London Marathon and Gran Canaria and also a catch up :-)
/Well the team has been busy with some amazing early season racing so time for a catch up…….
Back in March – seems like ages ago – Emma was in action at the first multisport championship race of the season at the European Championship sprint duathlon in Italy. In a super close race Emma finished an excellent 6th – great result. On the same weekend Eric was stretching his legs at IM70.3 Lanzarote. A recovering knee injury meant he was never going to run but he topped off a great week’s training with a strong swim and bike on a super tough course followed by a customary beer in the hot tub. I’m just glad the sides of the tub are opaque
One weekend on and Brian had a great day out in the Gent Wevelgem 140mile bike event – super strong ride and Kate and Salam were opening their seasons with some good running events and Sean was showing iff some excellent early season speed with a very quick AG win at the Chilly duathlon – also finishing in the top few overall.
Into April and Michala and Mark were in action at the Easter 50km ultra both running brilliantly – Mark in 9th overall and Michala 6th in the women’s race. There was lots more great running n the same weekend with Lindsay, Kate, Ian, Dhruti and Chandni all competing in half or 10ks and new half marathon pbs for Will and Richard in prep for the triathlons to come Meanwhile Emma was securing another qualification for standard duathlon with a 6th overall and 1st AG finish at the Northumberland World champs qualifier. Katherine opened her account for the season with a 3rd place AG group finish at the Dorney duathlon and Becky also got into the action taking the overall race win in the Good Friday 41k TT.
Finally onto last weekend – a big race weekend for the team. Eric, Annie and Fran were in action at Challenge Mogan Gran Canaria; Becky, Jen and Holly were lining up at the London Marathon and James was opening his triathlon account at the Ringwood Triathlon. The weather in Gran Canaria was somewhat better then in London and the setting is amazing – definitely a good recommendation for an early season race. Decent swims from all 3 with Fran 3rd age grouper out of the water and Annie 5th. Unfortunately Eric punctured within minutes of the start of the bike and as a result had an unplanned altercation with a barrier. No serious harm done, but he lost 30mins fixing the problem and as a result spent the rest of the day trying to catch up the rest of the field. Annie had a great bike taking approx 25mins of her split from last year and Fran as showing some early season form, gapping the rest of the age group women by 5-6mins (except one of the pros who was registered as a age grouper for some reason!). Fran finished off the race with another step forward with running – winning her age group and finishing 3rd age grouper overall, a full 30mins faster than last year. Annie ran well to pick up a podium in her age group in 3rd knocking a huge 40mins off last years time and Eric had all the glory as he was cheered all the way down the last km and interviewed on the finish line by the tv
Onto Sunday and Jen, Becky and Holly at the marathon. Jen and Becky were starting in the good for she pens so got going soon after the start of the age group race. Both early into there running and Jen started knocking out 6.30min/mile like a metronome. She kept this up for 24 miles before actually picking up the pace slightly for the finish to record an amazing 2hr49min finishing in 41st place overall! Fantastic run. Becky also had a great run although was slightly disappointed not to duck under the 3hr mark but no doubt that will be smashed when she gets the opportunity again Holly was running in her first marathon and despite some significant issues with her back in the second half she come through in a great sub 4hr time. Meanwhile, over in Ringwood James was trying out the new TT bike for the first time and smashed the Ringwood tri finishing 6th overall and recording the second fastest run – a super speedy 32 mins for just over 9km Great result.