Paul and I headed down for the F.I.R.M Mud, Sweat, and Gears Offroad Duathlon early Saturday morning.  It’s the exact same course as the April Rockbuster Duathlon.  This is our 3rd time racing this course and true to form, it was raining….again!  All 3 times we have done this course it has rained either on the way down, during the race or the way home (or some combo of those 3).

It’s a crazy cycling/running weekend in New England this weekend too.  Not only was today the duathlon, but it is also the “New England World Championships of Cyclocross” aka Gloucester and tomorrow is the Hampton Half and Full Marathon out on the NH seacoast. 

The turn out for the event was a little slim. the April Rockbuster had over 120 participants and today I think there was about 40-45 total.  I am sure the weather did not help.

The course is a 1.8 mile XC run, followed by a 5.5  mile mtn bike, and then the same 1.8 mile run again.  I personally have been a little lacking in the exercise department the past 3 weeks with how brutal work has been.  I had no problems about finishing, the question was how fast…..

I won’t bother with a blow by blow recap.  I’ll just give the highlights.  1st Run was okay, went out a bit fast, the bike was good but not great, I passed quite a few runners, 2nd run was slower than the first, but I did fairly okay, only got passed by one guy.  I ended up 6th overall, Paul was 3rd overall.  Because of how the scoring works, Paul got a bronze for 3rd overall, which moved him out of the age group awards, so I won the 35-39 age bracket, so we both came away with hardware!  SWEET!

So with a little luck, one of these years we’ll get to race this one in the dry….at least some sunshine….

I’d recommend this to anyone who is interested in trying an off road duathlon.  The distance is manageable and the course is fairly tame by mountain biking standards.  Paul and I both agree we’ll be back.

Thanks for reading!

-Pete