Proper Preparation Prevents P... Poor Performance

Having only done a Duathlon once before (and that was inadvertently, because the swim leg of a Triathlon was cancelled) I was looking forward to the challenge of the Whinlatter off-road Duathlon last Sunday. Challenging it was, as I'm sure all the Big Bear Racers would agree, as the run was very steep in parts and had to be completed before and after the 15km technical Mtb course. During the Mtb leg an unexpected challenge however was simply down to my poor planning.  I punctured at the bottom of the last descent and cursing my luck I whipped the back wheel off, pulled out the punctured inner tube, grabbed the replacement only to find...... yup it had a schraeder valve instead of a presta!
There was 'nowt for it but to re-attach the wheel, throw the whole lot over my shoulder and shuffle off along the trail. I gritted my teeth as twenty or so riders that I had worked quite hard to overtake sailed past me, although several did have the good grace to say "oh bad luck". I was momentarily tempted to jack it in after the bike section but was reminded of a T-shirt that I saw the other day which said "Death B4 DNF". Buoyed by the cheers that greeted me on arrival at Transition, with bike still slung over shoulder, I clocked in, dumped the bike and headed back out on the trail. 
So the moral of this story is .....I will add a 10 second check on my inner tubes from now on. As the title says Proper Planning Prevents P... Poor Performance.

http://www.highterrainevents.co.uk/3.html