Caravan Calamity

It's always a gamble, entering a big endurance event. Months of work and build up, all for one day. It is all consuming, every weekend gets taken up with a training epic or practise race. Holidays get planned around good training locations. Toenails gradually disappear. Life becomes divided in "before and after", where "after" is really the only suitable time for hardcore socials as it won't interfere with training. Money gets spent fine-tuning your bike (okay, getting bar tape that matches your frame and helmet..) whilst your car gets abandoned and no matter which bag you go to, there will be some sort of energy bar in it, just in case.

The Inaugural Chatsworth Triathlon

A standard distance tri in a glorious country house location with a river swim? I'll have one of those please! I was looking for a race to do in combination with a visit to Chesterfield and seemed like just the ticket. At the last minute, Lizzie decided she wanted a piece of the action and entered herself into the sprint, which was to be her first ever triathlon.

Lakeland Trails Marathon 2014

I'd been trying to get my legs conditioned for proper endurance throughout this year ready for the attempt at an iron distance triathlon in September. Having had a lower limb disaster earlier in the year whilst attempting to run an ultra marathon, I needed to prove to myself that I could in fact run the distance. So, I entered what I thought was going to be a lovely trail marathon that skirted around the waterside paths of Coniston, in the Lake District.

Starting a little late...

We arrived at the start in plenty of time for a leisurely coffee, and decided to wander on over to a scenic location to enjoy it: the toilet queue. The race was due to start at 9 and we still had a good thirty minutes. The queue, however,  was not moving quickly and by 08:52 I could feel myself getting agitated. I reached the front of the line at 08:57 and felt much better, it was a worthwhile wait. Once I'd exited though I could hear the 10 second countdown commencing and pegged it across the field as fast I could. I was too late. The race started and I had to squeeze down the edge of the starting funnel against all the runners to get to the chip timing mat. The man on the megaphone excitedly announced that there was a mad girl going the wrong way. I did a u-turn at the timing mat and got a massive cheer from the crowd, he then announced that I was his favourite, which was a very positive start to the race!

Egg's Guide to the Challenge Weymouth Bike Course

I headed off to deepest Dorset with cycling buddy Sarah at the weekend for a first recce of the Challenge Weymouth bike course. I have written a basic guide to the main parts of the course below, but before you embark on a recce of your own, please note these important points:

There is only ONE proper tea shop en route as far as we could see (Pine Lodge Team Rooms, number 5) and the first time we passed it, it was closed. It's a mysterious place without a website or a Facebook page so the opening hours remain unknown. Sarah has been once before though and can vouch for their cream teas. 

Part of the route appears to require a mountain bike. A very hardy road cyclist may risk their rubber across the one hundred or so metres of gravel (3) but we picked up our steeds and shouldered them over. This was after several navigational misadventures as we couldn't believe the route actually went that way despite the GPS telling us it did. Challenge Tri have assured me it is being resurfaced though, phew!

Body Glide (for her)

With some long swimming events and triathlons coming up in the next few months, it was time to buy some Body Glide. I came across this new "for her" version on Wiggle. I couldn't imagine any possible reason why such a product required a female-specific version, but it was about a pound cheaper than the regular stuff, so I ordered it.

When it arrived, I couldn't help but notice it was considerably smaller than the normal one. Suddenly that discount made sense. On the positive side, no longer would I have to suffer the humiliation of asking my big man friends to carry it for me in their larger, masculine bags. It would fit so easily into my handbag, which - naturally - is my preferred choice of carry-on for races and the like. It would also make the application effortless as I would be able to hold onto the container more easily with my feeble lady grip.

Obviously, a bright pink lid is exactly what I wanted as a female consumer. I can't imagine the shame of buying a feminine product in a dull, grey hue.

Slateman Tri 2014

After my adventure with Ruth to the Snowman Tri last year, the Slateman was immediately added to our hit list as another brilliant event on the Always Aim High calendar. We made the obligatory overnight stop at Telford and smashed up the parkrun on the Saturday morning before ambling over to Snowdonia. The drive in to Llanberis doubled up as a recce of the end of the bike course and it looked just fine to us: easy!

At registration we realised we were in different swim starts, and couldn't figure out why or how they had organised the waves. Ruth was in the final wave which started 20 minutes after mine. This meant my whole race strategy had to change from "just enjoy the race, take it easy, you're here to have fun" to "you must absolutely rag the bike as hard as you can and pray you don't get caught on the run". We also spotted Jane Hansom at registration who is one of our favourite triathlete ladies but we were too rushed (and scared) to go and talk to her because we were keen to find the hog roast which had been promised in the race information. Sadly, it was all closed up by the time we got there but we promised ourselves a post-race hog roast instead.

Maz's First 20 (+1)

Maz is an old school friend who has never been keen on exercise. She's a friend I can always rely on if what I need to do is sit in my pyjamas drinking wine and eating brownies. So, when she told me she had entered the London Marathon, my first reaction was to laugh out loud. I wasn't being cruel, I just didn't quite believe what I was hearing. Of all the people in my life who could possibly enter, she was far, far down on the list. She had suffered the same plight as many of us do, a drunken night with silly suggestions that get taken too far. I wasn't entirely sure she would take it very seriously, but held my hands up when I saw her a few weeks later only to hear about the rigorous running regime she was on. I was amazed.