Sixth in her age group for her first Half Ironman… doesn’t get much better than that. Carla tells us about the Cowman 70.3:

‘We travelled up to Emberton Park Saturday for registration, to familiarise ourselves with the course and I was also keen to see the lake. The setting was great in the middle of the Park (with ample parking and loos close by!). The course was right up my street, some undulating hills and predominantly off road run – fantastic.

Would you Adam and Eve it, we are in the middle of a HEATWAVE – I’m not complaining, the weather is stunning (if you’re relaxing by the lake with a picnic and playing rounder’s like ‘normal’ people). Completing a half Ironman in it, another story, so anyway I crack on…..

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For Simon Tack the MAA triathlon was his second ever tri and his first Olympic Distance event. The timing for Simon wasn’t great as he was just recovering from a lung infection, but 15^th in his age group 45^th overall are not bad stats! Even more worthy of  congratulations are that Simon managed a personal best in the cycling and most importantly a PB in the run.

Simon says: ‘The run is by far my weakest discipline but I managed a 54.12 even though I left transition with my helmet on, did not realise for 150m so had to run back to the exit and give it to a marshal. Prize muppet. Still, the first time I have run under 57 minutes for a 10k and it was after the other 2 events. Colette was racing as well which really made the day.’

Times:SWIM 26.45; T1 02.31; CYCLE 1.22.11; T2 01.24;RUN 54.20

TOTAL 2.47.12

Good luck with your next race Simon – a 70.3 at Eton none-the-less!

As Kate and Nicola headed for Dorney Lake for the Shock Absorber Women’s Only Tri, both were nervous about the consequences of the heat: potential wet suit ban and challenging racing conditions. Their 1.40pm Sprint race start time meant, however, that getting into the lake was a welcome respite from the heat.

As the swim started Nicola was soon ahead, but Kate on cornering the final buoy before the 150m straight for home caught sight of a pink shoulder in the distance, so sprinted to catch it… and did so just before the swim exit ramp. Nicola sped through transition though and was out on the bike course first; only to be caught by Kate again half way round the first lap of 4. Nicola overtook Kate again on lap 2. Kate overtook Nicola on lap 3. Nicola regained the lead on lap 4, but the 2 hit transition together. Nicola was once again much faster in transition and out on to the run course first…  but was caught by Kate half way through the first of 2 laps!

Brutal heat, but friendly rivalry certainly made both work much harder and really enjoy the tri.

‘WOW what can I say. I’ve never raced in heat like that.

Did the USN Bedford Olympic tri last year and thought I’d head back for more fun on the run. It was 24 degrees at 8am!! And I was sweating like a pig in my Helix and the pre race briefing when on for an age. Knew it was going to be a tough day with the heat, but with Charlie Pennington – semi pro / Freespeed racing I knew that this racing snake was here to go fast.

We swam side by side and exited the water together – only for myself to get stuck in the mud getting out – mad me laugh but lost the fastest swim split in the process – low 20s and it felt easy. I exited T1 still in first place – these 70.3 guys are pants at transitions. I went hard hoping to get out of side but at 5km Charlie slowly by. We exchanged the lead over the first 25km before I slipped a chain on a hill. Charlie hit the hammer and got out of sight. I came into t2 a minute down. By now it was touching 30degrees and a XC run is not what I want in the heat. Went hard and did a 19min first lap then BOOM – died a death of a thousand monkeys and did the ironman shuffle to get home. I dropped from 2nd to 7th but over the final 1km picked off two to come home 5th and with a shocking run time (2^nd fastest on the swim though).’

Bournemouth Olympic Distance Tri, on the day that summer finally decides to arrive… Deon Coetzee reports that it was paradoxically a brutal race with awesome conditions for racing!

‘ The sea was flat and crystal clear not unlike the med this time of year. I went off in the 1st wave which was supposed to be the fastest one of the day but by 200m I was left swimming by myself out front which is not my favourite swim.. So, I had to set my own pace which felt comfortable and probably could have been a lot quicker. I came out of the water 1st in and got onto my Achilles heel  – the dreaded bike. But it didn’t turn out that way. I only got passed by 1 person and ended up knocking 2 minutes off my previous year’s time. So, I came off the bike in second but was hit by a recurring muscle spasm I have been having in my left quad which has forced me to pull out of at least 2 races so far this season. But I wasn’t about to bail on another so a quick bit of stretching and a slower start to the run and I managed to run the full 10k. Not my fastest but I did enough to hold onto 2nd. With the final results out I finished 3rd overall for the day so I was very happy with that.’

Five intrepid Viceroys headed down to LLandudno in Wales for the ITU qualifiers… or just a nice break by the seaside, depending on who you’re speaking to. Hills, jellyfish and huge transitions seem to be the one experience each triathlete shared though.

The sea was a chilly 12 degrees, however jellyfish collisions were far more of a worry. Em and Colin were both victims of this Welsh predator, but it did not stop either of them. For Colin, the race had an ideal start, with a long swim to the start help to settle his pre-race nerves, setting for the final roll of the dice in the last chance saloon of world championships sprint qualification. Trevor, Alex and Fab’s swims went well (apart from some goggle failure for Fab) – Trevor taking particular pride in his race tactics: ‘I normally start at the front in the swim but because of the number of much younger swimmers I started just behind the first line. This proved to work well as I was able to draft off quite a large group and then actually overhauled some of them to finish 2nd out of the water in my age group.’

Colin’s most vivid swim memory:‘my face and neck stinging like fury – “feck… that smarts like feck, feck… that smarts …. and repeat…”. ‘

After an incredibly long transition, the bike leg was all about the hills for all 5 competitors. Blind corners, snaking roads, cliffs, rough road surfaces, scattered pot holes did not stop Alex reaching a maximum race  speed of over 70kph! . Meanwhile, Trevor at the top of on ascent remembers thinking : ‘how the F–k am I going to do the second lap! Then came the descent and I bottled it! my brakes were red hot by the time I got down.’  Continue reading →

After rupturing his ACL at the end of last season, James Turner’s first tri of this season was approached with a  relaxed attitude:

‘I just rolled up on the night at Dorney and signed up for the 3rd and final wave of the evening. Into the wetsuit and waiting for the briefing a flash of pink passes me shouting at all in front of him to clear the way… Viceroy Rory Spicer flew through the transition area and out onto the bike course.About 30 seconds before the briefing start I spot another viceroy Simon hurriedly racking his bike and getting into his wetsuit. Continue reading →

Simon Pratt travelled to Nice with partner and fellow Viceroy Suze to tackle IM. After registration and racing  on Saturday the nerves unsurprisingly started to kick in, really not helped by lots and lots of carbon being wheeled around by bronzed, toned athletes and not a leg hair in sight!  

After a 4am Sunday alarm call, he headed for the advertised ‘120 m section of beach promising a calm swim start’.  Unfortunately 2500 other people obviously had the same cunning plan! 6.30am and it was mayhem – after naively deciding to trust the group around him for directions all seemed fine until a North African trawler pointed out they were heading for the Suez Canal!  Simon was relieved to finally climb  out the water in one piece after a very challenging 1.23.

En route to transition Simon managed to entertain the crowd by falling flat on his face after hearing Suze call his name and looking away from the approaching ramp.

The bike course was a scenic one lap route with 1800m of long, but not too steep climbs and fast winding descents: ‘Very enjoyable apart from the headwind on the last 30km and the ####ers would clearly think drafting is mandatory. Off the bike after 6.10 in the saddle.’ After transition it was out onto the run; Simon finished the mind numbing 4 laps along the sea front in 4.07 crossing the finish in 12.06.

AND promptly popped the Big Question to Suze who said yes!

Alan Harris, Colin Hinsley and Alan Clark headed to the World qualifier at Bristol Harbourside last Sunday. This is Alan Harris’ race view:
‘The swim was in the high walled harbour and with everyone super tense about qualification I can honestly say that was the most violent race I’ve swum in the 12 years that I’ve been racing. Having been elbowed in the throat I thought twice about retaliating and reckoned that I’d save my energy. It was still full-on though even after the turn and beyond. Absolute carnage.I was out of the water in 7th and knew that I was in the hunt. By the end of the first lap of the bike I was battling with a couple of other guys in AG. At the turns it was squeaky bum time with the pack just 30secs back (there was a lot of drafting and a number of DQs including 2 brothers in my AG who must have been working together). I passed Colin as he was just getting up to speed at the start of his 1st bike lap (us Viceroys certainly stand out in pink!). Through T2 I overtook the 2 guys ahead of me and figured that if I was on the limit then so must they be and they’d just have to run me down if they could. I then ran scared on the out-back course which then multiplied into mild panic at the turn when the pack was still very much in touch.

In the end I held on and finished strongly 2nd in AG a minute ahead of 3rd and only 10secs short of 1st place. So Hyde Park on Friday 13th here I come!!!

Another tri mate in 50-54 saw 1st and 2nd in his AG come to blows in T2! He was shouting “DQ DQ DQ” at the marshalls in the hope of bumping up a couple of places! The lure of Hyde Park has really changed the atmosphere this season and not for the better. Fighting…drafting…etc and race organisers raking-in the cash and making registration the day before the event even for a midday start time. I think that everyone has been feeling the pressure.’

‘I’ve always been into sport, but the gym bores me! I’ve played netball most of my life, I ski, wakeboard and kitesurf too. I completed a 5km run last year for charity and with the Olympics approaching I thought ‘I know, I’m going to do a triathlon!’ So I signed up to a sprint triathlon in Seaford, which was my first taste of open water swimming (a rough swim in the sea), my first experience of racing on a bike, and I LOVED it! I can’t say I enjoyed the run, but I’ve never liked running. Can’t run won’t run!