Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Olympic Distance Triathlon

Hoping to challenging myself in sporting events, and raise money for a good cause. I've never done an Olympic Triathlon before so decided to try the one at Belvior Castle. 1.5km Swim, 40km Bike, 10km Run. Hoping to do it in less than 3 hours, but doggy paddle isn't the fastest stroke so we'll see.

Sunday, 16 January 2011

Ropsley Raid 2011

16 Jan 2011. Started the Ropsley Raid race at 10am, Jan 16 2011. A 13 mile cross country run.
Started off nicely, running along footpaths, across a few styes, but to be honest, nice. That is, until you got to the fields, the fields of the stickiest mud I have seen for a good while. 
So you are running along a footpath  quite nicely, then you hop over a style, and suddenly you are in a field with not much growing, plenty of mud, and water, and every step accumulates more of the sticky stuff, at least 2 inches of it. I think that about a quarter of the run was across muddy fields, and it seemed like more....
Ok, so I am sitting here after doing it, and feeling smug, but it was tough. I'm more used to doing half Marathon distances on the road, which I thought was hard, but I must say, after running through fields of pure sticky mud, which almost brings you to a standstill, give me the tarmac any day.
All said and done though, when the painful experience was over, and yes organisers, the uphill section at the finish was positively cruel, I loved it.
Yup, I did, and I'll be back for more next year.....I think (if I can forget the fields).
Mark Wilson