The Merrell Mudman is not an event for the faint-hearted. A gruelling mountain bike duathlon on an army training ground in, Camberley, Surrey, it consists of a 7.5km off-road run, 15km bike section and another 7.5km run of the same hilly loop. A straight forward Mudman run is also on offer which covers the exact same tough 7.5km route and kicks off before the main event.
The powers-that-be at Human Race have clearly had hours of fun plotting the route to include as many hills as possible. Not only does the 7.5km loop contain eight - yes eight - hills, the terrain is rutted, sandy and muddy, making for one of the toughest off-road duathlons in the South East. Competitors are promised lots of ‘fun’ and ‘pain’ by organisers Human Race, and the Mudman certainly delivers on both accounts.
Duathletes and runners at the November 2008 Merrell Mudman were treated to a gloriously bright , sunny, winter morning, but with the wind chill factor, temperatures felt more like sub zero with snow showers forecast.
The Mudman run took place before the main duathlon event and was a straight forward affair, with Triathlete, Tim Weeks of Belgrave Harriers, leading from start to finish in a superb time of 31:03 for the same 7.5km route that the duathletes would cover next. Over 2 minutes behind him, was junior athlete Bradley Hales in 33:20 and Mark Glaister, of Thames Turbo, another minute back in 34:31. First woman across the line was Poppy Meadows of 100 Club, in an impressive time of 35:20 and 6th position overall. Clare Owen took 2nd in 40:47 with Christine Meek 3rd in a very credible 41:05.
Competitors in the main duathlon were in for a special surprise as they lined up alongside Merrell athlete and gold Olympian and canoeist, Tim Brabants. Not exactly his sport, however, Brabants was only out for a bit of fun and a break from serious training. That didn’t stop the majority of duathletes hoping to finish ‘having beaten an Olympian’. No pressure then.
As it turned out, the first run was set to be seriously competitive with David Vaughan, Colin Dixon and Jim McConnell all racing into T1 in under 30 minutes and only seconds apart.
All three have serious duathlon pedigree with Vaughan a previous Ballbuster winner, McConnell a Pro on the Xterra circuit and Dixon, one of the UK’s top off-road duathletes and former winner of the Windsor Triathlon (1994). Paul Davies, although a few minutes back, was still a big threat as one of the best mountain bikers out on the course. McConnell, racing for Oxford Tri, and Vaughan were through together after one lap on the bike, but McConnell had gotten a flat, and shot off course to retrieve his keys, race to his car and fit a new inner tube. Impressively, he hopped back on still in good humour and set about chasing down the pack, despite now being about four minutes down. Positions switched again on the bike with Davies now pushing hard behind Dixon who was blistering round the route and showing the field who was in charge. Into T2 and Dixon led onto the run with Vaughan now snapping at his heels with McConnell fast making up time behind them. But despite a superb second run of 31:14, Vaughan – who was taking part in his first off-road duathlon - couldn’t do enough to catch Dixon and he had to settle for second place behind the mountain bike expert who took the victory in a final time of 1:47:22. Meanwhile McConnell had managed to get back into contention and posted the 2nd fastest run of the day in 31:58 to take a superb third place only 2 minutes behind the winner which, given his puncture, was a commendable effort. In the ladies race South Africa’s Aileen Anderson was acclimatising to the cold conditions in her first UK race. She was never in any danger however, and led from start to finish to cross the line in 22nd place overall in a time of 2:11:45, putting in a bike split to give most of the men a run for their money. Second lady to cross the line was Carole Yarrow, impressively in her first ever duathlon, in 2:13:17 posting the 16th fastest 2nd run of the day. Hot on her heels was Fay Cripps in 2:14:00 to take third.
Meanwhile, Tim Brabants was forced to drop out after the bike section struggling with illness. Having suffered from a bout of flu during the whole week, he was a brave man to start the race in the first place. He plans to return for theMerrell ICEMan in February. The words on the lips of competitors after the race were ‘brutal’ and ‘evil’ and many were heard to say it was the toughest thing they’d ever done. Some even said it was harder than the Ballbuster….! The combination of the – too numerous to mention - hills, route and terrain delivered the promised ‘pain’ but the camaraderie, atmosphere and excellent Human Race organisation delivered the ‘fun’. More Merrell Mudman fun is planned for 2009 with the chilly sounding ‘ICEMan’ on 21st February and the Spring Mudman on March 7th.
