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I raced the first of the Punchestown Duathlons today. It turned out to be a nice race, despite the threatenings of the weather. It started to spit before the race started, but once it was on, it stayed dry.

I brought Greg out as well and we met up with Louis, Sean and a mate of Seans. There was quite a bit of faffing around before the race as the registration closed 30 minutes before the race was due to start. Despite this I still managed to make a hames of the start. I was using Louise's watch to time myself as mine is away getting a new battery. When the start came around, I was still messing with it trying to get the stopwatch started!

I managed to beat my way to nearer the front and finished the first run in 12 minutes. Then on to the bike. I was passed out on the first little downhill section out of the race course, but then managed to make up quite a few places on the uphills. At the turn around I was in 11th place. On the way back, I had a tit for tat race with two other guys until we got back to transition. Out of transition, my time was 50 minutes, so I reckon I was on the bike for about 36 minutes.

I passed one of the guys early in the run, but was caught by the other one. I stayed with him until 400m from the finish, when he put on a bit of a spurt and I dropped off. I finally finished in 1:04:22, taking 4 minutes off my time from last year! Yay!

It also meant that I finished in tenth place.

The next one is on February 10th, but I won't be able to make it because I have to go to the Shannon Gaels 30th anniversary dinner dance the night before.