I guess if you take part in Triathlon in the UK you have to learn to deal with a variety of weather conditions and this was clearly exemplified by the last two weeks of racing. Tiverton, sunshine cracking the pavements.........Wellington downpours and blowing a gale, so undoubtedly this just adds to the challenge! So start at the beginning.....Tiverton was for many the first race of the season ( not discounting the toughest event, the In-club version) and this saw a cracking turn of 30+ NDTri members and lots of family and friends to support. The event had a sizable novice entry so over the six hours of racing many a NDTri suit (and others) could be seen swimming, cycling or running. We also got to to admire the newest female junior NDtri member, Roxy :), sensibly she seemed to sleep through most of. Results showed congratulations needed to go to Helen, Rose and Fi for dominating the FV40 category , Maria 2nd in FS , Simon E for 1st in MV50 and Dick 4th , Peggy 1st in FV60 and of course to all the chaps who came 7/8/9/10 in the MS led by Toasty.
As for me, a mixed day, chip came off in the pool so a la childhood swimming lessons had to duck dive to retrieve and put back on again in transition, bike enjoyable, run less so but happy to get through no.1 in one piece in not too bad a time and have fun whilst doing it.
And so onto Taunton. I tried to have a sensible training/taper week as per Toasty's top tips not having tried the challenge of two races a week apart before and felt ok. Start time for me was 11.10 so quite a leisurely start to the day and enough to get the porridge down. Arrived in decent time, with darkening sky's and got kit ready and talked to Liz convincing her it was a great idea to do Tri. Ventured into pool and the chip stayed on hooray........swim fine, a bit of a mare getting swim hat off, and outside..............into a huge downpour. Bike and kit was very soggy but got going and sadly quite enjoyed it....looking forward to doing the cycle in dry! I guess I enjoyed it more as it was more similar to cycling at home and had quite a good tussle with another lady from my wave, I dropped her just before the turn round........I even over-took other people, shock horror! Back ok and safely, couldn't see for rain, clinging on in the wind but got feet out of shoes ok as per plan but did miss racking first time so that took a few seconds longer than I'd hoped. Key problem with the run..............numb feet, took the first lap before I could feel them again and was glad to have that bit over. I didn't find t too cold in the rain but I could see why people chose to put rain kit on for bike & run, however photos would seem to confirm some people may have had dry weather.......how unfair.
Onto results then......Helen won FV40, Suz W FV50, Jan third FV50, Coach Toasty 4th MS and & 7th overall, Tim 7th MS and 12th overall, Milzey 13th MS and 22nd overall and lots of other good placings. Results over the last wto weeks would seem to suggest NDtri ladies section rocks!!!
Special mentions should go to various people, Liz for completing her first ever tri and sticking with it on a day that it would have been easy to pull out, Sally for NOT getting a puncture, Claire competing her 2nd Tri, Gary S going really well again in his 2nd tri and Maria and Andy for not competing but cycling from South Molton to Wellington in hideous weather to support. I hope you enjoyed that hot chocolate, much deserved before the trek back!
As ever thanks to the supporters who braved the weather and the usual top photography from the Milzey's, evidence on Flickr I would imagine. Both were really enjoyable races, very different experiences but I'll have both on my list to do again next year. Time to get the wetsuit on now for some sea swimming, bude up next for me on June 20th, I'm looking forward to that but slightly less rain and wind would be helpful!
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