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.

A busy weekend

The first weekend in September was a busy time for the members of North Devon Tri.

Toasty, Richard S and Basher headed up to the Cotswold Sprint Triathlon.

After previous camping expeditions (pre blog) Basher decided to splash the cash and book into a hotel leaving Richard and Coach Toast to brave the elements. Once on the campsite Toast was first to embarrass himself by spending an age (and valuable pre race energy) trying and failing to inflate his air bed before discovering the handily positioned vent that he'd left open. Of course it wasn't his fault ;) . Later that night Richard showed his age by moaning about some reckless yoofs partying until 3:30am while he was trying to get some much needed beauty sleep. Long gone are the days when he would have got out of his tent, drank all their beer and either partied the night away or flattened the lot of them.
The two races had close to 450 competitors and was run over a flat and fast course (750mSwim/20kBike/5kRun). It made up one of the South West Series Events and even included a small Elite field. On the day the weather cleared from a very wet and windy week before the event, however it had left a very muddy race site and what was now a x-country run course. This meant many a competitor falling as they tried to make it through the transition area on very slippy grass/mud underfoot.
Come race morning the boy wonder Toasty had a splendid race winning his age group and finishing 7th overall in a time of 1.01:51. Richard put in his normal stellar performance finishing 51st in his age group in a time of 1.28:23. Lord Basher was racing the Novice event and feeling left out after hearing the tales of the nights camping decided to cause his own little bit of trouble by conveniently 'losing' is timing chip during the swim section which deprived him of any race splits. Thankfully the manual back up worked well enough to give him a finish time of 1.22:00 and 65th place overall.

While the Cotswold crew were bathing in the calm waters of Keynes Water Park 107 lunatics including James, Phill and Tim were braving the Newquay Classic Triathlon.

With big winds and waves making for a very 'interesting' race the organisers had no option but to shorten the swim from the planned 1500m to a more manageable two lap swim inside the bay (much to the relief of Tim). Even in this more stable area the swell was enough to make sure the bouys needed extra manpower to hold them in position.
James led the field out of the water in 12:04 but the hilly bike course soon took its toll on his hulking great frame and his pathetically weak back which saw him dropping back through the field and finishing 22nd in 2:20:42. Phill kept himself within a minute of James through the swim and bike before using his new found running prowess (ok, I'm kidding) to leave him floundering on the hilly run course finishing 18th in 2:19:31 - will James ever be able to show his face again? Tim was the club star on this day though and after bobbing and floundering his way (jellyfish stylee) through the swim he found his land legs in time to chase Phill down on the bike and charge past James on the run to finish 9th in 2:15:00. No doubt his victory speech mentioned his impending retirement from the sport - yet again!!!

Welcome

Hello and Welcome to the new North Devon Triathletes blog.

This is a place where (hopefully) there will be lighthearted updates and race reports from and about members of our rapidly expanding Triathlon Club.

If all goes well there will be tales from athletes good and bad, quick and slow, experienced and novice. There will also be round ups from weekends of racing around the country.

Please bear with us while we jiggle around with settings etc, it will settle down soon enough.

If you've found this blog without finding the clubs website feel free to check us out at www.northdevontri.co.uk