Racing news! Staffs 70:3, and more…..

Lets start with Staffordshire 70:3. Liz, myself, Team Simon and Cheryl and John were all getting very wet on Saturday, walking / driving for miles in an attempt to register and rack bikes at different ends of Staffordshire. If that wasn’t exhausting enough, we then had to get up at 5:30 am to prepare bikes before 6:50 when transition closed, to only then sit around until race start, which for the girls was 8:20 (John 8! Mind you John was in the queue for the loos for about an hour, so timing worked out pretty well there!). Fortunately, it was dry, all be it a bit chilly, and a nice brisk wind, picking up throughout the morning. This resulted in a fair bit of chop on the water and a nice head on wind for most of the not so flat bike course!

John entered the water first, and after chatting to him afterwards, got a bit lost in the lake. However, finally found his way back and exited in 40mins ready to attack the bike in a very respectable 2:55mins.  1:50mins later, the 3 loop hilly and mixed terrain run loop was well and truely completed, finishing in a 70.3 pb of 5:37! Brilliant!

Liz and I went off in the first female wave. Amasingly, I left transition first female (now thats never happened before….however, all the 39 year olds and below were 10mins behind us!!) Liz not far behind (with the fastest swim split in her age group), to tackle the undulating bike course. Planet X police Exocet 2 went to work, and I entered into run transition 2nd female, with one of the fastest bike splits of the day. Liz, despite having mechanical issues on the bike, still showed her age group how to ride a TT bike and returned with the second fastest bike split in her age group. For me, the run segment did not fair so well. Just failed to get my nutrition right for this one, and towards the end of the bike I had already started to get that nauseous feeling! This only got worse on the run, and its just plain horrible! Subsequently, at best I took on a bit of water, but I was determined not to stop, and just keep putting one foot in front of the other until I got down that finish line. Not a fast run, but quick enough to stay 10mins ahead of the rest of the 40plus age group, and secure top podium place and a slot to the World Champs, so cant argue with that. Liz put in a strong run, and finished 3rd in her age group, brilliant result, and will also be coming to the World Champs.

Now I have not caught up with Cheryl yet, so have not got any feedback on how the swim/ bike went, however, from what I can gather it all went pretty well, passing the chip baton to Simon who posted a sub 1:40 run split to finish a great day from all!!

Whilst we were all up North, Serena was once again, showing the rest of the county how to run 3000m, and won the Dorset Schools Championships with a 1 sec pb. Sam was also there, though final times and positions I do not know as yet.

Finally, in Windsor, Ashley was trying his hand at an Olympic Distance event for the first time, and pulled a 22nd/ 196th position in his age group, with the 4th fastest bike, and 8th fastest run, and a really good swim! Great…just need to work on those transitions Though saying that, they all looked a bit slow!

So, who is up next week? Ian will be riding for miles and miles in the Dartmoor classic, Chris is racing in the long 70.3 distance, The Boskman, Claude and Serena will be taking on the Purbeck 10km, James and Isobel will be in Weymouth, racing in the Classic distance, Derek will be looking to qualify for the Euro Champs at Southport and Brendan will be racing on the saturday in the Dambuster triathlon! Lots happening!!