Another invite to compete at one of High Terrain Event's again, this time their Whinlatter Duathlon was a great opportunity that I could not turn down. After enjoying their Ennerdale 50K event so much I was looking forward to seeing the gang again and catching up with a great bunch of people.
I drove up to Whinlatter the night before the event and scared myself to bits staying in the van in an empty car park in the middle of nowhere! What was worse was hearing "bangs" in the night and scarier still was realising in the morning that it was actually Paul and Simon who had arrived early to prep and check the course. Thankfully they thought better of knocking on the van to wake me up, lucky really as I had the "Wolf" with me.
The weather looked perfect for the event and everything looked ready and well prepared. Numbers, T shirts and 9 Bars were given out and bikes were racked ready to roll.
It was great to catch up with Molly and Dean from Trawden too and Molly and I exchanged some chat as we ran.
The first run was a tough one. Only about 4.5 miles but lots of varied terrain, hills, roots, tracks and plenty of mud. Great encouragement on the route from Ian and Paul (Thanks for telling me to "put some effort in!" Paul, It did make me work harder.) Run one down and now onto the bike.
It was a nice change to swap onto the bike and I didn't spend any time in transition as I had swapped for flat pedals and stuck with the fantastic Salomon s-lab pack from Ennerdale again.
The first loop on the bike was no problem at all, a nice easy sweeping blue route, then onto the climb up to the red route. I had reccied this course earlier in the year and knew that the biking was straightforward with no real tests on the descent. The climb up was flipping hard work! On and on and on! Great encouragement from Simon who was stood near the top and more shouts of encouragement from the lovely Marshall on the ridge.
Woo hoo! Hard work done, now for the fun part! I shot down the first part of the descent overtaking quite a few bikers. Then shouted at Simon as I went past him saying "Now comes the fun bit" as I shot round the first small drop after seeing Simon, I heard the unmistakable sound of my rear tyre puncturing.
#"**#}* well you could imagine my frustration! I had slogged my guts out and was looking forward to pulling back places on this lovely descent. Right, I didn't even consider changing the tube as I am so slow! So I grabbed my bike and started running! Cyclocross here I come! I jumped to the side each time folk came past and loads of people asked if I was ok. Ruth from "The Breakpad" at Kirroughtree came past me and offered me her tubes and pump too. But I continued with my cyclocross activity instead. As I neared the end of the descent another female rider shouted at me to take her bike! A quick conversation established that she was injured and was going to stop after the bike part and not continue with the event. What an offer! So we swapped bikes! I was now riding a hard tail with tiny spd pedals whilst wearing flat trainers so my feet where all over the place! But better than running.
So I managed to finish the bike section in good humour and racked "my rescuer's" bike and continued onto the final run. The final run again was tough, lots of hills and another tough course. I chatted to a couple of girls in the pairs category who I had been speaking to earlier and although I was tired I was in a great mood! My knee was fine, I was having a great day and some wonderfully kind person had helped me out.
I finished as 4th lady overall, not quite what I wanted but what an amazing day.
Great prizes again from Salomon and a fantastic event which I hope to compete in again next year.
A huge thank you to Ian, Emily and High Terrain events. Simon for making me laugh! Paul for encouragement and giggles, Jim for cakes and for introducing me to Salomon skorts for running - I am NOT convinced though! But as you said "If it is good enough for Frosty....!"
Finally the biggest thank you to the mysterious girl who selflessly lent me her bike and took mine in to the finish for me.
