Dam 'Ard Triathlon 2015

27th Sept 2015 

This is my local event, a sort of mid-sprint/olympic distance tri. The distances are 502m swim, 38k ride and 7.5k run. The finish and HQ are at Rishworth School near Ripponden, and the pool and transition are a few hundred meters away at Heathfield School.

The bike route goes over the Pennines and back on the rugged but beautiful South Pennine Moors and the run is largely Off road in the hills around Ripponden.

On the day of the race I turned up nice and early for an 8:00am start only to find my front tyre completely flat.

Las Vegas Marathon 2015

15 Nov 2015

Heading into registration at Las Vegas conference center you are greeted with a huge banner saying "You are kind of special, they're shutting The Strip down for you". And that sums up the race - it's totally Vegas, from the fact that it is a night race, to the Kid Rock gig at the start and the stretch limo courtesy of the Bellagio to the start.

There are three events on the Sunday, the marathon, the Half and the Half of the half, a 10k. In our group I was doing the marathon, Beckie was doing the half and Greg and Rachel were doing the 10k.

Hamburg Marathon

On the 26 April I finished my first race of this year. The.Hamburg experience was fun!. I'd injured my knee and then my back and hadn't run for three weeks. Joe the physio checked me over on the Tuesday and told me that a)I shouldn't do it and b)He knew I would and so he told me to try 10k on Thursday night and if I could walk on Friday I could walk to the start line. So on Friday I made the decision to fly.

I got to Hamburg on Saturday Morning (3.30am get up) and took the train into the city. I set off walking back to the Hotel after registration and promptly found a Bock Bier Fest. It would have been rude not to but on the down side there was not a beer weaker than 7% abv. Maybe not ideal preparation for a Marathon!

Race day dawned in a grey way and after all the usual pre race preparation (multiple toilet opportunities) the gun went and after 10 minutes us 4 hour people started our shuffle to the start.

I set off at about 3:50 pace and soon enough we were on the Reeperbahn, Hamburg's sinful mile. That was seriously seedy and I felt itchy at the end. I think if I'd run any slower I'd have caught something. From then the city had to get better and it did. Hamburg is a fantastic port city and once we'd left the center very green.

The Race was great with amazing crowds and bands which really helped. Samba bands were out in force and I love hearing them in a race.

I ran nicely for about 25km, my back and knee were fine but my quads and hip flexors were starting to protest and the trace tells the story. 30 km the heavens opened and I was feeling down. At 38 km I had to start walking, but I got going again over the line.

So that was it. I collected my medal and beer and headed back to the Hotel for a shower. It was slow, 4:20 but given that 2 days earlier I thought I wasn't going, not bad.

As for the Hamburg Marathon, would I recommend it. Definitely yes!