Six Wusses in Search of an Easy Life

While the Half Ironman nutters were enduring a world of self-inflicted pain in the New Forest, six MSTC wusses (and extras) found an easier way to spend a glorious Sunday morning at the Crawley Tri Club’s Late Summer Tri at K2.

After a delayed start – organisation not quite up to the high standard established by the Mid Sussex Triathlon – Lawrence Wintergold gave his usual strong performances on the bike and run to finish first of the six, with a time of 01:11.40, coming second in the Veterans 1/2 category out of 42 contestants.

But one triathlon wasn’t enough for Lawrence and he was last seen on a ‘warm-down’ that seemed set to cover the entire run course – a picturesque but hilly route through Tilgate Forest – for a second time. ‘This’ll confuse the marshals,’ were his parting words.

Next was Martin Hollamby, Margaret’s son, a ringer drafted in from BAD Tri in Bath.

Last seen in these parts falling off his mum’s bike on a muddy lane near Plumpton, Martin set the record straight with an impressive time of 01:15:23 and a seventh-place finish in the Senior category (60 contestants).

Mat Record and John Liebers finished together in a touching display of club esprit de corps, with Mat’s strong swim in the 50-metre pool propelling him to a time of 01:18:59 and a 12th-place finish in the Senior category. John also performed well to clock 01:23:13 and 12th place in the Veterans 1/2 race

Margaret, as is customary, was first woman home in the Veterans 3/4 category, in second place out of 13 contestants overall, with a time of 01:24:35 and an all-round strong performance across the three disciplines.

Callum Murray was fifth in the same category with a time of 01:27:11, after bike and run legs with which he/I was happy. His/my swimming could do with some work, though. He/I was still being overtaken by breast-strokers!

BAR update after 9 events

MEN

1st James DEAR 79pts
2nd Rob HOODLESS 62
3rd Dave JONES 58
4th Stu NISBETT 51
5th Steve ALDEN 47
6th Dave LASHBROOK 45
7th Jon WEBSTER 37
8th Loz WINTERGOLD 33
9th Andy HEATH 10
10th Mike McLOUGHLIN 9
11th Steve MacMENEMIN 7
12th Howard PICKETT 6
13th Callum MURRAY 4
David RICKETTS 4
15th Mat RECORD 3
16th Chris DURRANT 1
John LARDNER 1



WOMEN

1st Rachel BAKER 66pts
2nd Claire CRESSWELL 45
3rd Tamsin DOUGLAS-SMITH 29
4th Lucy WILLIAMS 27
5th Margaret HOLLAMBY 20
6th Debbie NISBETT 8
7th Emma ALDEN 7
8th Julie WILLIAMS 6

Super Hilly New Forest Race Tamed

A remarkable turnout of 10 athletetes at The New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon, made Mid Sussex Tri Club the most represented club in the race. With two 3rd places and one 4th place in the age groups and good performances across the board this was a race that will not be forgotten.
I can confidently say that no-one will forget that run route. Whether we were mountain climbing up the slopes, or abseiling down again, I doubt if there is a tougher half marathon leg in a middle distanc race in the country.
The honours went to James Dear and Tamsin, but there was alot of close racing. And surely the performance of the day went to Clare, who may not have been the quickest, but was rightly so pleased with her performance that she was buzzing for the rest of the day.
A huge well done to all 10 athletes, because that was one tough race.

Men

1st James Dear 5h16m15s (20th) 10pts
2nd Jon Webster 5h32m07s (55th) 9
3rd Dave Lashbrook 5h34m41s (62nd) 8
4th Rob Hoodless 5h35m39s (66th) 7
5th Steve Alden 5h38m37s (69th) 6
6th Steve Mac 6h24m46s (204th) 5
7th Howard Pickett 7h2m36s (279th) 4

Women

1st Tamsin D-Smith 6h31m26s (221st) 10pts
2nd Rachel Baker 6h33m49s (233rd) 9
3rd Claire Cresswell 7h24m59s (310th) 8

Southwater relays

Yet another lovely weekend in England for racing! Yet this did not put off the 137 teams rocking up early Sunday to race. Although three teams in the results seem to be missing some members. Maybe they got lost under the bed covers. I know that i was tempted!

Never the less Mid Sussex had two teams entered. Tamsin lead off the Barbie girls and David Jones went first for D,K,N,Y,2,TRI. Both managed to put in faster times than last year in slower conditions. Tamsin improved by an impressive 2mins and 34secs!

Katherine was a little shocked when she had the lead going into the swim! However, despite the pressure, managed a good performance in only her 3rd Tri. Lucy looked like she had a slick transition and held good run form to complete her leg in good style.

It was also Nikki's 3rd Tri, in which she put a good race together. After a strong swim Nikki was clearly in a state of flow as she flew into T1. Managing to maintain the flow Nikki brought the team home in 74th. Rachel was also clearly focused on the job at hand as she waited in the change over box. Her time brought The Barbie girls home in 85th and 5th in all female catagorie.

Congratulations to all that took part and lets hope we have more teams next year!?!

The long and the short of it.

If you don't want to read the very long post!

I raced Bedford Olympic and had a bad race.

I raced the world long course and was happy with my performance and had a lot of fun.

Thanks,

David

The long and the short of it!

The past two weekends could not have been any more different. Once again I turned up to race the Jordans Bedford Olympic on the bank holiday weekend. This was followed by the ITU World 03 championships.

Early on Sunday the 24th August I drove up to Bedford hoping the weather would start to improve, and that after the first taper week of the year, a fast time would be on. After queuing for registration under an umbrella the rain finally stopped for the start of a race. Florian Leder set the early pace for the swim with a 20mins 47secs while I was a little too relaxed with a 26min swim, never finding a good rhythm. The wind had not dropped on the bike and with the roads still wet I rode some interesting lines round the course. I held back on the bike as I was looking to have a solid run. Although comfortable with the effort my intestines had other ideas! I set the 3rd fastest bike split of the day just 25sec behind Mark Livesey and his 1hr 02mins 20secs. I had good pace for the first lap of the three lap run course. Unfortunately I had to take a diversion to the loos. I managed to recover a little for the second lap but had another pit stop and just jogged the last lap. Steve Harrison eventual winner in 2hrs 26secs, had the fastest run split of the day with 35mins 23secs.


This year’s worlds were held in sunny Almere, Holland. Yet another early start, I begrudgingly set my alarm for 04:00 on Friday 29th to catch my 06:15 flight to Amsterdam. The journey was running smoothly until the 45min coach transfer took 90min. The team became a little concerned when the driver started to back track. He eventually drove to the nearest town, and pulled over to ask the direction to Centre parcs, which was the base for the weekend. Once we found the cottages we had to leave again for Almere, some 15k away, as registration closed mid afternoon.


Saturday morning I rode to Almere for the bike racking and to have a second breakfast, I recommend a Turkish No 1 if anyone races next year!


Race day came round all too quickly. The forecast was for a scorcher of a day and the weather did not disappoint. Blue sky and a strong breeze the race started at 08:55 with 1000 other men taking the plunge for a 4k swim that turn out to be closer to 4.5k. The start was busy and after 700m the first turn buoy appeared. Turning greater than 100 degrees the sun presented a sighting issue which made the next 400m more like 500m as the pack zigged and zagged to the next turn buoy where we headed back to the swim start. The second lap missed the second turn buoy and headed into the current and the sun for 2.5k. The wind had whipped up some waves and made the same a real challenge. Once, after what felt like an age, it was time to climb out of the harbour onto some steps and off to T1. Looking at my watch expecting to see 65min I was a little taken back to see 86min had passed by.

I had a smooth and easy transition and felt good on the bike for the first 500m and then turned in to a strong head wind. At this point I was not sure my plan of catching up the lost swim time was going to work so I backed off and stuck with my original pacing plan. The first lap was busy on the bike with lots of people pick off. Unfortunately some seem to think that 10m is the same as 10cm and groups had formed on the bike. The wind increased in strength as the temperature started to ramp up. I spent the first half of the second lap 60k lap trying to catch a group 400m up the road. It really shows how much of a difference drafting makes as the group pulled away from me in a head or side wind and came back with a tail wind. On a long section of side wind I gradually caught the pack and with one of the many 90 degree turns had a tail wind and blew past the pack.

A super slick T2 saw me settle into a strong early pace. I had a little cramp at 7.5k after think that I maybe on for a sub 2hour run. So ran nice and steady after stretching my left hamie a couple of times. Then I got to the 17k mark and the wheels start to fall off! I ran / shuffled to the next aid station and stopped to have a gel. The only reason I started to run again is because on the USA coaches told me to start running again. Thank you! I ran the 500m to the next aid and had some hot cross buns and a wee. I then just worked on running to the next aid 3.5k away. After this I settled into a good rhythm and just walked the aid stations eating hot cross buns as I went. Brilliant!

I managed 8th in my age group and feel relatively happy with my performance.

Thank you to all the support people in the club have given me over the past year. Bring on Ironman Austria and a sub 09:45!

David

Brighton Sea Swim

The event is a 1 mile challenging sea swim between Hove Lawn (next to the King Alfred leisure Centre) & Brunswick Lawn (the Peace Statue).

Just a quick one on this, very good swim nice and friendly as i discovered on the start line, i took the washing machine position in the centre front row, off we go ... no flailing arms or kicks to the face... i mean really how are you supposed to get worked up if everyone in the position is so considerate.

Swim out and then a turn to the left, just then i realised that it was against the current which i was not expecting, so I had to setle in for a long hard slog, I was in the leading group for most of the way but fell off the pace in the last third of the race and came in at 47:04 two minutes behind the winner this put me in 20th position.

Its a nice race and i think we should have it as a club swim next year the only negative is that you have no idea where the finish line is I only spotted it because there was an unusually large number of people gathered on the beach.. barbeque party of finish line? fortunately it was the finish.

Thanks to James Dear who turned up in support and the Saturday Cycling lads who were also there posing in there Lycra on the prom.