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Power Man UK
Yesterday (well actually we travelled down on Saturday) I ventured down into deepest Dorset and took on the Long Course at Power Man UK. For those unfamiliar with the title 'Power Man' it is the Duathlon world wide brand just like Iron Man. They put on excellent races (I did Power Man Holland earlier this year) that are totally geared to the athletes; no charity runners wearing costumes, no gimmicks, usually quite small fields, just a very high standard - yesterday we had professional athletes racing in with us - well I saw them at the beginning.For anyone who did the the old IM course at Sherborne we used the same (horrendous) bike course but different run courses.
So we all set off in the rain at 7am - which was ok because the rain was quite warm- couple of laps of the sports ground and then round, the still asleep, town before returning for another couple of laps of the sports ground. Anyway 51.51 for the 6.87mile, average 7.32pm - happy with that.
Onto the bike, the rain had now stopped but of course the roads were very wet. The two loop 74 mile bike course is very hilly and much of the road surface is so rough that you are shaken to pieces - not very nice - lots of people suffered punctures and/or mechanicals - definately a very tough ride. I am afraid it took me 4hrs 29mins, I had hoped to do it in under 4hrs, but I survived, so off out on the second run.
By now the sun was out and it was a very pleasant 20 degrees. The second run was 12.84 miles in and around the very beautiful town of Sherborne. Bit of a struggle but you expect that and I was quite pleased to average 8.40 per mile considering how much I slowed in the last couple of miles.
I finished in 7hrs 21mins, 1st in age group M and reasonably pleased with myself as this was my final preparation race before I go to Zofingen at the beginning of September for the World Power Man Championship where the course is even longer (10km/150km/30km of Swiss Moutains).
I believe next years Power Man UK is going to be held in May and I would highly recommend it for anyone who fancies such an event, excellent organisation, bloody hard course but great satisfaction when its over.
So we all set off in the rain at 7am - which was ok because the rain was quite warm- couple of laps of the sports ground and then round, the still asleep, town before returning for another couple of laps of the sports ground. Anyway 51.51 for the 6.87mile, average 7.32pm - happy with that.
Onto the bike, the rain had now stopped but of course the roads were very wet. The two loop 74 mile bike course is very hilly and much of the road surface is so rough that you are shaken to pieces - not very nice - lots of people suffered punctures and/or mechanicals - definately a very tough ride. I am afraid it took me 4hrs 29mins, I had hoped to do it in under 4hrs, but I survived, so off out on the second run.
By now the sun was out and it was a very pleasant 20 degrees. The second run was 12.84 miles in and around the very beautiful town of Sherborne. Bit of a struggle but you expect that and I was quite pleased to average 8.40 per mile considering how much I slowed in the last couple of miles.
I finished in 7hrs 21mins, 1st in age group M and reasonably pleased with myself as this was my final preparation race before I go to Zofingen at the beginning of September for the World Power Man Championship where the course is even longer (10km/150km/30km of Swiss Moutains).
I believe next years Power Man UK is going to be held in May and I would highly recommend it for anyone who fancies such an event, excellent organisation, bloody hard course but great satisfaction when its over.
Comments
Bloody well done for the win.
Good luck at the Worlds, let's hope you bag a stripey jumper!!