Race Reports

33 athletes took part in our second Middle Distance Race, which was 8 up on last year. Race conditions were almost perfect with the threatened early heavy rain not arriving. We had the usual melee of getting transition erected, preparing to race etc. in little more than an hour. But life is never straightforward and our specially prepared racking did not fit properly. Luckily Del came to the rescue, whipping out his tool in no time for a quick bodge!

The second problem was a distinct lack of timekeepers, after the 2 volunteers had to pull out. David Ricketts had put himself down to swim and do timing - all on Monday. Unfortunately the race was on Sunday! It was his son's special 18^th birthday lunch on the same day. Brad came and started the timing but had a late offer to go to Old Trafford for the football which I am sure made Rachel's husband Paul very jealous. At the last second Tim Cresswell stepped in and took it over, doing an excellent job in spite of being given a watch that could only time up to one hour!!

 

Eventually we had the race briefing. Pippa had to chuckle whenever she heard the word 'mount' so I am not sure what sort of race she had in mind, and Ant Grey was already prophetically planning an exit strategy! Then 25 athletes jumped into the lake. It was our first opportunity test out the new bouys. What a difference! Sighting was a doddle. That was money very well spent.

 

At Brad's signal the race started. Mat Record stormed off as expected. The swim course is probably longer than 1900m, the consensus was nearer 2100m in the end. Mat swam it in 34m15s, almost 4 minutes clear! He even had time to stop at the pontoon to ask 'Where is everybody?'

 

The chasing pack was led home by Mark Jordan and Dave Lashbrook, but also included Colin Chambers and Steve Alden, who were as surprised to be there as Mark and Dave were seeing them. Vaughan was not far behind. He was in the pack but went wide at the far end and the other four cut in with a better line and he then couldn't get back on their feet.

 

Pipaa was out first for the women in 40m49s with Hazel about 22 seconds down with Rachel only 22 seconds minutes behind her. Nikki was 2 minutes behind Rachel and guest Bethan 90 seconds further back.

 

Through T1 and out onto the bike. Dave Lashbrook has clearly been listening to Steve always talking about transition times as he blitzed through ahead of the others. As expected though, the fastest bike split went to James. His 2h22m04s (including transitions) was more than 14 minutes faster than anyone except for Rob Hoodless who was only doing the bike leg. It shows how tough this bike course is that only Rob and James broke 2h30m, and only 4 others even broke 2h40m.

 

There was plenty going on out on the course though. Vaughan didn't fancy the direction he was going so he turned round and was seen riding in the opposite direction.

Mark and Steve were having a good battle when Mark got stung by a wasp after Balcombe on the first lap. Knowing he has potential anaphylaxis problems he stopped to take some antihistamines, then quite rightly stayed with Steve for the remainder of the ride, before pulling out of the race in T2, when he didn't feel at all well. His actual ride time of about 2h36m was astonishing in the circumstances, and he was 24 minutes faster by T2 compared to last year.

 

Ant Grey was trying some new techniques on the bike circuit. As it was hilly he decided to shed some unnecessary components. He started by losing his saddle, then his front wheel, and finally one pedal. The weight saving strategy did not help, so he had to limp the bike home via a shortened route. Paul Wills was also struggling after coming out of the swim a bit disorientated. He gamely carried on although he did need some advice on what to wear on the bike. Like Ant and Mark though, he pulled out at T2.

 

The women were far more sensible. Rachel quickly overtook Hazel on her way to a bike split that was 20 minutes faster than any of the others. Bethan, Hazel and Nikki all completed the bike within seven minutes of each other and Hazel headed out on the run with a 10 minute advantage over Bethan and Nikki. Jade decided to do a single lap of both the bike and run, but it is only a few weeks since her very impressive Ironman performance.

 

Although it is essentially flat on the run, it is not an easy course. There are 5 dead turns, 14 gates to negotiate, a very uneven surface, some short but marked inclines and lots of walkers, dogs and mud.

 

James started the run with a 9 minute lead over Dave and 12 minutes over Steve, who managed to bring the deficit down to 5m39s by the end, and was delighted with a finish time under 5 hours, more than 13 minutes faster than last year. Dave eventually finished 4^th as his legs were in trouble, but only finished 2 minutes down on last year and he was overtaken by Vaughan who was running strongly. Pete tried to get a pace man to help him. His son did a fine job and will probably be a good runner like his dad in the future. Colin Chambers was clearly struggling on the run, with leg problems. Stoically he put on a brave face and pushed on, and gave everyone a good laugh at the finish when he stopped, laid down and rolled over the finish line.

 

Del Hastings put in another splendid performance to improve his last year's time by more than 15 minutes.

 

 

Rachel was able to cruise round the run with such a healthy lead, but it was Bethan who was making the effort, and managed to overturn the 10 minute deficit on Hazel into a 6 minute advantage, to finish just outside 6 hours. That was a great run. Fastest woman however was Fiona in the relay with a 1h43m04s time.

 

11 people took part in the relay, with David and Rob's team not having a runner, which was a shame as they were comfortably in the lead at that point. In the end the honours went to Mat, Phil and Richard with a time of 5h24m, with the all ladies team of Pippa, Sharon and Kay just 7 minutes behind. There were some superb individual performances in the relay with Mat being the fastest swimmer, Rob - second quickest cyclist and Fiona second quickest runner overall.

 

The performance of the day has to go to Trevor though. He was going nicely until mid way through the run when his knees started to give out. He could only walk and jog. He had the option to pull out after 2 laps of the run, but carried on in a lot of trouble. He easily got the biggest ovation of the day when he finished, and the emotion of it was clearly on his face. But it was an amazing effort.

 

And when everyone had finished there was the picnic going on. It was fabulous that people like Phil Couch and Rupert Robinson who were desperate to race themselves, but could not because of injury, still turned up to be there and cheer everyone on. Lots of people brought their families and there may well have been more than a hundred people present altogether.

 

It was nice to have some guests racing, who I am certain will be future members of the club. Good Luck to Charlie and Bethan in their big race - Ironman Wales in a fortnight.

 

In the end it was a great day for everyone! Well Done

Author: Steve Alden

No doubt you have heard of the film Nightmare On Elm Street, welcome to Nightmare at Wimbleball.

The day started at 06.00 with the putting on of the wet suit ready to be walked down to the lake at 06.30. It was overcast and windy but at least it wasn't raining, like Saturday!!! Eventually all 1600 competitors were in the very cold water having waded through the mud!! No "God Save The Queen" this year, not that "she" will be too worried! The gun goes off at 07.00 and we're off, not exactly at a gallop more like a massive washing machine on fast spin!! My swim was okay, got kicked a few times but isn't that what triathlon is all about!! 

I exited the water on 55 mins 17 sec , about 30 secs down on last year. T1 went okay at least i didn't get interviewed like last time! I was a bit unsure as what to wear for the bike as it was still a quite cool and very windy, anyway i opted to remain in my tri suit and put on arm warmers. The bike course is two laps and very hilly and although it remained cool, overcast and windy at least it didn't rain until about ten minutes before reaching T2 but luckily it was only a short shower. I had no problems on the bike, unlike a lot of others who suffered punctures and broken chains etc. and completed the ride in 4:03:51.  T2 passed without any hiccups and the sun had come out by then, it always shines on the righteous!.

Hope you are covering your eyes because this is where the nightmare begins, during the first lap i could feel the underside of my right foot starting to niggle where i had injured it at work a week ago! Even being passed and encouraged by John Webster [we met by chance at the race briefing the day before] couldn't help and by the end of the first lap i had been reduced to a hobble and for a split second i thought maybe i should call it a day!!! But it's an Ironman event, so there is NO GAIN without PAIN!!!! How i got to the finish i don't know,  but i dragged myself over the line after 2hrs 42 mins 4sec.

My overall time was 7hrs 53mins 15 secs, about 30 mins down on last years time. I was gutted at the time as i had wanted to try and finish first in my age group,

You're not going to believe this, i have just checked the results  and even with a shit performance i came FIRST in my age group!!!! Mind you i was the only ONE !!!! Obviously i shall be looking for the MSTC to sponsor my trip to Las Vegas later in the year for the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!!! Ha! Ha!

                 Cat Pos    Total        Swim      T1      Bike         T2    Run
Jon Webster    29    05:57:32   37:54  07:40 03:25:28 01:48 01:44:44
Derek Hastings 1     07:53:15   55:17  08:59 04:03:51 03:07 02:42:04

Its 03:00 pitch black and raining and I am trying to eat porridge... Have I gone mad or am I in a nightmare? No Claire talked me into doing Swashbuckler half IM with a start time 05:15 in all my years I have never checked the start time of a race when booking. That has changed now.

 

04:00 racking bikes.

Its pitch black and still raining, there's no flood lights and we don't have a torch so we leave the bikes in transition and go back to the car for a power nap. 04:30 Dawn back to transition (still raining) and set up, things are better now.

 

05;15 (apparently it has to be this early to get the slack water)

A deep water start with a very nice wide start and the water is lovely. Unfortunately no slack water but the current is not too strong. Two loops up and down stream, people were moaning after about the strength of the current but I did not notice it , I was about a minute slower than expected but I did find some feet to draft off so that helped, apparently the current got stronger the more time that went on. Feel sorry for the Ladies then as they started 5-10 mins behind the men.

 

Out of the water in a little over 30mins and a 400m uphill slog to T2. Biked out all going well. The bike route is great, although there was a mighty head wind, flat and fast with the obstacles of deer, cows and horses to keep you alert. Uneventful ride except being distracted by the foals playing and having to slalom my way through a herd of cows which was fun.

 

2hrs 28mins as the bike was only 50 miles but that's my day done this was only ever going to be a aquabike for me. There is a great sense of relief when you know you don't have to go out on the run.

 

I change and realise it's only 08:30 and on to join Kay and Tim in supporting Claire and a friend of mine from the midlands who I talked into doing this race.

Overall I really liked this race stunning surroundings and what can be a quick course so don't let the start time put you off.

 

Claire's thoughts:

I thought that on reflection ....as it didn't continue to rain and that there were some bright skies later on that its good to still be friends.... which is asking a lot when it was a 3 'clock start to the day, a power nap of ten minutes in the car after a quick drop off of bike in the wet dark un lit transition. The race itself went well'ish I made lots of silly mistakes that included getting lost as we racked up in the dark and then i ran the wrong way out of T2 and had to run down the hill and back up. I did a pb of 37 minutes - but it was a battle of being very tired after the sprint the week before and an Olympic with two week training camp at club la Santa... anyway its all done and dusted and now i only have to panic about the IM in 6 weeks.

 

Photos are in the photo section

Realizing I'll need to get up at 3.00am to get to Lydd for the 5.00am registration was a schock.

Getting there at 5.30am would have been enough. Started at 7.00am in the first swim wave.

 

Only 200 competitors overall in 3 waves. Thought I started at the very back, still got swum over twice. Not nice.

 

When I registered for this one last year had to give my 1000m pool time,

I was a better swimmer then but just started out with cycling. They put me into the first wave.

 

I got slower in the pool since then, because I cycle instead.

Everybody dashed off from the start as expected, there were some under 30 minutes times.

 

Couldn't stay on good feet, just swum on my own. Hence the slow time, 36.15. It was still a comfortable, pleasant swim.

 

I need some work on transitions, for sure. This was my first tri,  6.15 and 6.52 still seems very slow.

I felt soooo organised. The only glitch was I forgot to remove the rain coat from my cycling top,

run back when realized it was bouncing too much. 

There really wasn't too much distance to cover, it was all me.

Heavy rain was the forecast but it was dry and ideal conditions if a bit windy. I guess it's the location.

 

Bike was uneventful and pancake flat. There were only signs if the route went off the main road, I felt bad because of it several times but didn't go astray.

 

3.32 is actually a good time for me, I'm so weak on the bike. Can't even put my bottle back without stopping and putting the feet actually down though I'm practicing this a lot. Fast course, ideal for tri bars, which I've got but can't use, it feels so unsafe for me. It still holds one of my bottle, very useful, see above.

 

The run was on a nice course, very bad signage here. I think it was a problem even last year, I can't understand how could they not fix this. The event is in it's third year, btw. Actually run through two marshalls busy talking, then realized a minute later I've gone astray, turned back, asked them which way, also why didn't they told me earlier.

 

They told me they haven't thought I was in the race. Huhhh.

2.29 was what I expected. 6.50.44 overall, not dead last but very close.

 

I've only had two short runs in the last month, and around 20 runs overall in this year. This included a half, a 20miler and a full, the rest were short runs/bricks. You can't run much better than you've trained for.

 

Last year I've run much more, this year I've injured my knee several times from cycling with too low cadence. I've sorted this out a little bit late (last month) for my IM in July, let's hope not too late...

 

Had a good stretch and a dip afterwards in the lake (icebath), I believe this is why I feel so well today. Muscle soreness only in biceps, well, I think I must be a bit outstretched on my 56" bike.

 

Tried out planned  IM nutrition, ate solids and generally more on the bike than would have been needed for the half. Seemed OK.

 

All in all a reasonable event , very fast course with some bad signage.

Lack of hills is good if you're after a PB, not so if you're in training for a hilly IM. 

We hadn't got a number to call in case of mechanical problems.

There were marshalls on mopeds and  marshalls at roundabouts.

Registration, transition, start and finish went smoothly.

 

Kate Walch