07 December 2009

open 5: peak district

my thighs are still heavy with yesterdays efforts. bike is coated in a thin paste of brown grit, fell shoes damp, winter boots are water logged but i'm still feeling very satisfied at a job well done. it's only our second time racing together and although it was 'just for fun', we definitely pushed hard and earned our points.

i took the lead on the run and 'over shot' 2 checkpoints-we only went to 6! as expected rosemary's navigation on the bike leg was faultless. very wet under tyre and foot but the views along the tops were stunning with dark clouds rushing across the sky and rainbows showing the way. at times i forgot we were racing, too busy enjoying the descents and cruising along the road. until some helpful pushes reminded me spin a little faster.

racing is a good way to get know people, glean tactics and forge new friendships. i hope there's more to come. rosemary, i promise to put gears on my bike if you do some running training!

...and over the hill but not too far away jane was running in the d&w mini mountain marathon. her first solo outing in a score event, she's even got ideas about joining a running club now-there's my motivation for those long dark runs!

8 comments:

trio said...

Gears???

I think you are going to have to train hard that Jane is getting good.

What club is she thinking of joining?

Anonymous said...

Well done on the Open5. I met Rosemary at the Open12 /24 this year (and she's a skyride leader too). I'm sure she'd make a great racing partner - well nippy on the mountain bike stage at the beginning of the Open12!!

kate said...

trio- gears...mmm...well that might have been said in the heat of the moment ;) but it's a bit embarrassing having someone push you along 'cos you can't keep up with them!

j's looking at erewash valley, they have a fell section and also do head torch winter runs.

elizabeth- hi there, thanks! yeh, rosemary is a great partner, really positive and fully of energy not to mention speedy on the bike-don't think i could keep up for 24hrs ;)

Chris said...

Well done! - and no penalty points this time :-)

Good result.

trio said...

Kate that is part of being in a team! Using each others strengths, but yes on the road the singlespeed can be a disadvantage!

kate said...

unless we both rode ss ;)

trio said...

I assumed that had already been suggested????

kate said...

no, but we had joked that we need a more specialist category. something like '1 singlspeed and 1 non-runner' ....however, rosemary can run ;)