November 4th 2007

Somehow I managed to get roped into competing in a Duathlon 'with a twist' on the Sunday morning after the Halloween Launch Party! I'd tried reasoning with my wife beforehand, that it wasn't such a good idea to do the duathlon - the build up to the launch party would mean I'd have done very little training, coupled with the fact that I wouldn't be getting to bed very early after the party either, all meant I'd hardly be in the best condition to go off and run/cycle round Blandford forest. Typically, showing all the love and compassion I've come to expect, she informed me it would be "great training", and "not to worry too much".............evil woman!

The basic format for the event was a 5km cross-country run which consisted of 2 laps of a 2.5km loop with an assault course at the end of each lap, followed by a 20km mountain bike ride which comprised of 4 laps of a 5km loop, followed by another 5km cross-country run on the same loop as the previous run and with the same assault course. Once all this had been completed there was a final obstacle course in the main arena which included a bit of gorilla wrestling, balance-beam action and a damn tall wall to be scaled! All this whilst spectators are encouraged to throw wet sponges at you!

The entire event had to be completed in teams of 3 and I was joined by Gary and Pete from work to make up our trio.

I've added a few pictures to the Gallery section under the heading of 'Dirty Double' (imaginative, eh!?). I guarantee that once you've had a look at the images, you're going to wish you'd taken part yourself...........!!!!