Toastys First Rant....

Well my first blog post....

Firstly an Introduction, hmm what shall I record here... You can expect news on coached training sessions organised by myself for the club. How the club members are or are not performing and a general reflection on all things club, be it more serious or in jest.

But firstly a report on the clubs travels. Many years ago in a distant galaxy known as Iains youth. A Tri Club first appeared in North Devon. Since then it has grown and developed with a core membership who have many a tale to tell. In the last few years the club has grown from these solid foundations. Membership has boomed as has the clubs 'Green Army' Spirit.

This was most evident last weekend at the clubs annual dinner and presentations evening. A great night was had by the rather large crowd. Where several new members from this year even took over were older members have previously dominated (Thanks Basher!!) :)

2008 has been a fantastic year that all members have enjoyed, the club has definetly grown socially. Many members have been hitting PB's and many completing their first races. At the head of the field many a race has had its top ten dominated by Green with numerous wins.

I for one was very proud to see all of this and in a similar vain to Chris Hoy on receiving his Sports Personality of the Year Award and reflecting on a superb sporting 2008... I would like to say...

"Heres to an even better 2009, roll on the Green Army"

Well hello there! A new voice on the blog here following Iain's invitation to blather on about stuff occasionally related to triathlon and ND Tri in particular. I expect a few are still recovering from Saturday's Christmas do - you know who you are :) Many thanks to Sara for her stirling efforts in organising everybody and getting them to pay - it was a splendid event. Photos to follow here I expect from an expert. I'll try to add some comments from the novice tri bod point of view as we go along but if you are reading from interest and thinking about joining all I'll say thus far is do it. I've had a fab time since joining in Spring this year - lots of help and support and alot of laughs.

I'll also add bits about my training, it'll make you feel alot better knowing how bad I am at this stuff -starting as we mean to go on, nothing today -my excuse being my work Christmas do where I had exactly the same to eat as Saturday night - some sense of deja vu there -no red wine though - had to drive home.

So chin chin for now........laters

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's Christmaaas

Saturday was the day that all the talk has been about lately, the North Devon Tri Christmas Party and Presentation.

To warm up for it there was a small Duathlon training session on Braunton Burrows which was attended by a hardcore of seven club members (Phill, Jan, Sally, Dave, Iain, Dick & Steve). This consisted of a 5mile trail & beach run, a 10.5mile bike ride and another 3mile trail run to finish with. Recent downpours had turned some of the trails into lakes and navigating your way around without getting soaked was a real challenge. Thankfully though the rain stopped and for the session itself the weather was gorgeous, if a bit on the chilly side.

The big night itself was soon upon us and 56 triathletes & significant others piled into Cedars to fill our faces, dance and find out whos strict training regime affected their drinking ability the most. Of course there was also the all important presentation along with a fine raffle with many prizes sourced by James, Alan and Michelle.

So to the winners :-

Most improved Swimmer - Steve Ditchburn
What can we say about Steve. This time last year he did a damn good impression of a brick when he swam. Now the brick goes across the water rather than heading straight to the bottom.

Most improved Cyclist - Sally Pope (who hid from the camera)
For constantly improving her performances and showing the rest of the club that there's no excuse for not getting out on your bike.
Most improved Runner - Phill Miles
Mostly awarded because Mark made him look good by failing miserably to run him down at Dorney Lake Relays this year. Ok ok, so he's worked (quite) hard at improving this year too.

Male Triathlete of the year - James Marshall
Surely there hasn't been a more blatent results fiddle since Blue Peter named their cat 'Socks'

Female Triathlete of the year - Helen Banbury
In her first full season of Tri she's taken the South West by storm and things can only get better in 2009 Performance of the year - Paul Bitmead
For a storming performance at his first open water event (Bude Tri) when he was out there so long that the timekeepers had gone home. How they failed to notice him when he got by far the biggest cheer of the day is still a mystery. The Infamous Chicken Helmet - Paul Bitmead
Where do we start.............. Well I'll keep it clean and just mention his walking the dogs over Braunton Burrows at 7pm one evening and not finding his car again until 11:30pm. I'll leave the tale about him trapping his testes in his trisuit for your imagination. His performance later at the party has already made him a front runner for next years award.

There were further suprise presentations for various random reasons (ego massage) to Alan Ward, Peggy Crome, Iain Hindes and Michelle Williams.

After the presentation Club Chairman James announced to the club that the lovely Stephanie who puts up with him and all his rubbish was expecting their first child.

There's obviously been something in the Devon water during 2008 because joining in the clubs baby boom are Nicky and Gary (left) along with Jo and Damian (right).

Congratulations to James, Nicky and Damian. We all look forward to the new arrivals in 2009.

After the awards everybody partied away as if there was no tomorrow. There was certainly no training tomorrow for most of them.

The Krazy Kristmas Kaper.

The North Devon Tri Kristmas Kaper has a reputation for being a truly FUN event. Sure you get prizes if you win, but who came where is never the real talking point of the race it's more about who wore what. This year was to be the Kraziest yet.

Look through the photo's from previous events and most of the Fancy Dress costumes will be familiar faces, people from the club or people who've done the race many times before. This year however there were far more costumes and tinsel decked folks than ever before, far outnumbering those who 'raced' properly. There was also just as many women racing as men partly due to the group of ladies from Salisbury Tri who almost fit in perfectly with their green kit. I'm not sure how much of a swim aid their fishnet tights were though.
Thankfully the race's casual midday start time gave 'some' of the overnight frost a chance to thaw. Conditions were still treacherous underfoot though with several very icy patches out on the course. Thankfully though other than the 'brass monkey' temperatures it was a beautiful day out there and everybody made it round in one piece and hopefully enjoyed themselves.
In the mens race local boy Ross MacDonald took time out in Transition to don his Santa beard, jacket and hat but was still unstoppable, posting the 3rd fastest swim and 2nd fastest run on the day to finish the 600m/5k event in 24:12. Rich Brady improved on last years 3rd place finish to finish 2nd in 24:56. Barrie Huxtable finished a fine 3rd place overall in 26:40 and will surely remind Iain of the fact at every swim session they do together from this day on.
The womens race was an extremely close faught battle with Ellie Parker, Eva Murphy and Helen Banbury all finishing within 20seconds of each other. Ellie took 1st place in 28:35, Eva was 2nd in 28:51 and Helen was just 3secs further back in 28:54. There times were all good enough to place them in the top 10 finishers overall and with Ellie and Eva actually racing the Female Youth category (14-16yrs) they are names to look forward to in the future.
Results for the days racing are here and pictures are available here . There will also be a video appearing at some stage, but that depends on how much domestic bliss out Glorious Leader has to dish out first to compensate for todays racing.
Many thanks to Southfork, Saltrock and Andy Buller for race day prizes.
Congratulations to all competitors and thanks for making it a great event. Thanks to all the folks who turned out to help out and marshall in the f-f-f-freezing conditions.
Congratulations to all the race and age group winners and to Carolyne Edwards and Stuart White for their prize winning costume efforts.
Our official race referee did manage to DQ a couple of folks, mostly for running around in sub zero temperatures without a top on, but you'll still find them in the results as it was all done with the spirit of the event.
Finally a huge thank you to Michelle for organising the event - and spending hours cooking those damned mince pies yesterday. Normality is now resumed (almost).

Christmas is coming. Triathletes are getting fat.

Well it’s been a few weeks since the blog has been updated because the author has been over in America trying and failing once again to put a decent Ironman together. Yet again he promised so much and delivered so little, you’d think he’d have got the hint by now (idiot!). There’s far too much been written about that experience already so I’ll save you from the torment. If you really need to see you don’t have to look to far.

After many of the clubs members had stayed up far to late watching Iains diabolical performance across the pond they settled into their beds for a few hours sleep before being woken by their alarm clocks and setting off in the wind and rain to compete in the Exmoor Beast. 12 hardcore members/lunatics/idiots had decided to cycle the Cycle Sportive event that covers either 100 kilometres or 100 miles of Exmoor’s best terrain. It’s not the sort of ride you’d do for fun in the middle of Summer so why a dozen of NDTC biggest nutcases and many other folks seem to think it’s a good idea on a cold, wet and windy Sunday morning in November is beyond most sane people who’d rather stay at home in the warm. Still a good time seemed to be had by all including Joe, Marc and Nathan who were all mad enough to do the 100mile event.

The biggest upcoming event on the Triathlon calander if the Krazy Kristmas Kaper a 600m/5k Aquathlon where the main prizes are not so much who comes in the top places, but who can turn up in the daftest costume. With the club chairman setting the standard over the last few years with his Christmas Present design last year and his sparkly thong in 2006 (yes, it was damn cold that day) the standards are high and we're looking for someone to stop him making it 3 years in a row. Who's up to the challenge?


With short days and miserable weather on the way (not that it has left us this year) the long crazy races are pretty much finished for the season and it’s time for folks to let their hair down a little with the impending Christmas Party on the way. The talk has deferred from Triathlon onto the subject of who’s going to make the biggest fool of themselves. It’s amazing how quickly the most serious Triathlete can turn into a jibbering wreck after a few beers ………… any comments coach?

Marathon (and a half) Weekend

With Multisport events on the wane the amount of club members racing is dropping off as they start their 2 month taper for Christmas.

Chris Stone and Simon Edney are keeping the end of season ticking along by racing their 2nd consecutive weekend of Duathlons and their 2nd consecutive weekend of top 10 finishing at the Thruxton Mass Attack Duathlon.
With two of the countrys top Duathletes in the field you'd have thought all the racing would have been for 3rd place, but Simon had other ideas when hit hit the bike course and posted the 2nd fastest split of the day to hit T2 in 2nd place. Unfortunatly the season long running injury has robbed Simon of a bit of run speed and he had to settle for a comfortable 3rd place finish while winning his age group by over 5mins. Not a bad performance for an old man in his first proper season of Tri/Duathlon. We really really need to teach him how to swim though. After pushing Simon so close last weekend Chris must have felt confident of chasing him down but it wasn't to be. Still he showed his recent end of season form is strong by posting qick solid times in all 3 disciplines and one of the fastest 2nd runs of the day to take 9th place overall and 3rd in his age group.

After a season off from the 'long stuff' Mark Alderman rocked up at the tough Dartmoor Vale Marathon and finished 8th in a solid 3:09:04 while Alan Ward made the trip over to Boyo Land chasing a new Half Marathon pb. Unfortunatly the pb wasn't to be, but a solid 1:29:50 placed him 271st out of the 5,800 finishers and more importantly under that hallowed 90minute barrier.

I suppose I should mention that our Glorious Leader James was out cyclo-crossing again, but as he got his ass whooped again then I won't ;-)

A week behind (ooops) 12/10/08 catch up.

The last 2 weeks have been choc full with members racing events of all kinds as they spread their net towards the end of the Tri season.

The final local Triathlon of the season was on the 12th October and turned out to be a bit of a club disappointment. With 5 names on the start list only Steph Hulford turned up to fly the flag for North Devon Tri. Despite having to suffer the joy of swimming an extra 50m due to some erratic lane counting and stopping for a bit of a social in T1 she battled on to finish 93rd overall in 1:54:13.
Closer to home Tim was jogging around the Braunton Fun Run, a 4.5 mile event which it seems wasn't long enough for Tim as he decided to turn off the course somewhere random to get a bit extra in. Even with his diversion he stll managed to finish 4th overall amd the rumours that he was the only one there not wearing Wellies appear to be unfounded. Official times and results for this event???? Well, if you can find them you're a better man than me.
Another local event/sport where getting finish times would be a bit of a novelty is Cyclocross. With Winter drawing closer a few of the lads are trying their hand at this and taking on some REAL cyclists. The race at West Buckland was Round 3 in the South West Series and James turned up with his eyes firmly set on his good mate Blake Pond. At least he had until the race started when Blake disappeared into the distance on his way to a fine 4th place finish. James got his act together enough to finish 22nd just 5 places ahead of Marc Woolacott while John Bronze finished in 42nd place. Worth noting was the fact that both James and John 'LET' members of Southfork staff finish ahead of them - the things you'll do for a bit of extra discount.
The final event of the weekend was the Devon Duathlon, a strange format of race for Triathletes who can't swim and one which it seems the NDTC non-swimming brigade are quite good at as the three members who travelled 'down south' for the event all finished inside the top 10. In a closely fought battle Mitch Barclay took Club honours by finishing 6th in 1:26:13, his stronger 2nd run being the difference maker between himself and Simon Edney who finished 8th just 54 seconds later. Both of these boys took their biggest chunk of time out of 9th place finisher Chris Stone on the 1st run leg with Chris's strong 2nd run bringing to within 25seconds of Simon.

From the Coach :-)

It wouldn't be right if a weekend passed without an epic piece from myself... This ones for the Journal...

The last two weekends have been very succesful for North Devon Tri....

Bude Quadrathlon - 04/10/08 - Full Results
(800m swim/30k Cycle/10k Kayak/10k run)
1st Senior Male James Marshall - 19:00(0:29)55:01(0:16)53:50(0:30)42:31 = 2:51:38
3rd Senior Male Phill Miles - 20:06(0:45)58:24(0:12)1:04:39(0:19)45:23 = 3:09:49
21st James Birkley - 21:15(1:29)1:10:00(1:08)56:43(0:36)49:03 = 3:20:15
36th Steve Ditchburn - 29:13(3:06)1:12:53(0:29)1:12:39(0:41)55:28 = 3:54:30












This was one of the National Trophy Series Event with the series winner being declared National Champion. Firstly a mention for Steve Ditchburn who only joined the club in January of this year. Steve turned up to his first swim session and barely competed a length of the pool. Yesterday he completed the swim that was nearer to 1 kilometre than 800m in a far from calm sea, even overtaking as he went out on the second loop and completed what many people wouldn't believe possible. On a day were the weather scared off many competitors, James Marshall led the solo event from the start leading the swim and then storming through the severely hilly 30k bike course and out onto the 10k Kayak. As they came off the water James could have let up his lead was that large, but pushed on to test himself against the clock which by now was his only competitor. The second place senior male was Olympic potential Ben Brown who showed the rest of the field how it was done on the Kayak section with a very rapid 39minute split (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/canoeing/6691705.stm), however he finished 7 minutes back on champion Marshall.

ITU World Duathlon Champs, Rimini - 21/09/08

13th AG Simon Edney - 39:50(0:54)1:07:24(1:01)21:09 = 2:10:20

Coming off the back of a recent UK Duathlon were he recorded the fastest bike split of the day, including the Professional athletes competing. This is an excellent performance by Simon against the Worlds best competitors in his very tough age group.

Bodmin Sprint Triathlon - 28/09/08

4th Alan Ward - 5:55(0:38)39:38(0:53)37:02 = 1:24:07
5th Mitchell Barclay - 6:55(0:59)40:43(0:53)35:04 = 1:24:34
6th Chris Stone - 6:50(0:55)40:23(0:49)35:54 = 1:24:51
7th Tim Reed - 7:29(0:57)41:45(0:48)34:39 = 1:25:39
12th Phill Miles - 5:49(0:45)42:38(0:49)38:19 = 1:28:21
29th/1stFemale Helen Banbury - 7:35(1:11)50:08(1:23)37:49 = 1:38:07
67th Damian Railston - 6:11(1:17)51:18(1:02)52:28 = 1:52:17

Newly joined member Helen Banbury took another win for the club being first women home, this must surely have been a very long wait for this womens overall victory and reflects the growth in the clubs female membership. The Club also gained the team prize at Bodmin Triathlon for 3 best placed competitors from the same club, with 3 competitors finishing within 45secs of each other it was tight at the top!

Trophys and Tales

It was a winning day for the NDTC crowd on Sunday at the Bodmin Sprint Tri. As I type this the results are still being finalised after a few glitches but with Helen (who's proving to be a fine aquisition) winning the womens event outright the pressure was on the boys. None of them could quite match her achievement but with Mitch, Alan, Tim, Chris and Phill all in and around the top 10 the team prize was in the bag. Once the results are sorted properly I'll be able to confirm positions & prizes, until then all that can be said is "Well Done NDTC".

A bit further afield Simon Edney was representing GB at the World Duathlon Champs in Rimini, Italy. A fine performance saw him finishing 13th in his Age Group.

Congratulations must go out to Trevor Perkins who recently completed a British Triathlon Level 1 coaching course in Honiton. We're hoping to have a report off Trevor shortly where he can tell us what the course involved, how it went and what his coaching aims are.

More congratulations should go out to Simon Lacey on the completion of his Coast to Coast challenge. Simon is an old hand at doing daft events like the Coast to Coast and the Three Peaks challenge, one of the daftest things he's done though is enter a competition to win a £1500 and then say he'll donate it to charity if he wins............. Guess what! Yep, he got to hold his bike for a photo shoot before having to reluctantly hand it over again.

Moral of the story - keep your mouth shut!!!!

21st Sept races

Well either the boys and girls mostly behaved themselves at the weekend or news of this blog has spread amongst them like wildfire and they're all keeping quiet to make sure all the weekends little secrets are kept to themselves.
First up we'll have the Doone Run, a hilly little beggar of a course around the Coastal Paths of Lynton, Lynmouth and The Valley of the Rocks. Chris Stone was competing in the 10mile event and after a sedate start he managed to pull his socks up a bit and finished a fine 14th position overall although he was still beaten by a giiiiirl, so we're allowed to give him grief about it :)
In the short race John Bronze was competing alongside his wife Gillian. Together they finished 6th & 7th and John did the honourable thing when he let Gillian beat him by 1 second to cross the line in 43:58. Rumour has it though that if Gillian hadn't done 'the honourable thing' she'd have been back and changed before John hit the finish. I of course dispute all rumours.
Down on the Cornish coast 3 hardcore members were taking on the Perranporth Surf Triathlon. It was always going to be a close battle between the Trio and although Dick Congdon won the club battle to cross the line ahead of both Lee Shepherd and Scott Pirie it was Lee who took the club honours as Dick once again picked up his traditional penalty, this time 2mins for mutilating his number (I'm scared to ask!).
Across country in Somerset the 3rd of the weekends races was taking place as 12 club members took part in the ever popular Langport Sprint Tri with 3 of them finishing inside the top 10. Alan Ward took club honours finishing in 3rd place with Tim 'sicknote' Reed posting a blistering run split to finish an impressive 4th just 40seconds behind. Phill Miles rounded out the top finishers with a 9th place finish, impressive racing by the quick boys.
Further down the field Steve White turned on the run speed to climb through the field and finish in 84th place, during that run he passed the ever improving (especially in the pool) Steve Ditchburn who came in 106th. Richard Squire was next home in 166th place, no doubt hampered by his meeting the tarmac on the cycle course after crashing into the back of another bike (oh dear!!!). The ever present Nigel Cox was next home in 209th, he keeps entering the same races as someone quicker who shares his name in the hope that we'll get confused and post the faster time - we don't though ;-). Paul Bitmead was the final club member home who's improved to the point that no longer can he come to us for the sympathy vote because he's finished last. He's kicking some butt at every race now, it must be all that night time running over Braunton Burrows that he's been doing. Amazing how fast he can go when there's a military man with a rifle behind him.
In the womens race the first home for the club in an impressive 66th place was Helen Banbury who was racing her first 'proper' Triathlon, just watch this girl go when she works out what she's doing. Next home was Sue White in 127th place while behind her Marilyn Joy and Sally Pope were having the days closest battle with Marilyn taking the honours this time by a mere 27 seconds.

Well that's about it for this week I'm afraid. No real tales of embarrassment and shame, no pictures either I'm afraid.

This weekends big club event is the Bodmin Sprint Tri. Good Luck to all that are racing. There is also the Taunton 10k and Simon Edney will be wearing his GB colours with pride at the World Duathlon Championships in Rimini, Italy. Go Get Em Simon!!!!

West Buckland In-Club Tri

Well it was time for the biggest race on the Triathlon calander and there were to be no excuses, but everybody had them lined up anyway.

Not the biggest field at a mere 19 competitors, but egos were on the line and there were two very distinct races going on.

The first wave off was the 'friendly' rivalry bunch, they were led out of the pool by new girl Helen Banbury closely followed by 'one of Sues ringers' Ludovica, they were both passed in T1 though by Big Rich who's obviously been following the coach's advice regarding free speed. Once onto the bike however Ludovica took over the wave lead and held onto it right up to the point where she decided that a 3 lap run wasn't far enough for her and she was going to do 4 laps. This allowed Olly Friend to come in first in the wave amid rumours that he'd found a slightly quicker version of the bike course than others, or was it sour grapes by those ashamed to be beaten by someone over half their age??? Steve White worked his way up to 2nd in the wave with the fastest run split of the group and Ludovica 'extra lap' Bruno followed a short time later.

15mins after the first wave hit the pool it was time for the big ego battle. Could Iain hold onto his recent run of wins at In-Club races? Could wanna be Elite Triathlete and club coach Alan 'Toasty' Ward knock him off his perch amid his recent run of top results? Who'd win the consistantly tight battle between Phill, Mark, James, Chris, Mitch and Tim? and could any of them cause an upset by deposing both Iain and Alan? Would one of the West Buckland students that were racing cause a big upset and hammer everybody? Now was the time to find out!

The swim was hectic but predictable as James, Alan, Phill and Iain all exited the water within 8secs of each other, James then promptly went from 1st to 3rd in T1 as he messed around for almost as long as Iain, you'd think he'd be quicker with so little hair to dry. With the swim only being 400m a big group all exited the water together a minute later and once on the road the fun began. The early mover on the bike course was Iain as he quickly dispatched the snail like Chairman James (who's obviously been eating far to many flapjacks of late) and set about chasing Phill who himself was holding the gap to Toasty. Behind however the chase group had formed and a strong group it was with all of the races contenders within sight of the leaders. As the bike course started to climb Iain caught Phill but was himself caught by Mark and then Mitch while Toasty continued to plug away a small distance ahead. Then disaster.......

There were a set of roadworks on the course. If the lights are on red you must stop, no exceptions. Race leader Alan caught to them on red, Phills small group caught up and also had to stop, then the rest of the wave rolled up and still the lights were red. Finally after almost a minute they changed to green and the pack of 8 were back on the move. Toasty put the hammer down immediately in a bid to catch the rest of the group napping, then once off the main road and onto the steepest bit of climing Iain also broke away from the group and bridged the gap to the front where he and Alan then traded places in a bid for bike supremecy. Iain was first back to the school but Alans blistering transition speed once again saw him out front with just the 5k run to go. Next into T2 was West Buckland dark horse Harry Aitchinson who'd ridden very well in amongst the NDTC quick boys, could he run as well as he'd ridden and scare a few of the clubs big names? With all of the big names following close behind it was now time to find out who'd conserved their running legs and who'd left it all out on the bike course.

The first lap of the run was steady with people finding their feet and checking out the course but then things started to spread out a little. Iain made his break on lap 2 and went on to keep his recent winning run going, Alan held on for 2nd and was left wondering how things may or may not have been different if it hadn't been for those traffic lights, then one by one the rest of the field filed in before chatting and discussing the race as they waited for Mr Marshall to drag his carcase around the run course.

Once the race was settled we all piled off to Lady

Devonshire's Country Palace to eat drink and make merry while lounging in the hot tub and

getting some last minute training in the

Rapid River.

Soon the race was all forgotten about and it was smiles all round as we were spoilt rotten for the afternoon.

Many thanks to the organisers and helpers of the race and of course to Peggy Crome who proved that not only is she a Triathlon Legend but also a supreme after race entertainer.

The full results for the NDTC In-Club Triathlon can be found somewhere here.