For Goodness Shakes

So in addition to racing for Team Mud Dock I dabble in a bit of adventure racing for top UK adventure racing team For Goodness Shakes (http://www.forgoodnessshakes.com/). We're racing in Abu Dhabi in 7 weeks time and for a bit of practice we decided to enter a fast and furious Trailplus race in Petersfield. The format was no nav just run, mtb, run, kayak, run, bike, silly games. It was amazing fun.

Team Helly Hansen were the favourites and we knew we had to stick with them from the start to have half a chance. I've been out of AR for a while and didn't know how I'd fare against Team HH after 2 years away from running but 2 years of full on mountain biking.

I managed to stick with Nic McCloud from HH for the first run, which was a fast and furious 30 minutes. Team Captain Andy Wilson helped push me up a few hills and it was a struggle but the moment I got on the bike I felt good again. Heart rate settled and we shot off, overtaking the Hellies immediately.

But then puncture number 1 happened... then puncture number 2 and they caught us. We were then on the back foot and chasing. I ran so hard, being towed by the insanely strong Dave Barnaville and was just willing the bike section to start again.

Eventually it did and the boys had worked out we were 2mins 30 secs down on Helly. We shot off on the 45 minute bike loop feeling mega strong. I was leading and really enjoying the technical singletrack and swoopy descents. Within 12 minutes we had caught our rivals up on a fireroad climb. But another bleedin' puncture had us set back again. But nothing was stopping us now. We shot forwards and caught them almost immediately, spinning straight past and soon out of sight.

Coming into the finish and with just the scramble nets, ski-planks and slippery wall to contend with, we had over 5 minutes on them. We skipped across the line the victors and were 6th overall out of 300 teams. I felt really happy to have proven myself in such a high profile team and was proud to have won such a fast and furious race given the amount I've concentrated on longer stuff this year.

Also, my running felt good and I really enjoyed it, despite the effort. And the team are such an amazing group of guys, the whole weekend was superb fun!

Team Mud Dock is representing on the dark side of AR, so beware!

Fi
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