Calls to green ‘concrete jungle’

South Tyneside Council please take note.

Tyne Dock Green is relocating

Well, sort of... I’ve started up another blog that you can check out here. It’s a bit sparse at the moment but all the athletics porn as well as the stuff that I post after a few pints will be going on there. Check it out from time to time.

Education, education, education.

Another excellent post from BP

Emily, Bryan and Bob Too!

Emily with two fat blokes and that bastard hill we had to run up five times

1500m sea swim, cycle 42km from Bamburgh to Alnwick, 10km run through the grounds of Alnwick castle. What could possibly go wrong?

About a month after we’d paid our entry fee I read a review of the Castles Challenge Triathlon in 220 magazine, unfortunately the article was entitled Britain’s Hardest Triathlons. I thought it was probably best if I didn’t mention this to Bob.

I’d always suspected that me and Bob were going to be slugging it out for last place but that didn’t worry us. Our aim had always been to survive and finish it within the cut off time. Sprint distance triathlons appear to attract all shapes and sizes of triathlete. But when you step up to Olympic distance events the ‘fun runners’ seem to evaporate, which is a bit of a shame really because with sensible training they are well within most peoples capabilities.

Emily had travelled up from Liverpool to take part; she looked pretty stunned as she witnessed me and Bob ‘carbo loading’ the night before the race. My pre-race nutrition consisted of a scotch pie, ice cream, bruschetta, half a bottle of red, carbonara tagliatelle, chocolate fudge cake and more ice cream. All washed down with a pint of Wylam pale ale. I had kept a spare scotch pie in my room just in case I got peckish during the night. Bob’s intake was similar but he’d managed to squeeze in a visit to a friends barbeque as well.

The race went almost perfectly. Emily finished a good half hour ahead of us. I had a bit of a problem with the circulation in my right hand during the swim due to my wet suit no longer fitting me (it was probably that extra portion of ice cream that did it). Bob was always going to be disadvantaged on a bike that looked like it weighed two tons. And my knee decided to stop working properly after about 4km into the run. I still finished about twenty minutes quicker than I thought I would.

Spectator support and encouragement from the race marshals was excellent and also much appreciated in what was a very friendly and well organised race in a beautiful setting. I hope to see a few more of you there next year?

Marathon training starts today

...well injury permitting it does. But I won’t really know until I get out and test out my knee. Bob has got the triathlon bug so we’ve entered another in a month’s time. This time the swim will take place in a reservoir that supplies drinking water to North-East England. Not a pleasant thought if you happen to live in the North-East.

Penalty shootouts – the grim reality explained by a Leicester fan