Dalbeattie Hardrock Challenge

4th October 2009

I decided on a whim to enter this duathlon on the grounds that biking seems to do me less damage than running and I also thought it sounded cool. I liked the idea of doing a ten mile trail race and a sixteen mile mountain bike race, round the technical red singletrack trails at Dalbeattie. Only I don’t think it had occured to me that I was actually doing both.

The run was mostly on forest roads, with a couple of miles at the end through the forest, and a few hills along the way, I kept a nice steady pace round the run, and was pleased to finish in just under 1.20. I took my time at the changeover, but the moment I got on the bike my legs turned to jelly and even the slightest incline was agony. I found myself pedalling up tiny hills that I would normally have sped up, in my lowest gear, and at a crawl and being overtaken by loads of riders.

Fortunately the pain did improve and I managed to speed up after about twenty minutes. I also discovered that lots of the riders who were powering past me were team competitors who hadn’t done the run first. I eventually finished in just over 2 hours, total time 3.21.16. very pleased to have completed it and not to be last. I only discovered yesterday when I looked up the results that I was actually third lady.

The race was won by Steven Brennan in 2.22.43 and first lady was Renell Brennen in 2.55.39.

Results www.dalbeattiehardrockchallenge.org/pastresults.htm

A run wouldn’t be a run without getting some sort of injury, this time it’s my foot, fortunately I can now almost walk normally so hopefully it isn’t anything too serious.

I’m now in massive awe of Elizabeth for the Big Ben Triathlon, I definitely hadn’t realised how hard it was to change between disciplines in a race, I’m definitely not tempted, I don’t know how you did it – that’s so impressive!