The Coed y Brenin Off-Road Duathlon is an event that’s thus far managed to stay off the BM radar, although 26 October 2008 will see its third running. It’s a 5km run/20km bike/5km run event in aid of the Gwynedd Air Ambulance and the Mawddach Rotary Club.

It’s open to solo competitors or you can relay it as a team. The event will be based at the old Coed Y Brenin visitor centre and will use the Tarw (formerly known as the Red Bull) trail. That raises the interesting prospect of running a substantial section of purpose-built trail – we await the “what shoes for trail centres” queries…

The bike leg will be two laps of a subset of the Tarw trail (you won’t be running and riding the same bits), with the transitions taking place outside the visitor centre.

Multisport events are always a good crack (although you won’t think so when you embark on that second run leg and it feels like your legs have been stolen and replaced with a pair of cocktail sticks). Head to www.vlaevents.co.uk for further details and on-line entry.