Flying Fox 10

L’s got a bit of a hate hate relationship with half marathons but she does seem to approve of ten milers. She says she’d like to make a career out of them but this could be a short career as there aren’t that many of them. Having said that we have only just done the Great South Run and now we have the Flying Fox 10.

This takes place at Standon in Staffordshire. The race starts from the local school with parking just down the road at the Standon Mill. For once it’s a bright and dry morning for a race.

The race has been held since 2003 but they have changed the course this year probably just for us, to make it two laps. The two laps bring you back to the start line each time but each lap is different so it's not too repetitive. Although it's all country lanes and as I don't know the area, we could have been anywhere. 

Both laps are equally hilly hence my finish time of 1:22. Four minutes slower than at the Great South but then nobody inspired me with any Amazon vouchers this time. There is however a bottle of Flying Fox Ale for all finishers.

Blithfield Sprint Triathlon

A 5am alarm call this morning as we all head over to the Blithfield Reservoir near Abbotts Bromley, Staffordshire. I’m competing in Blithfield Triathlon, Sprint version. L and the boys are along to support.

So a 750m swim, a 20km bike and a 5k run. While the last two parts are like falling off a log, the first part is a bit like falling into a reservoir. Which should at least involve swallowing less detritus that at Holme Pierrepont as in theory we’re swimming in tomorrow’s drinking water.

My swim is memorable, for the wrong reasons, again I can’t get my stroke going and I'm very thankful I’m not doing the Olympic distance as this would mean doing a second lap of the swim circuit. Note to self - when I do enter an Olympic distance race, make sure it’s not a two lap, the temptation to abort would just be too great.

Thereafter I don’t rush transition, four minutes I believe it was, as I’m practising more for the longer distances than this one. Obviously I still need to work on the swim bit... I try all the kit I would use on a half ironman bike, probably putting on more layers that are perhaps necessary and also gloves which I wouldn't usually bother with in a sprint tri. As an experiment, wearing my calve supports under my wetsuit worked well. They are still in place and being wet doesn’t half their effectiveness.

I head out on to the bike course, which has been altered due to flooding and now includes quite a steep but short climb, which I love. It's a scenic route that also takes us back across the reservoir on a causeway.  As ever it takes 5 miles to get into the bike, which is almost half way but it goes well.

My transition to the run is much shorter; I even found some running shoes with elastic laces in the back of the cupboard which helps.

The run takes us along the edge of the reservoir and again upon the causeway before turning around as we head for home. It’s a flat run and would have been fast had it not been on a gritty, rocky track that makes me worry for my ankles.