A bit dull ( unless you're a bit of a bike mechanic) but does show real craftsmen at work.

the last 2 minutes are nice.
Bikes were tested by engineers.  Today they're tested by marketing.
Bikes were built to last rather than to the latest sales trend.  Aluminium frames last 5 to 10 years, steal pretty much lasts forever (if painted). 

Carbon will snap.  Steel will bend and straighten.

So here’s mrsm’s Freelander 2 – a great car.  Some people may not consider this a “proper” Landy – but for carting the family around its comfortable, quiet, quick, warm and dry.  (Mainly because the Land Rover Brummies realised that after 70 years they couldn’t make a sunroof that didn’t leak so decided not to fit one).  Does need a fuel tanker in tow though.

Since we decided this would be our family car, we needed a way to cart 5 bikes around.  On my Disco I used a Simbars rack, which carries 4 bikes on the rear door and dropped the other in the boot.  With no rear wheel carrier it was not going to fit.  However, we picked one with a towing hitch so I looked for a tow bar mounted rack.

The MaxxRaxx fitted the bill, holding up to 5 bikes and dropping down to allow rear door access.

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Pre-race.

Big Fionnuala decided the “Whitehead Easter Monday Road Race and Fun Run 2012” should be our next timed run.

Entry was “old school”, no online entry and not too much detail of route, start point or much else.   However, Whitehead is not exactly massive, we just followed the other runners and signed up in the community centre.

The race.

The route consisted of 3 laps of the town or one lap for “fun runners”.

Fionnuala hates running the same route so I took off quickly to avoid the complaints.

Most of the runners seemed to be club runners so the event was quick.  I’d guess there was about 190 runners.  I finished in about 40 minutes which I was happy enough with.

The warm down

Tea was provided, but one of the benefits of these smaller gatherings is that sandwiches are usually abundant.  Sadly, this was not the case.

I asked the lady entering the result s into a laptop if they would be online.  She seemed a bit confused but said that they could put them on their facebook page.  Seems unlikely and hasn’t happened yet!

Conclusion

• More details online and online registration would probably attract more runners.
• A race more for competitive road runners than the casual jogger, with virtually no flat and lots of club runners,
• Lack of online (or any) time posting a bit annoying – no idea what my official time was
• Sandwiches needed!

Get with the times!

OK, you may have noticed the Discovery has gone and in its place is a shiny Defender.  With mrsm now in possession of a Freelander 2 (which I have to say is a beautiful car), I could buy a Defender as it would not be the main family car.

On advice from previous owner and from the noise from the rear mounted spare wheel each time I went over a bump, I bought a Britpart rear wheel carrier.  I had this fitted as I was getting some other work done anyway and new I wouldn’t have time.  Ian at 4X4 store kindly welded up my knackered rear door at the same time.

I had researched in advance and found this information on fitting a Simbars Discovery rack to a Defender wheel carrier was hoping to do the same.

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OK, so this is not beer or gear related. 

I started training for the Belfast marathon last year with my sister in law who, unfortunately, had to drop out of training for a while due to injury.

Yesterday was Larne 1/2 marathon.  I had only previously done one 1/2 marathon in about 9 years (Lisburn) but I had a PB of 2:02 to beat.

Anyway, Larne gets quite a hard time of it, especially by people who’ve never been to Hull, but I have to say this was a great event, very well organised with easy parking, registration etc.  Water was every 4 miles or so and there was plenty of it.

I had a slight issue with registration as someone had taken my number and bag – I just registered again and got £5 back as they’d run out of T-shirts, result!

Route was mostly flat along the coast road with a quick excursion inland at Ballygalley – which was a bit hilly.

I recorded 1:54:51 on my runkeeper and official race time of 1:55:55 and chip time of 1:54:47 (runner 1425) finishing 696’th of 1300 or so.

Runkeeper embed – that still probably doesn’t work!

Well pleased, beating my PB by 8 minutes or so. 

Highly recomended event – well done to Larne Athletics Club for a great event – they event got the weather right.

Breakfast

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Since I was the nominated driver, I had stopped drinking early – but still felt pretty wrecked – probably from all the planking I did the night before.

Nice drive up to Dingle up Conor pass. 

Dingle was a bit desolate and not as nice as I remembered it – everything was shut and we wondered around an hour or so before finding a spot for tea.

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After a bacon bap and a shower John headed us along the coast from Westport and then we cut in through some stunning countryside, passed lots of wild rhubarb.

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We woke at 4 am with old mans bladder and then again at 6:45 – as this seems to be the time John normally gets up.

We quickly packed the tent and then blagged free coffee, use of toilets in Jackson’s and got an early start to the day – picking up our challenges and heading off at 8.

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We started a the day with jaunt up the North coast.  I suggested a detour passed Torr head – that was not too popular – burning brakes and general moaning.

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