Ironman 70.3 Greece and running up hills

Ironman 70.3 Greece was the venue for the last triathlon of the year for the team (unless David and Lou decide to take one on as they are in Australia for 3 months :-)) with Annie and Fran racing just a week after Challenge Peguera. Partly, in truth, this was a race planned to give a good excuse for a week’s holiday in Greece in October half term. The race itself is in an incredible location; Costa Navarino in the western Pelaponese and we would recommend it to everyone :-)

Race day itself dawned with blue skies but with the promise (unusually) of a rain storm later in the day. Both Fran and Annie had good swims exiting the water in 5th and 7th place in their respective age groups. Fran’s nippy transition put her up to second going out on the bike and she soon started to produce a trademark bike ride, taking the lead at the first bike split. It soon became apparent, however, that there was some stiff competition with another quick rider from Greece keeping pace in 2nd place only a a couple of mins down. Annie was also riding strongly and keeping pace in her very competitive AG.

Onto the run and having recorded to 4th fastest bike split overall, Fran had an 8min lead. It quickly became apparent, however, that the second place athelete was running slightly faster and Fran was having trouble with her hip. All this lead to a stressful time spectating for me (:-)) but fortunately the hip loosened up a bit for the last 5k and Fran was able to up the pace and take the win by nearly 3mins. Meanwhile, Annie was having a really good run - the fastest this year - to finish strongly in 11th place in her AG.

By this stage, as promised, it was pouring with rain and to make matters worse I go the van stuck in an olive grove so we couldn't get to the prize giving. Big shout out to the IM Greece team though both for putting on an amazing event and also allowing Fran to pick up her trophy the next day - they even arranged a impromptu mini award ceremony :-)

Meanwhile, if we thought the weather in Greece was damp, Annie S, Rose and Sarah were taking on the Beachy Head 10k trail run in the midst of Storm Austin, not ideal conditions for a very hilly route with difficult underfoot conditions especially on the downhills. Amazing, all 3 managed to beat their previous best times from last year despite the conditions, with Rose 4th in her AG and Annie and Sarah coming home together. Fab racing :-)