lads" was Adams comment. My reply, "you best of brought your bike legs lads"!!
The bike was better this year as Andy has acquired a TT bike, we passed Adam and Jullian about a minute after starting the bike leg, worked hard up Sheephouse and got our heads down through Belmont. Then began a bit of a battle with Graham Rands and Rob McDonagh from GMC Fire. We eventually came out on top. Then, as usual an old man on a bike flew past with his partner, Mr Rainford and Mr Schofield. Next objective was to keep them in sight, which we did.
Entering T2 there were three fire service teams within a minute and a half of each other, me and Andy being the third. "were gonna have to work for this mate". Enter sensible Andy again, "don't panic mate we're catching them we're ok at this pace", he was right again. We passed Chris and Steve and a team from Tyne and Wear soon after. Something worthy of a mention here is the encouragement from both of the teams as we passed them, Firefighters and triathlon fantastic!! I encouraged Andy to the peak of the hill and he dragged me down at the rate of knots. He decided to have a nice sprint finish past the lads from his fire station who had turned out to watch us, something I could have done without!!
We ended the day 5th overall and 1st in the National Fire Service Duathlon champs, so job done. Our time was the same as 2014, 2:03. Well done to all the teams who took part and to Chris Rainford and Joe Mercer and Epic Events for another great event.
So to the 21st and 22nd of March and the Gin Pit Double Marathons. This is a small friendly event of about 80 competitors each day. I go there to see how well I am running over the distance and use it as a way of replicating the feeling of an Ironman Marathon. The weather this year was lovely. I'm not really gonna talk too much about my race as it's simply a marathon which I ran in 3:03 to finish third overall on day 1 and 3:08 to finish second on day 2 and second overall in the two races. I am going to recall a couple of things both spectacular and funny. So spectacular first
The young lad who won was starting a mental challenge for charity. Check this out
- 25 marathons in 17 days
- 3 days off
- Running Lands End to John 'O' Groates
- Cycling back from John 'O' Groates to Lands end.
On day 1 I ran with a young chap called Charlie Sharpe for about 12 miles. He was doing The Oldham Way Ultra on the Sunday a 40 mile race. He won said race in a time of 6:04:46 winning by over an hour!!
Now for the funny. I have to say I have never run anywhere in the country where everybody seems to own a fighting dog, all of which look like they are gonna take your leg off at a moments notice. There seemed to be a real lack of brain surgeons around the area, in fact I would entrust some of the dogs to carry out the surgery before the owners, and the canal, well three words, dog shit boulevard. Anyway I survived and I think I've seen something unusual to say the least. About 6 miles into the Gin Pit you run through a very busy park full of very angry looking dogs with angrier looking owners. A tip if any of you do the race next year. DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!!!! with anybody male or female over the age of 5!!
Then this happens. A fella who looked like he played for Wigan at the back of the scrum is very angrily shouting "Fluffy, Fluffy, get over here you F*****G half wit". So there I am looking for fluffy. Is it a Pug, is it a Cocker, is it a Springer, no, its an 8 stone ride-able Rottweiler!!! Brilliant it kept me smiling for a good few mile I can tell ya.
The last event of the period was An Evening of Ironman. Firstly a big thank you for the water from Phil Watson in the audience, sparing me some serious blushes from an attack of cotton mouth. Again We've said all there is to say about this on social media. It was a great night and I feel we catered for all the athletes throughout presentations. Me for the rookies, Neil for the intermediates and finally a fantastic presentation by Marc Laithwaite all about improving your Ironman Bike split, something I found really interesting, and something I was lucky enough to discuss more with him over 105 miles the following day. Mr Rainford is now officially the funniest man in triathlon I think all who attended will agree. I actually thought I had pulled a muscle in my stomach laughing at one of his stories, he was brilliant to say the least. Most importantly we raised £2500, £1000 of which was a donation from Epic Events which was incredible. It really was brilliant to try and give something back. So a massive thanks from Marc, Chris, Neil and me. Who knows, it may be worth doing something similar nearer to Ironman UK with a little practical stuff on a Saturday or Sunday. What do you think?
Finally and most importantly from a personal point of view. A massive thanks to my two sponsors Lanctec and the First Rate Credit Union for buying power meters for my race and training bike. I can't thank them enough and really do feel blessed to have such good support when I know there are loads of athletes out there just as hard working and more talented who look for sponsors without success. So again a massive thanks for helping me in my quest to become the best athlete I can possibly be.
Next stop Ulverston Tri, Where Lucy Loo takes part in her first aquathlon. So till then take it easy
Joe D
