Bournemouth Running festival and more..!

Before I go into details of the Bournemouth Festival of Running, a mention has to go to Brendan, who despite damaging an ankle ligament, in an attempt not to make me feel left out, he stormed the Landlow Sprint Triathlon last week to finish 3rd overall, and first in his age group. So, we need to sort that ankle before the Duathlon Champ in Australia in a couple of weeks! Fortunately, all is looking good at the moment.

Next up were the 10k runners (and the shorter distances I think) on the Saturday. Despite an ongoing knee niggle and a period of no running, Junior Serena still managed to pull off a 37 min 10k placing her 3rd overall.  We also had our Juniors  Elsa,  Iris and Lucy Courtney racing in the 1500m and 2000m, and I think Eleanor and Elliot.  Elsa finishing 26th girl in a time of 7:38 out of 114, in her first ever race, and Squad members Iris and Lucy finishing 4th and 5th girl in the 2000m with only 11 seconds between them! Putting the pressure on nicely, for Dad to perform in the 10km race, who clearly rose to the challenge and produced a pb in 43:16!

Now onto the marathon runners! We had Chris and Dad David racing in the Bournemouth Marathon, which would be Davids first ever marathon, after starting training this year, and Chris second stand alone marathon, although he has completed a few more, though only after 116miles on the bike and a 3.8km, swim, the last one only being a few months ago! It has been a crazy few months for Chris, and although  in the second half of the run, his legs began to feel the lack of endurance threshold work, he still came home 3:50 with the latter part being a run walk! Dad, came home less than half an hour later, around the 4:15 mark which, although his plan was to get closer to the 4 hour mark, I feel it is a great achievement in his first marathon!

A mention also has to go to Rose, who was running her second marathon this year (I think) London being her first, where she smashed her previous time, this time it was the Clarendon Marathon. In fact I think every race this year so far has been a new pb, which just shows, what consistency, hard work, patience and determination can do. Huge congratulations!

Whilst all these people were working hard in their events, myself and Tripurbeck Coach Dave P were putting our Junior Squad through their paces at the Purbeck Sports Centre, and they were brilliant! A hard Turbo / run interval set was followed by an hours swim set, which was a tough, intense morning. However this clearly wasn’t enough for Lily, Sam, Annie and Sophie, who returned for the afternoon swim squad, AND strength and conditioning, and were still smiling at the end of it! It is a pleasure to coach such determined, talented and enthusiastic juniors!

So, next up? …mmm Me! Huntsman Triathlon this Sunday. Though just looked at the details and the run is off road, so need to be super careful there with my ankle. Then next week, Clodie, myself, Ray, (anyone else??) will be running in the Christchurch half marathon!