Sunday saw the last of the Bowhill Duathlon Series down near Selkirk. For those who like a bit of mountain biking and a run, this is a great series of races over the winter that are also reasonably good value at £16 per race if you do all three. I only saw Nick Williamson with me sporting any Carnethy colours – the rest being in all manner of Goretex and Lycra outfits – or expensive mud protection as I think of it.
And what a glorious final day to race in. Hard frost, bright sunshine and cloud inversions all made the courses around Pernassie Hill as dry and as clean as I have ever seen it – even though it was still a muddfest in places. Some minor tweaks (improvements) to the bike route gave a fabulous fast descent enabling 29mph to be hit on the bike while avoiding frozen ruts and icy puddles. Gripping. Some equally gripping technical forest sections also gave me a chance to catch a few people before transition. The out and back run started slowly and gently for me with a still sore knee which seemed to behave ok after a while thankfully. A long climb to the top of the hill for a Lollypop also included squirming through a wet tunnel during the descent – somewhat easier for us small but perfectly formed types compared to the tall folk.
Nick Williams was up for a podium finish for the race when I saw him on the run return leg in 4th place. He slipped a few places to finish 6th. I managed 38th out of 141 starters Nick’s partner Mary got a piccy of us at the end and might be able to send it in. Race results here: http://www.durtytiming.com/uploads/9/4/4/5/9445925/bowhill_long_2016_results.pdf
Overall result for the series is due out – but my calculation puts Nick on the podium in 2nd MS.
Mark Hartree