Glentress Duathlon Short 2009
The second 2008/9 Glentress Duathlon was earlier today. Conditions were a little different than last time, when it was very cold and the ground was frozen. Today, it was damp, snowy and muddy and the bike course was changed to avoid the higher tracks where there was a lot of snow.
I'm a little fitter than the last time - I've been running a fair bit, 40+ miles for each of the last 2 weeks but I've not been mountain biking too often. As it was, the run was the most important part of this race, with it coming first, followed by a short ride.
I got myself reasonably warmed up but the run goes uphill for the first 5 minutes and I was winded by the time we turned downhill through a muddy firebreak. I use elastic laces in my trail shoes and I nearly lost them in the mud a couple of time. I need to swap back to real laces I think. The run course was pretty tough, most of it being on snowy, muddy paths that take their toll. I didn't check my run split but it was a little under 30 minutes.
On to the bike and the course more or less followed the blue route from the Buzzard's Nest, joining the blue return and then onto Blue Velvet. The last section was through muddy tracks which were a bit tricky but quite enjoyable. Up the last fire road track and my gears jammed a bit but I wasn't going to make up or lose any places, so no worries there.
I finished in about 49 or so minutes, probably 15 minutes behind the winner but I wasn't trashed, I kept it going at a reasonable pace throughout and did myself justice. Hopefully, I'll be quite a bit fitter by the time of the last in the series at the beginning of March, which is going to be a lot longer and a lot harder.
