Norwich Paris Duathlon

At the Recruiting Sargeant, Coltishall (ready for the off)

 I had the immense privilege of sharing the road with 2 intrepid (mad) cyclorunners on Wednesday 3rd April.

My Nephew, Josh Brighty and his mate Andy Mulligan are cycling Norwich to Paris, running the Paris Marathon and then cycling back to Norwich, all in the space of 10 days! Raising money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

I, plus 4 other of their friends, met them at the Recruiting Sargeant pub in Coltishall, just North of Norwich for Le Grand Depart with each of us riding a portion of the route with them to see them on their way.

2 riders had left the "peleton" by the time we were just south of Norwich to get to work, and the other 2 left us at New Buckenham. That left three of us, making the most of the lovely tailwind all the way through to Lavenham, just south of Bury St Edmunds for lunch.

Last minute bike tweaking

Brief pitstop in Tombland

Post lunch, it was time for me to say goodbye (au revoir) and begin the long lonely slog back home, predominantly wind against for 4.5hrs, meant that the average speed dropped off the edge of the proverbial cliff, and I questioned my sanity on a number of occasions but eventually arrived home, with 133 miles in the legs!

The boys are on their 3rd day now, and should be within 50 miles of Paris when they stop tonight - perfect preparation for running a further 26 miles on Sunday before turning teh bikes around for the homeward journey!

If you would like to keep up with their endeavours then you can follow them on Facebook here but more importantly, if you could sponsor them, then please click here and follow the instructions!