Race Round up June 21st Racing

Well Goalspecific athletes were out in force this weekend. We had Derek at the sprint Qualifiers in Southport aiming to get an age group slot for Geneva 2016, Brendan at Dambuster Triathlon, (and if that wasn’t enough he completed a 10 mile TT in the middle of a ride on Sunday as well) Chris at the Boskman, Isobel and James staying local and racing with Bustinskin in Weymouth. Then away from triathlon we had Ian riding his bike for hours on end in Dartmoor Classic Sportif, and Cluade and Serena running the Purbeck 10km. (Many tripurbeckers were there as well, post to follow on www.tripurbeck.co.uk later this week)

So, how did they all do?

Lets start with Derek. Only in the last month has he been able to run after an ongoing Achilles injury, which meant he had to withdraw from racing in Spain in April (though remembering what the weather was like at the race, probably a wise move!!) So, it was the first race coming back from injury and it turns out, that he is in pretty good form. Despite losing a bit of time in the swim, (although getting faster) he set to work on the bike, smashing the whole field by 3 mins, (this is a sprint race as well!) In the run, he held his ground with one of the top times as well in his age group, which placed him 2nd overall, a slot to Geneva, and only 14 seconds behind first place…..HOWEVER, we have the mention the T1 pfaff, which was 21 seconds slower that the chap who won.   Need to work on that 4th discipline

Whilst Derek was smashing the bike course in Southport, Brendan was also illustrating that he is a force to be reckoned with on the bike, posting a 22 min 10 mile TT, the day after racing the Dambuster Triathlon, AND after a hard build block of training! At Dambuster as well, despite feeling a bit sluggish, he was 90 secs quicker in swim and within a second of his bike split from last year and  a minute quicker this year on run. Not bad considering Brendan had ridden over 400 km and run 80 km  since last Saturday!

Moving on to Chris, who was racing a bit closer to home at the Boskman, which seems an odd distance with a 2.6km swim 110km bike and 20km on the run. First key race of the season, as a warm up to Ironman Switzerland next month, so a great opportunity to see how the consistent training was going! After a solid swim, although I believe sighting was a slight issue, so there may have been a few detours, Chris took to work on the bike, illustrating the speediness of the Planet X Exocet. Clearly from the results his endurance is spot on as he just got stronger and stronger, finishing with the 4th fastest run split of the day, placing him 8th overall and 1st in his age group.

Our final GS athletes racing triathlon this weekend were James and Isobel. James, who has been trying to get rid of a cold all week, was not planning on racing, however, his brother on return from Europe had entered, and I feel there was a bit of sibling rivalry, so probably igoring his body, he decided that he would race. Its worth also mentioning that James is  a relatively new father, so deprived of sleep and if we are honest consistent training as well these last 6 months,  it was going to be interesting to see how he would fair! Key objective achieved, he did beat his brother, and whilst we were not posting pbs, it did illustrate that the fitness and strength is still there, finishing 7th in his age group overall.

Isobel opted for the longer standard distance event, for the first time . Its always a nerve racking experience upping the distance, but a great challenge, and nailed as well. Unfortunately a  puncture on the bike slowed the whole procedure down a bit, however, there was no quitting and for her first ever Standard distance, Isobel finished 8th overall female and 2nd in her age group. There is a lot more to come as well.

We also had Ian who was riding the length and breadth of Dartmoor on his bike, and as yet, we are unsure how this sportif went, however, great practice for Exmoor next weekend!

Nope, there is still more…….from Goalspecific we had our Junior Serena lining up with Claude and 100s of others in the Purbeck 10km. Yet again, she stormed the undulating course, coming home 1st female, 15th overall, in a shade over 37 minutes. Claude not far behind, posted a 10km pb in just over 43mins. 2mins faster than his target time of 45mins….

So, the pressure is on for those travelling down to Devon this weekend, to take on those hills, and no doubt wind and rain, in the Exmoor 70.3! Lining up with me will be Simon, Liz, Ian, and tripurbecks Mandy Jonathon and Gary! Support crew Cheryl, Derek, Sharon, Ade and kids, jackie and Keith will also be there, so should be a fun weekend (well, once we have crossed that finish line!). Then Ashley will be up the week after!