Sunday 9 March 2008

Merrrell Mudman 2008

Knowing that John Lunt and the crew at Human Race always put on a good event, I thought this would be an ideal opening multi sport event for 2008. The race was an off-road duathlon with 7.5km run, 15km bike and a final 7.5km run.
Over 100 athletes lined up on the start line on this damp day. The first run was led by a french guy called Cedric Lassonde, who I later found out has a pedigree as a top 1500M runner. He was followed into transition by Elliot Challifour and myself. The run course was brutal with 6 climbs that you could barely walk up, and so steep running down that the soles of your feet got bruised. I was very pleased to get onto the bike and into a rythmn again. The bike leg went well for me, getting into the lead comfortably, with my new Cannondale Taurine performing faultlessly. Other bits of equipment I was testing included Canterbury compression top and socks, whether they helped or not is difficult to say, but i had a good second run and didn't cramp unlike a lot of people.
My second run was only 9 seconds slower than my first, which I was very pleased with. Most people lost at least 3 minutes. All in all a very pleasing first multisport race of the year with a 3 minute victory. I still have 3 months until the European series starts, so I am not far off where I want to be already.
I am off to Lanzarotte next week for a spot of training with Julie Dibens and some other athletes, then my next race will be the first round of the Mountain bike national points series, where I intend to wear my National Champs jersey with pride.

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