The Road to 70.3 Ironman UK – Wimbleball

Why does anyone want to get involved in Triathlon?

Probably like most people I was unfit. Thinking back to the glory days of my youth I remember looking at individuals who had ‘let themselves go’ with their large guts and thinking ‘I will never be like them.’ Sadly, there I was around April 2008, not too fat but definitely unfit. I bought a cheap racing bike and entered the novice event in the Exe Valley Triathlon.

Triathlon sounded more complicated than I though so I joined a Triathlon Club, North Devon Tri. Living in Tiverton is a bit restrictive in respect of training with other members, however, everyone is so friendly and supportive. Answering daft questions and helping with kit set up – everything really.

With 3 weeks of training before Exe Valley (which was ok as it was only short!!), I left my soul on the road and managed to come 2^nd - Which was probably due to the entrants rather than my ability. This was confirmed when I entered Bude, Bodmin and Hayle sprints and came consistently in the bottom 2/3. These people are fit! Next season I thought with some off season of training behind me I will better myself. I had thoughts of trying an Olympic distance event – a pipe dream?

Then came the news that my wife was pregnant. Wonderful news, which laughed in the face of my triathlon plan as baby was due right at the start of the season. Never mind, I’ve wanted a baby for so long – nothing mattered. Sadly, on the 18^th December, for reasons yet to be discovered, at 6 months my wife went into labour and Nathaniel was still born. Obviously, we are devastated.

What do you do after that? As a youth I got through some very angry times Kickboxing. Something, at 37, I’m a little too old for. I needed a challenge something to get out of bed for - to make something good out of something so terrible. I decided to do a triathlon and get sponsored. It would have to be a challenge. A big one. I decided after a few days thought to do Wimbleball and get sponsored for two charities. Firstly, for SANDS; a charity which provides support for parents whose babies die after birth or are still born. Secondly, for the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital, in particular the Heartsease room, in which my wife delivered Nathaniel and we were able to spend a night and a day with him, our beautiful boy. Only the families are donating to this charitable trust.

So, it’s the end of January and I find myself training harder than I ever have to hopefully finish this event.

To follow my progress visit my blog... http://damiantraining.blogspot.com/

To sponsor me go to http://www.justgiving.com/damianrailston

We have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have sponsored me so far. I have raised over £1100 for SANDS and people are still sponsoring me. The personal messages of support from friends, family and strangers has been so motivating. Hopefully I’ll make you all proud.

For Nathaniel, 18.12.08, 1lb 80z our beautiful boy.

Happy New Year

Well it's finally here. 2009.



After all the Christmas festivities, presents, alcohol, cakes and general bad living it was time for the clubs traditional run/dip/eat session at Woolacombe Beach.

Firstly there's the meet up and hangover comparison session at 10am near the main carpark. Then there's a short, steady, friendly 4mile run out to Putsborough along Marine Drive and then back along the beach before anybody brave/stupid/foolhardy enough practices transitions by getting rid of their running gear and dashing into the sea for a bit of a dip.

Once in the water there's a bit of a splash around to make sure everybody gets a thorough soaking and it's back to the clothes where once again transitions are practiced, although this time it's trying to dry and dress yourselves with rapidly freezing fingers, toes and limbs.

After the cold, cold and cold it's time for a full on fry up at the Red Barn where the staff have to kick into top gear as a mass of starving hungry and freezing cold Triathletes come stumbling through the doors.



Click on one of the picture above to find more snaps from the mornings fun.

What a great way to start a New Year.

Here's to a great and successful 2009. Happy New Year everyone.

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?