First of all thanks for your support and donations to Hope House. Including the gift aid and some creative accounting including the Three Peaks sponsorship) Hope House should be over £550 better off through your donations. I know they will appreciate this and use it well. Although I didn't make it all the way around it the event went fairly well.

We started at 8AM and I managed to finish the first run of just over 29 hilly miles in 5 hours and 50 minutes, coming in third to check-point 2 where my bike was waiting. At this point the guys taking the 'soft' option of the 112 mile run course carried on and the duathletes started on 2 very hilly 50 mile bike laps. I joined up with one of the other riders for a bit of company and set off. All went well until night-fall when the light disappeared to be replaced by torrential rain (The average rainfall for the whole of June in one night!) and temperatures falling to just 7 degrees. By the end of the night the weather was really taking its toll, leaving just two of us in the race. I pulled out about 20 miles from the end of the bike section at 5AM. The next section of the course was long, very remote and exposed, tackling it alone in those conditions would have been very risky.

In the end Andy Boyd was the only one to finish and a very worthy winner. It was a shame not to finish it as my riding was getting faster as my legs 'recovered' from the run and I felt like I could have finished if it wasn't for the mild hypothermia. Unfortunately this event now sits at the top of the pile labeled 'unfinished business' so I might have to give it another go next year, weather permitting. There are some pictures up in the Gallery section and there are more available on the web.

Thanks again for all your support - The money raised was substantially more than I thought possible, and having been to visit Hope House I know its going to a good cause.

 Mike article on the event on Bike Magic

More photos here and here