July race round up
/Well actually we better start with the last weekend of June which had plenty of action! First of all David successfully defended his title at the Swanage Aquathlon despite being the oldest competitor in the race, absolutely smashing the run leg over Ballard Down to leave the field trailing behind. At the same event, Eric won his age group in the standard distance triathlon before our attention switched to the later starting World Championship Sprint qualifier in Cardiff. Jonny put in a great swim and bike and a solid run to secure 4th place in his age group and an automatic qualification slot. Katie had a strong race to finish 5th in her age group and Julie smashed her time from last year to finish 4th in age group and secure an automatic qualification slot as well
Onto July and a quietish first weekend with Will taking on a monumental bike challenge in Wales which sounded brutal while Katherine finishing on the podium at the St Neots standard distance triathlon. Not so quiet on the second weekend though with the European sprint qualifier at Eton Dorney, Cotswold 113 and IM Swansea 70.3. First up on Friday though, Joe was smashing his PB at the English Schools 1500m in 4min01s…. super fast. Over in Eton on Saturday morning David and Rose both finished on their respective podiums and Julie and Linda both raced well to join them in securing automatic qualification slots for the European champs in 2025. Sarah also had a strong race and Annie was going well before a puncture on the last lap of her bike brought the race to a premature end but fortunately she has already qualified so not too much of a disaster!
Onto Sunday and at the Cotswold 113Kevin had a great race finishing in 6hr11min despite still carrying fatigue from his ironman. Richard probably raced his best half distance to date with a 5hr22min finish despite getting the race timings a bit wrong and being (almost) last to start. Meanwhile in Swansea Becky, Katie and Fran were lining up for the 70.3. As always – Becky got her race head on and a strong swim and bike coupled with trademark speedy transitions left her in a battle for the age group win on the run. After dropping to 2nd by about a minute at half way, Becky came storming back to close the gap to just 22 secs at the end, securing both a World Ironman Championship slot and a slot for the 70.3 worlds in Marbella next year. Katie had a good race as well – strong all the way through and an excellent 19th in her age group Fran, who vowed never to race 70.3 in the UK again after getting hypothermia at Weymouth a few years ago, entered this one because of the option of a World Ironman slot for this year (something she also vowed not to do again ). We joked before the race it would be nice to have a 20min lead going onto the bike so as not to have the run pressure she had in Walchsee. Turns out that is exactly what happened and she was able to cruise the second lap of the run to take the AG win
A slightly quieter weekend followed but there was still time for David and Linda to take on the National Aquathlon championship. Linda finished in an excellent 6h place and David got on the podium finishing third – fab racing.
Every year (nearly) Fran races at the Alpe D’Huez triathlon and every year she says she’s never doing it again! It is, however, a stunning if brutal event. This year presented an extra challenge with the race coming just 11 days after Swansea for Fran and Eric was lining up for the third time, this time in the medium event, trying to secure that finishers medal after DNFs in the last two years. If Fran’s legs were still fatigued from Swansea there was no sign of it as she stormed the bike leg of the race to lead her age group by a huge margin onto the run which again she was able to take relatively easy. The event was topped though by a fab race from Eric. A super strong swim in the lake that caused him problems 2 years ago, and a great bike meant he could cruise the run to get his illusive finishers medal. Massive achievement! Eric is already talking about returning to have another go at the long course next year and Fran says she’s never doing it again………. so next year then?
The last weekend of the month was London T100 weekend which included Liv taking on her first ever olympic distance race, as was Shelley in a different venue. Both absolutely nailed there respective races with Liv finishing in the top 25% of her age group in a very competitive field. Salam was competing in the middle distance event and after a good swim she powered her way to a speedy bike split before a solid run confirmed a podium spot in 3rd And finally over at Challenge Tartu Elissa had a nightmare with her bike only arriving at midnight the day before the race. Undeterred, she managed to get to the start line minutes before the start and out in a string race despite the stress and lack of sleep!