So let’s get the excuses out of the way right now.  I was tired from my exploits at Dambuster plus a full week’s worth of heavy training.  Newbury Duathlon was not an A race by any means, but having competed in the pilot event in 2010, I was keen to measure my improvements over the last 12 months.

And so it was that I lined up with the other 181-odd competitors on Saturday morning, with legs as heavy as lead and a very tight left hamstring.  The start was on a sports field still damp with morning dew, which is I suspect what lead to the guy in front of me taking a faceplant within 50 metres or so of the starting ‘gun’.  Unfortunately, I went down straight over the top of him!  Somehow I think managed to commando roll back into an upright position and was back in the main pack.