Broxtowe Duathlon & Coniston 14

Run bike run & the most scenic race in Britain?

The brothers Chapman don’t believe in resting at the weekend and this weekend was no different as they tackled the Broxtowe Duathlon Challenge. In wet & windy conditions across trails, parkland & farmers fields the boys were well to the fore on the 4k run, 14k mountain bike & 2k run. Not much separated the brothers at the finish but it was Shane who led the way home with 17^th place out of 162 starters in a time of 60.24. Paul was only 6 places behind in 61.45
Usually there is an annual pilgrimage of Club runners to the Coniston 14 but this year it was more a delegation as Chris Gunstone and Chris Mason tackled the re-arranged race. The race is something of a throw back were most bigger races, particularly the inner city races, are organized by private companies, in that it is organized by local people as a fundraising event. Billed as probably the most scenic race in Britain on a bright, sunny day as Saturday was it was very difficult to argue with this. The only very minor problem is that, as you would expect, the course is very undulating. Chris Mason finished 43^rd in a time of 1.35.52 which was good enough for the 1^st MV60 prize. Chris Gunstone started a bit more sedately reflecting his lack of recent racing action but towards the end had the great feeling of passing people and was well content with his 1.44.53 and 123^rd place out of almost a 1000 starters. The next race is in March (its usual date) and entries for this will be opening soon.