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).