Report by Grant Beerling
Brighton Marathon
Brighton Marathon went better than expected, cool damp day with a breeze coming off the sea, but pretty good for a long run.
Ran cautiously for the first half, had a bit of a rough patch 19-21miles, cramp in my thighs for the last three miles, but really pushed on the best I could and on approaching the finish line could see I was on to a good time, a small three way sprint with some fellow runners and crossed the line on 02:59:01.
On reflection I lost about 2 mins on the run in, found out in the medical tent that cramp was the reason I couldn’t walk once over the line! On the plus side got some good advice for future races to avoid or at least postpone the cramp until as late as possible in a race.
Prior to the event though I was on for a 3:05, so pleased with the time and proves a sensible taper over a week does work. Final placings 43rd/9000+ and in out of 45-54 Men, 8th/1200.
A short Video clip of the finish, a bit of a sprint and crash……just like on the telly, look at the bottom and click on ‘finish’…amusing. VIDEO
Fast And Furious Duathlon
A chilly, but reasonably still morning (rather than last years flooded swim on a bike) welcomed Matthew Preston and I. A run of just short of 5km with a few humps and bumps got things off to a sensible start. A good transition got had both of us on the road without any hitches. I managed to pass four people on the bike and had the usual nervous final run of hoping that enough distance had been made to keep the faster runners away for the final “Why am I doing this” 5km run. Thankfully this was achieved by a comfortable 53 seconds, whereas Mathew had a lot closer battle towards the end performing the classic double sprint to fool the final person he passed in the last few yards, awesome finish.
Grant 1:11:09 (1st 50+, 9th overall)
Mathew 1:18:29 (9th 40+, 17th overall) getting over classic running injury so more to come!
The winner was Carl Ferri in 1:02:46 beating the course record by 2 minutes from Ian Stannard’s (British Pro triathlete) old record. Impressive stuff and Carl is 44!
Dinton Duathlon
Arrived on a frosty morning in a field somewhere near Reading. A bit of breeze, but calmer than the previous weekend.
Mass start so the normal lunatics running off as it’s a 100mm sprint, gradually worked my way through the field a nice flat 5.25km run and pulled into transition 9th. Fumbled the lid a bit in transition, jumped on the bike and wound it up slowly for a reasonable ride. Forgot to take my feet out of my shoes before jumping off the bike (silly boy) but did a reasonable transition before the dreaded last run. 1 km as usual legs of lead and lungs of stone, but gradually eased up, not a great run, but enough to hold my position with time to spare for the normal snot faced finish, 1:17:13, 1st male over 40 and 50, 4th overall. Winners time 1:12:46, so a lot of room for improvement.