HOT NEWS 2005

Saturday 1st October 2005

Zagreb, Croatia.

World Corporate Games Triathlon

This was Di & my holiday come key race
of the year, a sprint distance race in and around the beautiful setting of Lake Jarun on the outskirts of Zagreb, Croatia. www.jarun.hr

We had experience of the UK & Ireland Corporate Games but it was the first time racing these games on the world stage.

The World Corporate Games started in San Francisco in 1988 as a way of encouraging health and fitness within the work place whilst positively promoting your corporation or company within a sporting community. Since 1988 there have been Games held across the globe from Aberdeen to Athens & from Montevideo to Melbourne.

The 2005 World Corporate Games saw 22 different sports being undertaken with over 1000 medals being awarded across the weekend.

Di & I were racing as part of Dorset Police together with Rob Hammond, one of the Dorset Police athletes we had previously advised in the past.

Rob was under a bit of pressure as he has raced consistently all year from sprint to Ironman distance events, as well as being at the European Championships. There was less expectation upon Di, who was racing for only the second time this season having used Wimborne as a warm up and myself.

All three of us were racing within our respective age groups rather than the open category.

Having arrived in the rain on Thursday, we all quickly built our bikes up and went for a test ride around the lake. Rob stressed to us that as we were cycling on "the wrong side of the road" everyone would have to overtake us on our left.

Friday was taken up with tram rides and sight seeing in Zagreb itself, something well recommended as Zagreb is a beautiful city.

Race day had almost perfect weather; dry, warm & sunny and a rather pleasant 12 o'clock start albeit we had to be at transition for 11am briefing.

It soon became apparent that we were the only "international" athletes within 30 strong field. Talking to some of the other athletes it appeared that most were local and that the local Zagreb triathlon team were based at the lake and raced the course every Wednesday evening. From conversations it also became clear that there were a couple of Croatian age group athletes within the competition. However due to the random numbering system it was impossible to tell who was in the respective age groups, so it was hard to get a look at the competition.

After a somewhat confusing race briefing- apparently speed bumps do not move- we walked up to the swim start.

Now initially we were told it was an out and back swim, but having scoped out the swim before the briefing none of us could work out the course, so as we are walking up we are then told it is a straight 750m point to point swim. That made sense.

A couple of the other athletes made a fashion statement by wearing bathrobes as they walked up to the start.

Lake Jarun is a fresh water lake fed by undergoing springs so the water was crystal clear and didn't't taste too bad!

The only tricky point of the swim was negotiating the metal algae covered stairs out of the lake and the 30 or so steps leading up from the lake into transition.

Rob felt that he came out of the swim in contact with the leaders. Di wasn't too sure how her swim had went and it transpired that I had led out his age group. Never been able to say that before!!

The 20k bike course consisted of a three lap course around the lake, due to the fact there were also Dragon Boat, 5k & 10k run, the mountain bike racing, basketball and petanque events around the lake the athletes were guaranteed a crowd throughout the circuit.

The course looked fast & flat however there was a deceptive head wind at the back of the course that saw the majority of athletes loose some speed. Rob had been very clear when the athletes had previously carried out a reccy of the bike course stating that they had to remember that as we were racing on the "wrong side of the road" athletes would come past on the left, during the race Rob went past me on the right....

During the general chat after the race it appears that Rob also undertook one of the locals, Hrvoje, as well.

Rob came into transition in about 5th place overall, Di came in to start the run as second female and I was so wasted I had no idea where I was.

The run was an out and back 5k course with a dead turn at the 2.5k mark, all maintained their hard work on the run and were rewarded as Rob finished 5th overall and 2nd in his age group, Di finished 2nd in her age group and I finished 2nd in mine.

Due to these three 2nd places the team won the World Corporate Games Triathlon Sports Championship Award, which seeing as triathlon isn't part of the Budapest Games in 2006 means that we will be World Corporate Games Triathlon Champions for at least two years.

The best thing about the Games was meeting some real good, friendly athletes and sharing the Games experience with them, nothing encapsulates this more than Zvonsko Patafta who was racing in my age group.

He decided to do his first triathlon at the Games so bought a bike three weeks before the race, he didn't know any triathletes but as he stays by Lake Jarun he just cycled around the Lake, watching what the triathletes did on a Wednesday night. Unfortunately he may have been paying too much attention to them and the speed bumps so didn't see the car that knocked him off the bike seven days before the race. Some frantic physio got him too the start line but seeing as he didn't know any triathletes, he couldn't borrow a wetsuit so he has about a 30 minute swim in 18ºC, he ultimately past me at about 2.5k. But what a great guy, 1st race - World Champion and a helluva salsa dancer.

Hrvoje and his girlfriend also looked after us, taking us to a good local restaurant at Sava and giving us a great insight into triathlon in Zagreb.

However all the triathletes we met were great to be with as were the race crew, everyone was friendly, approachable & helpful.

Zagreb is a beautiful city just starting to wake up to tourism, Jarun is a great place to stay and the triathletes were all wonderful athletes who did their best to make you feel welcome.

And as became the team motto " Lakse malo macore"


Sunday 28th August 2005

Ironman Canada
Race Report from Julian Allen:

TACKS & TORNADOS!

It was with some trepidation that I arrived in Penticton on the Sunday before the Ironman Canada, this August. With four and a half months training lost to back injury, and a diagnosis of congenital spondyloysis, the build up was inadequate to race. However, after much soul searching I decided to to the start line with the intention of enjoying the day and looking to "complete not compete".

After no back problems in a couple of months it was rather a surprise when my back muscles tightened up on Monday morning at a chance meeting with John Minuti "Mr Ironcrew" of Penticton. I shrugged it off as we visited the Bike Barn emporium to gather some race essentials like Co2 canisters and salt capsules. As I turned from the till my lower back muscles went into spasm and I was left bent over phoning a physio on my mobile! I was lucky enough to get an appointment within 90 minutes and had the muscles released, although a vice like grip remained etched on my memory! This setback meant that plans to ride Richter Pass and the climb up to Yellow Lake was out of the question that day. The following day saw no back problems and Celina and I drove the course getting out to ride over and beyond Ritcher before returning to the Voyager (Chrysler, not Starship!) to drive the rest. A duststorm at the Big Bear and the Yellow Lake meant the bikes stayed in the car and I had to postpone my aquaintance with the climb until raceday.

The following morning meant a reccy swim in Lake Okanagan, which was balmy compared to the usual 4k Southbourne swim course and a pleasant absence of salt in the water which was appreciated. After an easy 40 minutes I stood up to get out but got back spasms again! Fortunately I had a physio appointment booked for 10 that morning so I was fortunate and got treatment which once again eased it.

During my daily ST forum hour I received a personal recommendation for one for the ART therapists that was working the expo. I used this recommendation and received three free sessions from Erica (a Chiro from Vancouver) over the days remaining before Sunday! These treatments were rather deep but excellent and got me to the startline in good shape but nervous.

After the usual 0430 Ironman raceday alarm and cold porridge oats and banana breakfast, it was time to walk with our kit bags down Lakeside Drive to the transition and bodymarking as the first stop of the day. It was a great disappointment to find that carrying the bags was making my back bad! I gathered some ice from the medical tent and spent the pre race time with it shoved down my racesuit!

At 0630 we were piped (God, I hate bagpipes!) down to the beach where 2250 equally nervous athletes positioned themselves in the vain thought that they could avoid getting beaten to death by their "friends". I chose the far left as a start position believing the slightly longer line would keep me clear of the action until the first turn buoy at 1650m. After watching the pros get their 15 minute start I entered the shallow waters for the long wade into deep enough water for a warm up.

I just got out in time to get to the back of the field for the cannon and off we went. I had an easy stress free first leg without getting kicked or punched until the first turn. As we turned it was with great disappointment that the rising sun was straight in our eyes. I took a wide line and really got into my rhythm which I kept up for the rest of the course to arrive on the beach in 1:08:35. First stop was the wetsuit strippers to get my suit bottom off without cricking my back (it's a good idea, Bryce;-)) and then into the change tent. I stopped in the portapotty to apply some biofreeze as a precaution to my lower back before going off onto the bike.

The first stretch along the length of Lakeside Drive and out of town was useful as the bike traffic was so dense it was easy to moderate effort and avoid red lining it. Four miles in I spotted a lot of poor souls that had punctured along Skaha Lake, this later transpired to be because of tacks spread by a disapproving local. The first hill came at 8 miles, a sharp climb onto McLean Creek Road and then the advertised flat start continued to roll up and down until Osyoos where large packs were forming without the desire to break up. I got caught in one as a group came up and jammed me into the guys I was catching, twice I rode through the pack keeping my HR at 150 only to be sat upon and blocked in twic,. so I solved this by stopping for a pee instead of going on the fly! Just before I made the right turn to begin the 6 1/2 miles climb of Richter Pass I started suffering from a bloated stomach which made it very uncomfortable to ride and also to maintain my nutrition plan. I decided to try an hour of just sipping water to see if that would assist in easing the discomfort. Unfortunately it did not. By the time I got onto the final climb up to Yellow Lake the temperature had risen to 34 degrees and the wind had picked up. The crowds and the volunteers were fantastic, as they had been around the entire course, and made the difference to allow me to get up to the top despite the onset of cramp due to the lack of calories taken onboard. Now came the fun part, or so I thought, a long steep descent into town. I turned the corner at the top of the lake and spotted a dust storm coming off the lake and whipping across the road (this later turned out to be the tornado that through some riders across the road!). so the only course to me was hunker down on the bars, drop the chain into the 54-11 and ride like hell. Actually, that was a good tactic as it gave me a new downhill PB of 52 mph!
Once onto the flat it was a easy spin back through the crowds on Main Street and into T2. Once I had handed my bike off to a volunteer I dashed into the change tent as best my tight hamstrings would allow. As I turned into the tent I noticed stacks of ice bags piled up, so naturally, I spent my changing time sat on the icebags and worked those hammys!

As I headed out on the run I began my 10 and 1 plan of 10 minutes run, 1 minute walk, which worked a treat for about 22 minutes! At that point my stomach was bloated and shooting pains throught the right side of my abs. I continued to run until the pain was too severe to run and then I grabbed some ice which I pressed to my abd until it subsided enough to run again. This worked well, unfortunately it meant about 90 steps to run and 8 or 9 minutes for the pain to ease up. Naturally, this meant a disappointing run time but once back into town the crowds shamed/carried me onto a run along Lakeside to the finish.

So another IM finish, another IM tattoo. The only thing left to say is that the following evening Celina and I sat in the VIP section sandwiched between Lisa Bantley's table and Simon Lessing's table! One thing that is consistent although this race is that the organisation and people connect to this race is unparallelled in it's love of the sport and ability. This is reflected in the welcome that Penticton's residents give you when they see your competitor band on your wrist in race week and in the fact that a mere 19 hours after the race finishes there is a very professionally produced DVD of the day for each competitor to collect on leaving the awards.

If you get the chance to be signed up for IM Canada, you will advise you to do so, it's an experience to relish.


Sunday 11th September 2005

Inaugural 70.3 Championship World Qualifier at Longleat
Race report by Bryce Dyer:

On paper at the very least it looked like this was going to be a hard day. Bearing in mind the longest race I'd ever done was the Ballbuster (and we all remember what state I ended up in there) this race was always going to be eventful one way or the other. This race was the first of the new 70.3 branded formats located at Longleat, Wiltshire housed in a fabulous location within the grounds of the park. For me at least this race was going to be my final decision maker on whether I go for Ironman early next year plus to learn the logistics at WCT events.

The day before involved the traditional packing of the coloured bags for each discipline and the handing in of the bikes. I can't say i was happy about handing my pride and joy in to be left outside overnight in what was a downpour, but thanks to an intervention from neo pro Abi Bayley (who was blatantly more prepared than I was) the beast was well covered with bin liners. It should be pointed out at this point that I was staying in a house within 3 other triathletes of 'varying mindsets'. Sharing a pre race experience with big race winner (but vodka monster) Kate Balchin was enlightening to say the least !!! (I got ribbed about my laminated race briefing and plan documents all damn weekend). As expected I didn't get hell of a lot of sleep that night mainly due to an over enthusiastic hydration intake.

Race morning rolled around (at 3:30am !!!!) and we all head down to Longleat to meet our collection coaches which take us 3 miles away to Shearwater for the swim start using a split transition style system. Being on the coach was like being in the film of 'The Fugitive' where you're all sat on a death row bus. Nobody looked particulary happy or chatty and after my 2nd malt loaf of the morning already I was feeling somewhat depressed about the lack of some decent food and drink as well.

We arrived in darkness to find that it was still raining and cold with the Wiltshire mist hanging over the lake. I came to realise that with the change bags already handed in the day before there wasn't actually a lot to do other than wait.......for nearly 2 hours. The organisers fired up the floodlights and the accompanying reggae music which then strangely shifted to baroque classical made everything feel very dramatic - at which point I fell asleep under a tree wrapped in my speedo coat for 20 minutes.

The swim course had seen us all split into 4 waves of what was an inside then outside horseshoe shaped course. Having given my usual prayer to the race god ('don't let me puncture'). I headed down to get ready to go. I felt pretty cool about the whole thing. The conditions were to my liking (cold, high winds, unpleasant) and I knew I was here for a long day. The water was best described as treacle. It was so dense with algae you couldn't see your own hand pulling through the water when you swam (I thought the 'danger no swimming' signs that were cunningly removed were a nice touch). We had the usual 'oggy,oggy, oggy' and I'd put myself at the front of the line on the quiet end (unfortunatley this was the same plan as what the big hitters fancied as well). I was in the mood and then the gun went........

.............absolute bloody carnage ensured. I've seen more sedate sprit triathlons. Bearing in mind there were only 150 in my age group wave everyone was feeling very frisky. I found a good working group and bearing in mind the percentage of the swim versus the bike and the run is so comparably short for the 1.9k jaunt, it wasn't worth going nuts about. That said I was making good progress and it wasn't long before a group of 5 or 6 of us were scything through the back end of the wave that went 10 minutes before us. The rest of the swim went without incident although I thought things were getting a bit long. It later turned out this was the case (in fact the swim was 300m long according to the people I spoke to and those that set the course). I was out in 36 mins dead but when you take the 300m into account this puts it nearer to my ideal 30 min target. To put it in context Richard Iles said he had an average swim in 35:30 and he did 58 mins at Ironman earlier this year. Either way I was pleased with how it went.

There was a long 300m run to the bag collection and change tents and I saw a few familiar faces watching en route. I took my time in the tent. I was trying to convince myself it wasn't a race and it was more important to get it right then faff befroe I went out of the door. With aero helmet glasses and arm warmers on I exited the door to get the dream machine off it's rack.

The bike course which I looked at the day before is best described as 'sporting'. the road surfuce is identical to the Sopley TT main road for those that know it and the course was a 3 loop windy testing circuit containing a lot of rollers and a 1:7 climb that was over a mile long. At the beginning of this the heavens really let got with high winds and horizontal rain. I'd decided at the last minute not to wear a HR monitor but I would leave the computer running to check cadence and lap time. I struggled to determine the right pace to use. I blew through so many bikers early on at such a lazy pace I was starting to get confused about how hard to actually ride. It was also at this point I realised that the wheels I opted for (disc and tri spoke) may have been a little ambitious. I was getting blown all over the road although there is a certain pleasure when you catch someone and they can hear you coming 50m in advance. I also put 9 energy gels into a small drinks bottle and watered them down. I put this away inside 90 minutes. This was possibly too much !!!!!!! As it was I did the first lap in 50 minutes. Perfect pacing for my 2:30 target. It was at this point that I'd determined this target for a perfect course not for this sporting style though and I'd pay for this later on. I also stopped to disengage my rear brake as I was flexing the rear end so much the disc was rubbing on the brakes pads when I climbed !

My nutritional knowledge borders on novice level for this kind of race. Basically I'd drunk one 750ml bottle an hour of 'go' electrolyte fluid and then wondered why I needed to stop for the toilet every 40 minutes. This combined with a 'better have it as it's going' Gatorade on the last lap meant that I'd consumed nearly 3.5 litres of fluid, 8 gels, and two powerbars (to experiment with solid food) by the end of the leg. This was probably a bit excessive. Towards the end of lap 2 I was caught by the pro's who had gone off 30 mins ahead of us and were on the last lap of their bike. I don't know how it happened but I can't remember what possesed me to try and hold pace with (recent IMUK winner) Bryan Rhodes. It took me nearly 2 miles to see sense. This was an underlying fault though - I'm so used racing head to head with people, having triathlon put into a waiting game context was just too far removed from what i was used to. You overtake people and nobody cares. I made huge gains on the 1:7 climb (despite now realising I was overgeared having not taken power degradation into account) but I began to realise that I was getting slower. My subsequent laps were 55 minutes and the last was one longer due a dog leg but I was getting quite uncomfortable and losing focus over the last 5-6 miles. This was where the course made a mockery of the '70.3' classification. The bike leg was actually 60 miles, not the 56 it should be. This really dragged things out. Due to the course design and extra distance I finished the bike in 3:04 (and as it proved I wasn't hanging around).


The run* course was a two lap affair over what was a clover leaf shaped course.

*I was not looking forward to this - the half marathon. It's well known that my run isn't, how you say, as dependable, as say my biking. I've never raced this long anyway and the longest run race I'd done upto this point was 11 miles 2 years ago. One of the reasons my nutrition being over the top was just sheer panic at what could happen over 13.1 miles. The race book did say it was flat though. Thats not quite how i remember it...........

Each leaf of the course involved a massive descent, an aid station, and then the ascent away again. The gradient of these climbs was comparable to say any one of the zig zags down at the beach. The last one though was like going up Creech in the purbecks. It was absolutely brutal. I got into my running quickly and within the first mile caught a lot of people and felt pretty good. The problem was that my left side of my stomach started playing up thereafter and I would have to go to the toilet every 10 minutes over the first lap to relieve the preasure. This meant inherently that every time I would gain I would then be caught again costing me 20 seconds each time. I did this 5 times in the end but with the situation I was in it was better to be prudent and err on the side of caution........which was a good policy until my calf blew at mile 6. Any acsent or descent at that point involved a lot of limping and the race transformed from one of ascertion to one purely of survival. This was followed by my left hip flexor starting to play up at mile 8 (this was probably caused by so much extensive climbing). Things were quite nasty at this point. Lap 2 involved walking all 3 aid stations to start on the flat coke. Despite the problems, mentally I wasn't ever really being challenged (this was almost disapointing). I knew at times it was me against the course and at times my back was right up against the wall but mentally this just wasn't hard enough. I wonder now if I'll look at short course racing with the same enthusiasm.

My friendly rival Will Newbury who did me at the Primera duathlon in January but then I did by a narrow 20 seconds at the Europeans last month was also racing albeit in the earlier 25-29 wave and we had plenty of banter out there. (A few of the organisers who we knew were reading splits back to both of us early on during the run). After both having our own problems I hung on to do him again this time by a slender 2 minutes.

I remember having a conversation with soneone on the last climb about whether we were going to sprint it out (this guy didn't really want to but he didn't want to give it away either). I said I'd play it by ear. Once we got to the top of the climb I'd caught a group of 5 and was faced with the dilemma of what to do next. I decided that for the first time in the race it was time to crank it right up and bluff my left leg issues and put the hammer down. I guessed that if I took 30metres out of them they probably wouldn't come back. The Oakleys were pulled back down. The grimace was turned into a forced 'upward frown' looking thing and away we went. As I hit the 13 mile marker with the appropriate .1 miles to go I realised pretty quickly that it was blatantly nearer 400-500m left and that I'd shot my bolt for a .1. At which point one of the group behind decides to jump clear and then proceeds to run me down. It was probably the point where I realised 4 things, they were: I'd had a few highs and lows recently, some difficult sacrifies had been made this year, what my finishers photo pose was going to be*, and I'd be damned if after over 5 hours of racing that some muppet was going to take me with 50 metres to go.

* You get your your finishing photo taken as you cross the line and the final timer. The big thought of the day was do I go for the 'fingers to the sky', the 'arm pumping special', 'the courtsey', the 'planet of the apes on knees finale special' amongst others as my big moment. (I opted for the 'I'm blatantly knackered but look at my bicep' shot).

Over the run course I clocked 1:47 with multiple stops and power climbs aplenty. Ironically my run holds up well over this kind of pace and I'm much more competitve over this than my bike ability probably is which is just bizarre. If i could determine the cause of the calf problem sub 1:40 is easily possible. I placed 135th overall in the end out of (and this isn't confirmed yet as people were still out there last time I checked) between 530-630 starters.

By the way, I was 120th coming off the bike. With all the problems I had I still only lost 15 places on the run leg. I had the 205th fastest run, 120th ish bike, and 130 ish fastest swim. This makes everything relatively well balanced all things considered. Overall it was a 5:35 time which is a lot slower than my sub 5 trarget but bear in mind the winning pro did 4:15 (compared to the usual 3:55) and the likes of Luc Van Lierde could 'only' manage 4:30.

I was 22nd in my age group out of 130 entered (although there were a lot less than this that actually started - number unconfirmed at this time although I suspect it was around 90) and with 17 slots for the new 70.3 World champs on the cards I got a slot on roll down, and then turned it down. My plan was if i don't make the short course worlds in the GB team next year to re-enter this race as next years slots go towards the same event for November '06 (at which point with my long course intentions anyway I should have a much better engine by then). A 5 minute saving would have got me inside the top 100 on no long course training ! The fact I got inside the top 250 meant i got one of the limited edition baseball hats anyway !!!!

For everyone else it was a good day as well. Kate Balchin was 2nd in the 25-29ag (and then by a heart crushing 11 seconds to 1st) and took her slot. Richard Iles (with the 10th fastest bike) crushed his field to win his just inside 5 hours (and he did 9:30 at IMG the other week), Phil Mosely was 10th Pro and missed the roll down by 1 until seeing this Bryan Rhodes gave up his slot giving it to Phil in what was an amazing act of sportsmanship.

All in all a good race for racers if you want a challenge (and not a time), a not particulary spectator friendly course, and blatantly nowhere near 70.3 but actually nearer 75 miles of hell !!!!

All in all I realised I have a lot to learn and this interpreation of triathlon is effectively almost a different sport with it's own culture, values, and style of racing. Whereas Ironman is the ultimate, the fallout is huge and although I will go for it as planned in '06, longer term I may hang around at this distance for a while.
 


Sunday 4th September 2005

SOUTH COAST CLASSIC TRIATHLON
1500m/40k/10k
Race report by Dave Pratten:

The South Coast Classic was the finale to a weekend of triathlon events held at Seaford on the Sussex coast. The events included fun, sprint, and relay and Olympic distance triathlons. All the events involved sea swim, closed road bike course and finish with a promenade run course.

I was racing in the Classic event on the Sunday, which is an Olympic distance race for BTA members. There was not a cloud in the sky and it was already getting decidedly warm as I lined up on the beach for the 10:30am wave start for those aged 40+. There was a bit of a swell but the sea looked crystal clear and very inviting. I knew that I would have difficulty sighting the turn buoys on the triangular course so planned to try and stay within sight of the leaders and/or the lead canoe. After the normal head down dash for the first buoy I found myself in the lead and directly behind that lead canoe. I managed to maintain this position throughout the swim although I had another competitor literally on my toes.

After a smooth T1 I set out on the 12 (yes TWELVE) lap bike course with 11 (yes ELEVEN) dead turns. By now the air temperature was creeping into the high 20s and I was feeling the heat. I emptied my water bottle by lap 8 and was relieved to get into T2 and the first drinks station. The run was even warmer and involved four out and back laps making it easy to judge your race position. I knew I was clear of others in my age group and tried to maintain a steady (almost sedate) pace and keep well hydrated. It was encouraging to see so many others wilting in the heat.

Usually crossing the line is the best bit of an event but this was surpassed by the dip in the sea that followed shortly afterwards.

I finished 12th out of the 145 male starters in the Classic race and 1st in my age group. More importantly my overall time showed a 4.5min improvement over the same course last year.

Times:- swim 22:12, bike 75:34,run 47:52. Total 2:25:38


Sunday 21st August 2005

European Triathlon Championships
Race report by Bryce Dyer:
So the big race of my season rolled around again.....
 
This year the Europeans returned to Lausanne, Switzerland testing the new proposed world champs course for next year. I think it's fair to say it was a tough course as complaints were lodged by some and the winning time even at this level was only 2:13 (some 20 minutes slower than the norm).
 
I touched down on Thursday having this time decided to opt with a place in the main GB hotel with a room for one which was decidedly spacious. You could spot a few members of the team at Gatwick with the number of polo shirts emblazoned with the union jack loitering around. Bit of a pre race superstition but I never wear event shirts until the race is either completed or at the parade of nations. The team camaraderie was awesome.
 
If you consider that with most training it takes 7-10 days to actually receive any physical benefit, my training for this was ready long before I'd even packed a suitcase. However I was well aware that my mental training could be conducted up to and through the race and I made special efforts to practise as much technique as possible to do so. This started with me buying a new book at the airport which listed anecdotal feedback from some of the greatest athletes of our time and their use of sports psychology. This reinforced my beliefs and helped prepare myself in the best mental format. This was THE race of the year and this had to be kept in the forefront of my mind. No gifts, no reserve, no regrets.
 
We started to build some team atmosphere by holding the first team social later that evening at an 'english theme pub' which was frankly bizarre (called the White Horse). This proved a good night with friends made quickly although I was quite surprised how many athletes were fine with having more than few beers 2 days out from a big race. I stayed the course on the orange juice.
 
The next day held one of my highlights which as per last year is the bike tour. All athletes congregate in the town square whereby the police provide motorcycle escorts front and rear and block off the roads so all 250 athletes can ride as one slow peleton over one lap of the course through the town. It had to be said that it became aware very quickly about how severe this course was with 9 miles of ascent (at a fair height already above sea level) followed by 3 miles of fast (and I mean fast downhill). There were lots of novel features such as narrow cobbled street climbs, weavy roads, fast banking drift turns and tight corners making it a handling challenge as well as a speed one. I sat right on the front of the peleton and set the pace for the police to regulate. I got to have a chat with a few class athletes and things were quite settled until we hit a steep 100m cobbled climb at a gradient nearing that of a conventional stair case. 2 of the Italian team starting piling some pace on and I chose instead to look behind and watch the faces of everyone else as we went up ('these people are suffering' I remember saying to myself). There were some tortured faces which I have to say brought a smug grin to my face. I continued to the top smirking and then 'suggested' to the italians in no uncertain terms that the pace was a little on the fast side and would they mind slowing down (these weren't the exact words I chose to use as more 'f's were involved).
 
Later that day I decided to continue my mental build up to the event by once again taking in the Olympic Museum. This is an awesome place housing a lot of memorabilia of sporting icons and shows some very emotionally charged films in the cinema's. I walked out a couple of hours later feeling super motivated wishing I's slipped Boardman's Lotus bike under my jacket......
 
My build up to this point had been flawless but the next day things took a turn for the worse whereby when after swimming the swim course as a final tune up, I put my back out whilst removing my suit afterwards (this had been fine for the last 2 years). I legged it sharpish to the GB team masseur to get it sorted but to be honest in the end I had to use a teammate to physically shunt it back into alignment using a mineral water bottle and brute force. It still wasn't perfect but it was too late to worry about it at this stage and I've come to recognise I always have one pre race problem a year anyway. It came down to identifying the best course of action and dealing with the outcome. I was still pretty calm about it all.
 
I finished the morning by performing my last brief run with a few sprints to flush my system out and to see how I felt (which I had to say was very positive) before the elites set off for their race in the town over which was a strangely easy course compared to ours. I spent the time whilst the racing was going on (drafting...yawn.) looking at their bikes to see their strategy for nutrition and was surprised to see 2 bottles and 2 gels on the bike. It was at this point I decided to modify my plan by adding the option of energy gels within the bike leg (although I changed this later to during T1 for reasons I'll come onto later).
 
Team GB met up later that day in the auditorium at the Olympic museum for the pre race briefing. I chimed in a fair bit especially during discussion relating to the bike leg. it was a dangerous course and I wanted people to understand and fear this and I also wanted to make myself calm and visible in the eyes of guys I would be racing against later. It was an impressive venue. 180 people in matching team GB polo shirts is one hell of a sight.
 
The parade of nations followed after - the traditional walk down Lausannes lakeside edge. As per before the French team were in front of us (I got caught later receiving an ear bashing from then about our football team, I returned the favour by asking where they intended to be in 2012 and was it still going to be Paris? We had the opening speeches to get everyone in the mood. By now I knew I was ready to go.
 
Comment: I have to say my lead-in to this race was the best I'd had in any sport at any time. I was a strong believer in aggressive arousal (and this works for me in time trialing for example) but for Tri I find a calm, clinical approach much more beneficial. I knew I'd completed all the training and if you trust yourself, the coach, and the support team I'd selected, you've done about as much as you can. My mentality was the only thing left and the responsibility for this rested with me and me alone. It was about eliminating the potential for failure as opposed to just hoping for a good race. I knew I'd done as much as I could so I set out to reduce any unknowns (the back problem was a good example of this). I'd designed and tested my bike specifically for this event 9 months ago at two selected races with specific component choices and I knew again this is an advantage I had over the field. Nothing was to be left to chance that I could not influence.
 
The Race
 
I was playing for position, not times. I was to race smart, not hard.
 
Swim
 
It was a two lap swim affair with a pontoon dive after lap 1. The lakeside was packed with people with national flags being flown all over the place. I was one of the first called down the pontoon which was an awe inspiring sight. A few other guys in the team were very nervous yet I felt strangely calm and focused on the task at hand (start on the right, take a slow start and select the right working pack). the swim started as expected (panicked by most) but I got off to my plan with none of my recent wetsuit issues. The pack split decisively at the first turn intro what felt like a 21 minute and 24 minute group. I went with the slower one picking up any draft where I could. The rest of the leg was uneventful and steady.
 
I decided (beforehand) to employ a bit of innovative thinking as we left the water up the ramp by removing my wetsuit early before the 800m run to transition (I hadn't told anyone this as I was curious to see who would check it) and to take one gel as I came out of the water which I'd hidden down my wetsuit rather than have it on a hilly bike or a second one on the run. This worked until a marshal unhappy with my wetsuit removal before anyone else's (and outside of T1) started screaming in French. I screamed back in English and a yellow card was waved in my face (I had no idea what this meant but stopped removing the suit anyway). Luckily our superb team manager was already legging it towards the marshal to put him straight as I legged it to the bike leg.
 
Bike
 
Again I was going to race this one differently. The bike leg was basically severe with a massive 9 mile elevation of climbing and a nasty decent over 3 miles with cobbles and tight bends. I'd decided NOT to push this one and to give myself the best chance of launching the run. I'd assumed the runners would struggle for power here and would be more tired than normal whereas I could cope with this course just fine and if i could minimise any chance of leg blow out could race a well balanced affair. Needless to say i caught more than few people but I'd broken each lap down into 3 sectors and the hardest one was the middle. other competitors were driving to hard too soon and were paying for it later on. That said I got it wrong after the first descent forgetting there was a tight hairpin and I slid the back end of the bike out hitting the barrier (several people crashed here, one seriously) but I bounced off my thigh and was on my way.
 
The real problem occurred at the end of lap one. I needed the toilet due to excessive fluid ingestion and my bladder wouldn't like this if I went out on the run unchecked. I didn't want to stop or to chance my run so I decided to wee on the bike.............at 45mph, downhill, and with one hand. This was no pleasure cruise I can tell you........
 
I came into T2 with 6 swiss guys I'd caught and got ready to finish the day off.
 
Run
 
I started well. Really well in fact. I was telling myself to underpace the first 7.5k and to hammer the last of the four 2.5k laps. My cadence was fluid and I felt pretty good. the only problem with this style of course is that there is no place to hide if things went badly. It was after the first lap when i realised they'd lengthened the course (I'd measured it by bike the previous day) to include a turnaround loop adding 150-200m a lap. This probably added a couple of minutes to everyone's split.
 
Things went south at about 6.5k when I started to carry the elephant and a piano up a 'whopping' 2% rise. The energy just drained out and I realised I was now on borrowed time with 10 minutes at least still to go. I'd been holding my position at this point and now slowly began to lose ground. Bearing in mind I took the bike easy it's lucky I hadn't really gunned it....
 
Comment: Every great race has rivals. Mine had been a friend I'd made early on in the GB team and he was a class runner (who'd stuffed me incidentally back at the Primera Duathlon on New Year's Day during the last run). We'd come out of the water side by side and then I'd gone up the road and ended up with a 4 minute lead going into T2. I'd held this at 5k but then he tore into my cushion. I became aware that i was starting to become more aware of people behind me than to race frontways. This was a mistake on my part and is not the race I like to race.
 
With one loop to go I could now see my rival had closed to within 30 secs of my lead and things were getting painful below the waistline. I do remember telling myself that if nothing else that i was going as hard I could. My cadence slowed and my stride shortened drastically. 2 more friends were now also joining in the hunt and my Oakleys could no longer hide it.
 
It had to be said that the support on the course was awesome. Barry Frost the manager had distributed team lists to everyone's loved ones so my name was being shouted repeatably (correctly I might add) and three 9 years olds certainly put in their moneys worth each time I crossed them. The assistant manager later said that my face was a mask of pain on the 4th lap and he didn't know what to yell apart from the fact i looked terrible but I was nearly home.
 
With 200m to go I was now with a German, a brit and my rival directly behind me but with a curve to run round and my reserve sprint to close I shut all the doors and crossed the line. That was a good feeling and the handshakes went on for some time between comrades and rivals. I hit the free massage after that and destroyed some exhibitors free protein bar display.....
 
Summary:
 
Was I happy with my race? Yes and no. I'd raced conservatively due to the bike leg and had a well balanced race if you look at the winners. The swim was about 30-40 secs off my target (although still a minute faster than last year). The bike was restrained but yet the run still fell apart at 7k. I'm not sure why. It's not speed and can only mean i need more engine build time this winter (IM will give me that). If that had held together I may have saved a couple more minutes and been more happy about my balanced approach. I was extremely happy with my mentality albeit with one exception - the close of the run. According to the results I nearly caught another brit in front and lost that place by 1 second but I never saw anyone there as I was concerned with defending my position on the last curve rather than emptying the tank and this grates me a little. I did do an impressive dip for the line though. I was calm and my psyche was effective.
 
I'd done the best I could with what I had but a conservative approach isn't how I like to race. It was my strongest race as a package this season I finished halfway down my age group which at this high level was good but more importantly was 5th brit out the 17 in my cat which for me justified my inclusion in the team and the ability to wear GB kit with a sense of pride afterwards which as well as the result was equally important to me. I made more than a few friends, rubbed shoulders with the greats, made a few contacts with some influential people in the sport and never ate alone. The party on Sunday night was pretty wild starting out with 50 of us and finishing up with 8. I was last seen swordfighting holding a yellow umbrella in the streets. I have no idea why we all had one and where they came from in the first place especially at 2 in the morning.............
 
 
We now move on from my biggest race of the season to potentially the hardest...............

Wednesday 27th July 2005

Interservices Triathlon Championships
1500m/40k/10k
The Army had a clean sweep in both the male & female team championships beating the RAF & Navy teams. On a course described as having a short swim but a technical bike course Paula Mathieson helped the female Army team lift the championship in a time of 2.22.51. Good to see that despite work commitments Paula can still race well.

Sunday 24th July 2005

Tidworth Fast Twitch Triathlon
400m/16miles/5miles
On the same day that Lance Armstrong (ex-triathlete) was winning his historical 7th Tour de France so I was competing in my hysterical 1st triathlon of the season.
Now, considering my key race of the season will be a sprint distance race on a flat course in temperatures around about the high 90s it made perfect sense to open my account on a hilly, undulating event in torrential albeit tepid rain.

The swim went as expected although the high walls at lane end caused a few comedy moments with athletes unable to get out of the pool.

The bike course was undulating although the sweeping bends into a village near Bulford saw me record a speed of over 42mph, the exhilaration gave way to panic as there was an un-marshalled 90 degree right hand turn around the bend, in the village. Braking on carbon rims in the pouring rain on a wet, rippled road surface made for interesting.

Gravity, once my friend became my foe as the sweeping downhill that allowed me to record my fastest speed became a long uphill drag where I recorded my slowest, the water running down the road was travelling faster than me cycling up it!

Out onto the run which starts with a 10 minute climb, followed by a couple of rolling hills before a left turn at the water table into a long ascent before the left turns into the finish.

Overall the swim was as anticipated, the bike was better than projected and the run is still a work in progress.

A thank you to Di who cycled two hours in the pouring rain from Romsey to act as support.

Sunday July 17th 2005

Ashford Triathlon
1500m/40k/10k
Race report by Dave Pratten:

Having driven from Maidstone to Ashford in glorious sunshine I was a little dismayed to find the Julie Rose Stadium shrouded in a light mist. I didn't realise that the lake in which the swim was to be held was enveloped in fog. As I got out of the car it was announced that the race was to be delayed by 15minutes to give the fog time to burn off. By the time I met up with club colleagues Julian,Bryce and Mark in the stadium the delay was 30 minutes. 30 minutes tuned into 45 then 60 then 75 then 90. As the time wore on it was interesting to note the change in mood and body language of competitors. Bryce was no longer checking his bike at 5 minute intervals and I was contemplating joining a very long queue for coffee before going home!

Announcements over the p.a speculated about the possibility of a shortened swim or a duathlon. As the mist finally began to lift we were informed the swim would be shortened to 1000m but the rest of the course would be kept as planned. Unfortunately by the time we reached the lake the decision had been taken to shorten the swim still further.

What followed was farcical as a few hundred triathletes literally fought their way around two buoys and back to the shore. A long T1 into the stadium had the sole benefit of delaying the onset of a the demanding bike course. The bike consisted of a very long early climb followed by an undulating descent.… The short swim made drafting inevitable and I was soon overtaken by dense packs of riders. After what seemed like an age I returned to a now very sunny Julie Rose stadium and out onto the run. The run consisted of an outward climb and inward descent followed by a lap around the stadium.

It was very hot on the run. The best bit of the entire event was crossing the line to stand under a cold shower that had been rigged up on the track. By the time I arrived Bryce was lying under the shower to achieve the maximum cooling effect.

I was disappointed with my performance. 2:07:50 and 14th in my age group. It certainly brought me back down to earth after some satisfying performance this season.

The bike was overdistance at 26miles and the run underdistance at 9.63k a curious state of affairs for a National Championships.

Saturday 16th July 2005

SW Tristar Series
Bath (Various Distances)
Phoebe Chester was racing in the final race of the SW series. Going into the race Phoebe was in 5th place overall in the Regional Standings.

A good swim saw Phoebe exit the pool and get into transition in third place. The bike course caused the athletes some difficulties as held off road on grass, there were some "swampy" bits at the turnaround point. Phoebe lost a couple of places on the bike but came onto the run looking strong and focussed.

A solid run, again off road, saw Phoebe finish in the top 10 for her race, 9th overall.

This result means that Phoebe is ranked 5th in the South West Region in her age group.

Sunday July 3rd 2005

Bournemouth Triathlon
1500m/40k/10k
Race report by Dave Pratten:

The Bournemouth triathlon is one of those races which I enter each year and always mange to underperform. This year very conscious of committing myself to race target times for each discipline perhaps it would be different.

With the smell of coffee coming from the beachside café I waited impatiently for the start with club colleagues Bryce, Clive, Nigel and Mark.

I had a very relaxed swim which I was confident would be close to the target time. I emerged from the sea inhaled some more coffee fumes then out into T2. A bit of a stumble into my pedals then off up the hill and out onto the dual carriageway to Ringwood and back. It’s not the most interesting course but it is fast. I tried to concentrate on not losing focus and keeping plenty in reserve for the run. For once it all went more or less according to plan.

Aided by some encouraging words from Di (she has got an amazing pair of lungs…… if we could all shout like that we wouldn’t need mobile phones!) I had a good T2. Once again the run isn’t that interesting but it is flat and fast. I didn’t seem to have anyone from my age group around me so I just set my own pace. I crossed the line in 2:17:24 ( my best for the course) just 36 seconds under my target time and feeling quite smug. Even better I found out later that I was first in my age group. A good confidence booster for the National Age Group championships at Ashford.

Saturday July 2nd 2005

BananaMan Triathlon
Race report by Julie Treadwell:

A great day for it - slightly windy, warm but no sun. There were 45 women in my wave and the camaraderie was excellent - the best I've had at a race yet. As we were waiting in the water at 2.15pm, the men's wave was coming round for their second lap on the swim which consisted of running through transition, down the pontoon and diving back into the lake. Our hoots and wolf whistles seemed to spur them on and there was many a trick dive to be seen.

Okay back to my race. As usual I was chatting and facing the wrong way when the gun went off, but soon got into the swing of it. My new aquasphere goggles were fantastic - I could see loads, including all the algae and pond weed that was draping itself over my face. 400m down - out, through transition and back into the lake. My first dive off a pontoon in a triathlon - I was thrilled - it felt so professional.

Out of the swim - someone shouted that the lady behind me was 17th out of the water (good I was 16th - although I later found out it was about 11th!). Into transition and wet suit off - arrh! We'd been given these enormous timing chips and couldn't get our wetsuits off. There we were all jumping around in transition - but at least I wasn't alone. On to the bike - right. I've done more cycle training recently than anything else so I've got to do well.

Six laps of the bike course and I want to try to maintain 32kph - that means I can do the 30k in under an hour. Right first lap 32kph - yes I'm going to make it. Second lap - bye bye drinks bottle - again! (Right I'm investing in a profile tri-bar bottle for the next race) That means I've got to do about 25k with no drink - not good. Carry on for the next four laps and I think I averaged about 30kph so am reasonably pleased. I think I am overtaken by about 4 or 5 women but the number of laps makes it difficult to say - I find myself racing into transition behind a couple of ladies who then carried on for another lap.

Out of transition and onto the run. Hang on - this feels great - no bandy legs at all. I run the first lap of 2.5k waiting for the bandy legs and tiredness to kick in. It doesn't happen - I'm chuffed and I've already taken out one woman. Next 2.5k - still feel good and two more women down (again, on a three lap run race, I've no real idea who's in front). Final 2.5k and I'm about to put the throttle down - yippee - running off the bike finally comes together for me. I finish the 4 and 3/4 miles in a little over 36mins and I'm pretty chuffed with myself. I thank the pizza I had the night before and the lack of water on the bike/run that has obviously left me lighter or at least light headed enough to keep going.

Great race, great setting and just the boost I needed to keep my training up. I would recommend this race to anyone.

Sunday 19th June 2005.

Dragon Cycle Event.
Graham took part in this 150k bike ride, here is his very concise report;

The Dragon Ride, Bridgend, Wales

Hot - 30deg. Hilly - 6600mtrs of climbing. Lots of sheep. Stunning views. Six & a half hours of riding that everyone should try. The end.

Sunday 19th June 2005

Windsor Triathlon
Windsor has the reputation of being the triathlete’s favourite triathlon. Standing by the Thames on a sunny Sunday morning with Windsor castle forming a magnificent backdrop it was easy to see why.

I watched with team-mate Clive as wave after wave of the younger triathletes were set off in their age group bands at 5-minute intervals each band distinguished by different coloured hats. We were lumped together with all the old geezers in the last age group wave for the over 50’s.

At 6:55am we took our turn to disturb the swans and ducks by lining up across the river. The horn went and I put my head down and went for my usual pursuit of clear water. My first breath revealed that I was in front. I kept up a brisk pace to take me clear of my wave. The Windsor swim is an out and back course finishing with a sharp horseshoe turn around an island to the exit.


By the halfway point I was regularly passing the yellow hats of the previous wave and the odd orange and blue hats of some of the first waves.

The swim went really well until I reached the island turn and the swim exit. The entire channel was filled with the yellow hats queuing to get out of the water. I literally fought my way through the queue out into a longish T1.

Out onto the bike. The bike is a 42km job through the Berkshire countryside finishing with a descent through Windsor Great Park and the town. Despite the early hour it was already getting hot. Apart from the heat I was feeling comfortable and relaxed. The race is notoriously prone to drafting but well marshalled. It also includes a dead turn to help break up any packs.

I had a swift T2 and soon found myself running in the very welcome shadow of the castle. Unfortunately the rest of the course was bathed in sunlight and I was soon suffering like countless others with the heat. Three laps before the relief of the finish and the welcome spray of a water hose.

I finished in 2:20:58. Made up of a 24:52 swim, 1:11:48 bike and 44:17 run. This was my best overall time for the course so I was pleased. I finished 3rd in my age group and 108th overall out of 1445 male finishers.

Clive finished in 2.31.12, swim 20.41, bike 1.13.19 & 47.12 run and was 7th in his age group.

Chester's campaigns

As seen in the news sometime ago Phoebe & Alex were looking at the South West Series, what wasn't mentioned was the swimming and athletics stuff they were doing in addition to duathlon & triathlon.

Here is a quick round up of some of the things the girls have been up to;

Sunday 19th June 2005


Race For Life Bournemouth and Club Championships

Race for life went well Phoebe went flying off (looking for a mother and daughter 1,2). It didn't quite turn out that way, Sharron paced her round and they finished inside top 20 ish Alex finished further down the field - tonight's appointment with Clare confirming she shouldn't
have run - torn hip flexors!! so a lot of rest and physio planned for Alex.
The team all wish Alex a speedy recovery.

Club champs went OK. Phoebe had the highlight of a new PB in the 50 free and almost dipping under the 33 second mark with a 33.01.

Coming next on Saturday Gala at Bath, Sunday Woking 1200m run and Shot put and round 2 of the club champs in the evening. Another busy weekend to come.

Saturday 18th June

Tewkesbury Junior Triathlon

The first event of the weekend went down well in glorious sunshine up at Tewkesbury.

Up early to be there for registration at 10:30. rack the bike then a long wait til 1:30 for the start. The start was very staggered rather than waves so each age group had kids at all stages of the race on the course at the same time.

Phoebe had a reasonable swim, though somewhat held up by slower swimmers. Out onto the 4k bike where she worked hard to put in a good bike leg. Then onto the 1800m run. By now it was pretty hot and a lot of the kids were suffering Phoebe stayed strong on the run and finished the whole event a lot happier than the previous one. Don't know times or positions yet. Not top three but maybe top 5. The race had running commentary and particular note was made of the fact that "Fobby" was racing for De Soto and how nice her kit looked!!!

Update Phoebe got 6th overall - joint fastest female swim (3rd fastest swim inc. the boys). Bike was the slow leg a couple of minutes off the pace and a pretty good run, compared to recently

Sunday 12th June 2005

National Age Group Duathlon Championships
Milton Keynes
10k run/40k bike/5k run
After much to-ing and fro-ing on the Saturday, pulling out and then re-entering myself - I finally made my way up to Milton Keynes to register for the National Duathlon Champions on Sunday 12 June.

I was quite amazed to arrive and find myself in transition, next to my Dad (chances of that!) After an enormously long wait for toilet, (note to race organiser, 5 toilets for several hundred people not good!) I found myself sprinting to the start of the ladies race. With only 30-odd women in the duathlon race, it did look a bit sparse, but we were all well up for it. Starting gun went off...and we're away. Well, the pack was, I was just glad to not loose sight of most of them. Overtook a couple of ladies on the run although it certainly wasn't a PB for me. I was particularly delighted when a chap I'd met trekking in Morocco (Moroccan Mike as I called him) came flying past on my third lap - it was a surprise but did keep me going.

Into transition (ahead of my Dad yippee - okay I'd had a 5 mins head start). Didn't get my neck caught in my helmet this time and onto the bike. Err hang on - what's this thing I'm sitting on?? The strangest of sensations as I realised I'd forgotten how to cycle, it felt completely alien. Right pedal, pedal, pedal - keep going - oh there goes Dad...oh no - he's going the wrong way - surely a marshall will help out! Nope - us duathletes shout at him 'till he turns around and follows us back up the hill.

After five miles on the bike, I finally settle down. The ladies I had overtaken on the run came swooshing past - I'm not sure I've got this cycling lark sorted yet! Second lap of the bike and some of the triathlon participants are now on the course. One lady comes past me to let me know that they've let a whole load of people go the wrong way (how can this happen at the national champs I wonder to myself). Back up the stonkingly hard hill which seemed so easy in my car the day before...and back into transition.

Right! Out onto the run - I've been practising this so it's not as difficult as last time. My only downfall is that fact that I am STARVING!! It's completely occupying my mind. I spend the next two laps chastising myself for only eating two slices of malt loaf for breakfast and running down the last lot of triathlon guys. (That is quite motivating actually). Finally cross the line in 2 hrs 46mins - certainly not my best effort, but I'm glad I did it anyway. (Thanks for the pep talk Dad)

Must point out that the course was really beautiful - I didn't realise that there was so much greenery near Milton Keynes. And the local pub in Olney serves the best food and Old Peculiar. (That might account for my being slightly off on Sunday) Still I really enjoyed it and the day was made complete when I found out MY DAD had won his age group. Go on old man - what can I say - all I need is to get my brother involved in the insanity of triathlon and we can call ourselves Team Treadwell - it's got a good ring to it I think.

Julie finished 3rd in her age group running 48.27 for the first 10k, biking 1.28.11 and finishing with a 27.55 5k.

Sunday 5th June 2005

Weymouth 1/2 Ironman distance Race
Graham Starmer was using this race as a way of maintaining his fitness, Julian Allen was utilising it as a way of gauging his rehabilitation for Ironman Canada and Nigel Eldred was attempting the distance for the first time. This is Nigel's account;

7 o clock, I’m ready to go but the swim course isn’t!

Bizarrely they are still positioning the buoys as the first swim wave approach them.

I’m off in the second wave. As the starting hooter goes off and we hit the water and I am reminded that it’s still early in the year. Oh well the sooner I get going the warmer I will stay. The following 50 minutes consists of swim 50m, empty goggles, work out which direction I’m going in (never the right one). The course is meant to be parallel to the beach but at one point I looked up and I am actually swimming out to sea!

Finally get to shore,off the pebble beech, up the steps and into transition.

The plan had always been to take my time in T1 but having wandered around for a while, had a bit to eat, decided what the wear for the cycle and sorted myself out shouts of “Pizza for Eldred! “from Scott indicated I should get going.

So off on the bike course passing several people who clearly should have spent a little longer in T1 (being a bit ill on the side of the road!) and up the hill out of Weymouth. The next few miles pass without incident then the heavens opened! 30 miles in the pouring rain is not my idea of fun. My most vivid memory is flying down the hill back into Weymouth and seeing the rainwater running down the hill! Made a mental note not to touch my brakes.

Back into T2 and out on the run. This consists of two laps around Weymouth. First lap goes ok with plenty of company. Second lap is strangely quiet! Get round though and I’m pleased to have kept running all the way.

By the finish every thing hurts. From the top of my head to the tips of my toes, but I’ve made it.
Conclusions. Hard work. Great fun. Would I do it again?? ….. oh yeah!

Nigel finished in 6.10.43 with splits of swim 55.42, bike 3.15.16, run 1.59.43
  
Julian came home in 5.17.50; swim 38.50, bike 2.57.27 , run 1.41.
 
Graham swam 33.55 and biked 2.32 coming through T2 in about 3 hours.

Sunday 5th June 2005

Poole Festival of Running
While Nigel, Julian & Graham were racing at Weymouth, some of the team were across at Poole involved in various running events.

First up was Phoebe, in the minithon. Phoebe came in 12th (she thought she was going
to win and went out like a madman and suffered for it later). Some other members of the Chester clan also raced, Sharron had a great run coming in just outside 45mins (7th in age group and top 40 women and Ian jogged around, following a 90 mile ride the previous day, in
just under 50 mins (split 27 / 23).

Also in the main 10k was Bryce, Julie & Dave. Mark had an unofficial 9k race......
Bryce finished in 39.37, Dave was 5th in his age group in 40.47 and Julie came in in 47.13, apparently Mark was leading Bryce through the first 9k before he stepped off the course, no doubt there will be more on that to come......

Sunday 29th May 2005
Ropley
10k

Race report by Clive Agate:

I’d just finished the gruelling Ropley 10k and wanted to thank the helper who had run through the course with me just prior to the start. “Thanks for info it was a great help, just one thing, you forgot to mention the 2km drag between 5 & 7km”. “Oh yes that” he said, “I thought I’d keep it a surprise for you”

During our earlier discussions I remembered that he wanted to have a go at a duathlon. “Oh by the way, I’d recommend doing the Ballbuster in November. Although it’s some way off, that will give you plenty of time to train. It’s a great race with plenty of atmosphere and, unlike this course, only has one hill!!!!!

Back to the race. To say the course is hilly is an understatement. There are no flat sections on the course at all, you are either going up or downhill. That said, and it seems quite odd, but the time goes quite quickly. From struggling to get my breath through 2 & 3k, the 5k marker appears. Great, it now becomes a 5k race, but of course I wasn’t aware of “the surprise”, a 2km drag that included a water station and thanks to a local resident, a cooling shower set up in front of his house.

There follows a sharp descent through 8k, followed by a short sharp dig at around 9k. Feeling good and knowing the last 500m to the finish was downhill, I start winding it up. Unfortunately the guy just in front of me, spurred on by local support, does the same thing, beating me by just a few metres.

I finish with a time of 41mins 20secs, 4th in my age-group and 40th out of 305 entrants. I cycle home with a smile on my face, satisfied with my performance and thinking of someone doing the BALLBUSTER in November!


Sunday 22nd May 2005
 
Clive Agate, Bryce Dyer & Dave Pratten competed in the Salisbury Triathlon, Exodus MTB race & the Blenheim Triathlon respectively.

Clive finished 4th in his age group at Salisbury and came 70th overall out of a field of 256 with times of 8.20 swim for 400m, 57.55 bike for 22 miles and completed the 5.5 mile run in 27.48 run; total time 1.34.03.

Bryce took some silverware finishing 2nd in the "Fun" mens race at the Gorrick MBC Exodus Spring Series, averaging lap times of 21.55.

Dave enjoyed the inaugural triathlon at Blenheim, finishing 146th out of 1422 finishers. Dave swan 750m in 11.49, biked 19.3k in 39.26 and ran 5.2k in 23.45, completing the race in 1.20.36.

Here are their accounts of the events;

 Salisbury Triathlon – Don’t dis my Bianchi!

So I’m out of the swim in 8mins 20 secs (good for me) and looking forward to the bike. It’s the first outing of my beloved Bianchi, having been in the loft all winter, wrapped in a warm duvet. A quick transition gets me on my way and it fells good. Suddenly and within the first mile, whoosh! – whoosh! – whoosh! Three competitors overtake me. Excuse me guys but this is not cricket, this is a Bianchi, overtake me yes, but that comes later on, much later on when I’m tired and feeling my age!

To the turn in Amesbury its war, overtake, overtaken, overtake etc. A red mist clouds common-sense. I’m just beginning fall back abit but, think consolidate, keep it at a set distance work the hills and get it back on the fast section back to transition. I become aware of the scenery, lovely river, nice pub (I could sink a lager). I need to focus and concentrate. I’m back working hard, overtaking a few early starters, the confidence is flowing, and I’m in the zone. The final stretch comes and goes in a blur, cycling fast, overtaking, I love it.

I dismount and see “the three” starting their run, guys your going down! A quick transition and I’m off and running. The new shoes feel good and oddly enough so do I. Looking ahead i see my first target, he’s struggling and I pass him (don’t dis my Bianchi!). The second quickly follows, one left to go. I see him ahead and I’m getting closer. Round by the castle sheep litter the pathway, for christ sake don’t move, stay still! We approach a stile, bother he’s going to see me, to late now, my hand is forced. Over the stile, I dig in and overtake him (don’t dis my Bianchi!). I make use of the downhill section and push on. At the bottom of the hill I settle in to a nice rhythm and feel good.

All of a sudden I hear some heavy breathing, no it can’t be, he’s not coming back at me! Don’t panic, actually panic, I’m running close to empty. Whoosh! I’m passed; thankfully it’s not him but whomever it is, the guys running well. I try to hold on to him in the hope of getting a pulled to a good time. I finish about 50m behind him in 1hr 33mins. I’m pleased, a good race and pride restored to the Bianchi.

Gorrick MTB race

The last race is what has been possibly the most organised and efficient racing of any sport I’ve competed in. Recommended for anyone.

Having been on holiday I knew I may end up suffering a bit in this one. MTBing is completely different to other forms of cyclesport. And it’s virtually impossible to race without going lactic regularly. The problem inherently is that the less efficient you are over the technical sessions the more energy you use up (and I was getting beaten up continuously).

Needless to say I was knackered just from doing a warm up lap. Never a good sign. I’ve struggled a bit with motivation this week probably caused by an extended period of crap food and a lack of regular sleep. With this in mind I decided to resort to the ‘emergency plan’ used only in times of real strife. It was back to the car, lock the doors, sunglasses on and slide ‘The Prodigy’ into the CD player…… This was followed up by the retro classic ‘turn it on again’ by Genesis by the end of which, I knew we were back in business.

The course was designed to be fast but the weather this week had meant that the peat based sections were sticky and heavily rutted which limited any overtaking PLUS my usual ace in the hole (a long 400-800m trail start) had been changed in favour of a short 100m sprint followed by a steep descent and a sharp ascent. If you got boxed in chances were good that some muppet in front wouldn’t be able to ascend the hill splitting the field and blowing any chances of some silverware.

Common sense was used by the organisers to give a long, thorough, and extensive safer briefing since the high number of novices was going to make the going hard. Common sense then evaporated after a 5 minute briefing when we were told that the race sponsor had put £50 up as fastest lap bonus for our class. Talk about waving a red rag in front of a bull.

The start gun goes, I get clipped in and lose some metres to the guys who used flat pedals. We hit the fast descent at which point knowing I’m running out of time to decide to take the bush line. This moves me into 4th. We then hit the hard uphill and as expected most riders struggle. I move into 3rd. Then the trouble starts. The next section was a singletrack peat descent which I’d had to ride 3 times in practice as I was struggling with it. I struggled with it hell of a lot more when I decided to bounce off a tree stump, washing out the front end of the bike and bringing everyone down behind me. This allows the lead group to escape, a few riders to climb over me but also splits the field with traffic backing behind which meant I was now dealing with some time lost but also a smaller number of faces to worry about. I’m now down in about 8th and outside of the trophies (not good). The second problem was that by coming down I’d lost my momentum for another steep ascent.

Now occurs a problem not unknown to previous Tri seasons. Which leg do you push hard through and where do you recover? The specialists are efficient and use descents and flats to recover. I don’t have that option. As it stands I have to charge on the ascents and the flat which means I don’t get much recovery anywhere and the cheeky organisers had made sure that there was no flat this time so it was going to be a nightmare however you sliced it. 10 minutes into the race my legs were already ripped clean off.

Later in the course I caught 2 guys on a descent when I hoped the full suspension I was riding would cash the cheque for a dubious line choice on a sweeping descent. What I forgotten about (along with the other riders) was that there was a peat single track again at the base. All 3 of us hit it and came down. I hit the wheel of the guy behind and washed out for the 2nd time.

On the next peat section the guy left in front of our smaller group came down again. With red mist descending I opted to then ride over the guy in front as there was no other line choice and enough time had been lost already. Not exactly in the spirit of the event I’m sure but, well, erm, (excuse to be entered here later).

2/3rds into lap one comes a steep concrete ascent covered in loose dirt which is about a third the length of Creech but twice as steep. I’d begun to catch another group of 3 in front. Now was the time to gamble. All the other riders had dropped down to the granny ring and were out of the saddle. Their progress was slow. The inherent problem of a full suspension rig is that the action is to be designed to work seated. If you get out of the saddle it’s like trying to ride a mattress. This means that giving a sudden burst or power is inefficient. I decided to gamble and shouldered the bike to run (and I use this term loosely – it was more of a shuffle). The lactic build up now is massive. I was hoping that everyone else felt the same way. Nonetheless I run passed 3 riders hoping that if it was singletrack at the top even if I couldn’t ride they’d be backed up behind me whilst I recovered.

The remainder of this lap was series of bumps and tight turns meaning I was struggling to shake off the riders behind. The other problem was that I wasn’t sure where in the field I was - I assumed I was about 5th (I was actually 3rd).

Lap 2.

I read somewhere once that when you are feeling truly shite on a bike the best thing you can do is to repeatably attack everyone. It’s a bluff but then everyone will think twice about trying to pass (instead opting to recover behind) and this is pretty much what happened for the majority of the second lap. In my previous outings my fitness starts to kick in on the second lap (either that or everyone else dies on their ass) so I normally look to really drive if the option is there. After a few climbs I seemed to end up on my own and at which point with no riders visible ahead I decided to take some time to smooth out my riding and get some recovery in before a final charge up the concrete hill again.

When the hill was reached I saw one more rider ahead that was probably wishing his BMI was more favourable as he ascended. I opted to run again and didn’t catch him until literally at the top (by which point my legs are already sweating acid). Now occurs a choice -who is going to give that little bit extra to take the lead ? Chances are good whoever takes the initiative is going to pay a heavy cost of trying to attack at the top of the hill when their legs are already fried (plus I’ve still got to remount) but they have a better chance of trying to defend their place then trying to pass later. This is where the recommended MTB offroad skills book went out of the window and I proceeded to keep running at the top (this must have confused the hell out of the other rider). The plus is that I swing the bike wide across my back which means I can’t get passed (probably not again in the spirit of the event), chances are good he’s knackered anyway, and I can remount at a time of my choosing (and he’d be brave to try and pass whilst I’m throwing myself around).

It was then off for a ‘go til you blow’ finish. I surprisingly was 2nd but the first laps crashing ruined any chance of getting the fastest lap. Mind you, the guy that beat me was classy anyway and more silverware and another placing is always welcome. I’ve scored two 3rd‘s and a 2nd.

Heart rate data ? My monitor was removed after the warm up lap. The data must have been in the stratosphere…….

An excellent series, cheap entry, great atmosphere, good silverware. Rated.

1st JAKE REED U/A 20:50 22:17 43:07
2nd BRYCE DYER DeSoto Synergie/Primera 21:38 22:12 43:50
3rd SIMON NORTH CHILTERN 1ST XV 21:45 22:17 44:02

Blenheim Race Report

I chose Blenheim for my season opening triathlon this year. I can’t remember why but it turned out to be a good choice. Beautiful venue, 2,500 competitors and 10,000 spectators made it a memorable event.

Having racked my bike in the courtyard of the palace I made my way down to the lake for the swim. I was in the first wave along with 180 others including the elites. The water was a fresh 14 degrees with that classic taste of duck guano and leaf mould. I got away to a good start but was soon left trailing in the wake of Richard Stannard and the eventual winner Andrew Fargus. I still had a pretty good swim emerging from the water in fifth place before commencing a long uphill transition through the gardens back to the courtyard, Three well marshalled closed road bike laps around the perimeter of the estate were followed by an undulating twice round the lake run.

My support team of Sally and Bella (Jack Russell puppy) provided noisy encouragement (both barking in their own inimitable way). Bella couldn’t understand why so many people went past without pausing to greet her and say things like ‘cute dog’.

I finished 138th overall out of the 1,400 plus in the mens sprint race. There were no age group classifications. I was pleased with the performance but disappointed to finish behind a rower even if he was James Cracknell.

Sunday 15th May 2005

Primera New Forest Triathlon
400m/22k/6.6k
Thankfully the weather cleared up for this race with about 80 athletes looking to start this low-key event. A great location for a race and a relaxed approach to rules & regulations helped most competitors & spectators enjoy the day.

Julie Treadwell was the sole team representative, resplendent in the new kit. Winning female was Saskia Eaton in 1.16.45, Jules was 8th female home in a time of 1.32.40.

Here is her take on the day;

 Race Report - New Forest Sprint Triathlon 15th May

By Julie Treadwell

It was my first triathlon of the season and I was suitably rested having just spent two weeks in Cambodia carbo-loading on shrimp and noodles. The training hadn't gone quite to plan, but then just moving in 40 degrees is quite difficult.

Considering the weather on the 14th May, I thought I was in for a wet and windy race. I packed my arm warmers and thought about taking a thermos for on the bike. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I awoke to a bright, dry and relatively non windy day.

There was small triathlete contingent for the race, which I found very friendly. My swim wave trundled down to the lake for a 7.30am start. Kitted out in wetsuits we set off. Not only having to contend with some rather large carp, we ended up swimming completely blind as we tried to find the first marker. With the sun on the lake, it wasn't until I was 10m from the marker that I realised it was there. After having a quick slapping battle with a swimmer on my right, I found myself in clear water and I was off.

As I came out of the swim, Scott shouted my time of 5mins 40secs. I was more than chuffed and was happily patting myself on the back for getting a PB when realisation hit and I decided the course must have been short (oh well!) Off with the wetsuit, on with the trainers and then came the 400m run to transition. (General consensus on the day was that the run was actually 1k up a gravely hill.) I did feel sorry for the chap that had come down in flip-flops.

Into transition, helmet on, sunnies on, shoes on and I'm off! The bike course was scenic. I managed to take in the local wildlife (cows, bulls, horses, rabbits, etc.) I tried a new powergel/water strategy on the way round and felt pretty strong. And to top it all of, I didn't get overtaken my any cycle touring groups as has previously happened.

Back into transition – much quicker this time round. Then on to the run – OUCH! (Reminder to myself – try a few brick sessions BEFORE doing a triathlon) Having not done a tri since last August, I had forgotten that dead leg, numb feet feeling. After 10 mins of run/cycling I started to loosen up and even managed to steal a few places. The marathon training must have kicked in as I finished strongly and felt that I could have kept on going (for a little bit anyway).

All in all, I was pleased with myself but I know I have a lot of work to do now that triathlon season is well and truly in flow.

Thanks to the race organisers and to Di and Scott for cheering me on – it certainly made me work a bit harder.

Saturday 14th May 2005

Torbay Young Persons Triathlon
Phoebe Chester made the journey to Torbay to maintain her momentum in the SW Series.

Her is her Dad's report.

First Tri of the season in Torbay in foul weather. Wet, cold and blowing a gale, so much so that they halved the bike leg.

Phoebe was in wave 1 of 3. A good swim (fasted girl on the day) saw her first out of the pool and onto the bike. Over taken by 2 boys, but came 3rd into transition. A slow cautious transition then onto the run where she maintained her lead on the second place girl who had made up time in transition and on the first lap of the run. Eventually finishing strongly in a total time of 22:25 consisting of a 2:59 swim, a 11:17 bike (second fasted bike split) & a 8:09 run.

We had to wait until the end to get the final result, as they had split the waves in alphabetical order rather than putting all the girls in one wave.

Phoebe eventually finished up with a 3rd place - a minute off the winner.
Next stop of the Series is Gloucester next week.

Sunday 8th May 2005 

Dorchester Triathlon
400m/14miles/5miles
A dry but cool & breezy start to the day saw approximately 250 athletes getting ready to race at this local event.

Four of the current team were present, each with their own agenda.

Clive Agate & Julian Allen were coming back from injury and this race was a test event for both of them, Mark Chivers had not touched a bike for about 5 weeks due to his holiday in New Zealand so was looking to use the race to get some feedback on his training and Bryce Dyer was looking to prove that his top 10 place at Blandford was no fluke and expected a good result prior to a pre-season break in Spain.

A reasonable number of good quality athletes turned up to test themselves with Harry Wiltshire winning the race in a time of 1.02.25.

Bryce cemented his good start to the season placing 11th overall & third in his age group in 1.10.25, Mark finished in 70th position overall, well up the field in 1.20.49, Clive came home 3rd in his age group, 76th overall with a time of 1.21.05 and Julian was pleased to finish in 79th place in 1.21.41.
All athletes came within the times they had projected and all achieved the goals they had set themselves.

Sunday 17th April 2005
 
BOURNEMOUTH JUBILEE 25 3 UP TIME TRIAL
Contrary to popular belief I have never raced in a time trial before and had very little idea I what Bryce and Julian were bullying me into! In hindsight I think they wanted me out there for the giggle factor or was revenge for all the sessions I have made them do.

The pre race e mails should have set alarm bells ringing as Bryce did mention about working me hard at the front to try and shut me up! No chance on either count!

So to assist any wannabe novice cyclist or tri guys who want to time trial....here are my hints and tips.
  

1. Know the distance - unfortunately I thought it was a 10 mile and infact it was a 25 mile! Bit of a shock to my legs!

2. Be in touch with your feminine side - for some reason Dave was quite taken a back when I e-mailed him a message I received from Nigel,"What are you wearing on Sunday?" It raised a few eyebrows in his office as he has never been asked this before!

3. Beware of Sun Seekers- Dave "Antigua" Pratten made us all wear shorts rather than tights in freezing temperatures just so he could show off his recently bought and paid sun tan. It did clash nicely with my corned beef coloured legs and Nigels milk bottle white ones. Vanity!

4. Watch out for the Fashion Police - What on either did Bryce have on his legs when he turned up registration....cut off pyjamas! He assures me they are practical for the warm up!

5. Warm up- what a good idea! So we opted for the quick ride down the hill to the start to ensure we could not feel our fingers and not much else. Do as a say not do as I do!

6. The "Start " Strategy - if you have one in mind tell the rest of the team. Dave quite obviously had a plan and he went for it, exploding out of the start line at a massive 25mph plus for the next two miles or so only to find we were now a 2 up TT with a third individual TT. This tactic was duly noted by a photographer at the Bakers Arms roundabout who thought I had changed to a 2 up and that Dave was not even in the race.

7. What is a 3 up TT? — please send your answers on a postcard as we did not really get our heads round this one. We decided to go for the safe 100-200yards gap between riders rather than ride on each others wheels. But this did mean it took Bryce's team 75 seconds to pass our team.....made them work!

8. Communication - the idea was to talk all the time to get our pace right and encourage take overs of the lead. Sounds good if you are firstly together and secondly if one of the team is not deaf! Nigel had a bit of a problem distinguishing No and Go and whilst interpreting this he lost his balance and nearly fell off into a drain cover! So the answer is agree words that do not confuse or sign language!

9. Bike set up - I am still getting used to my bike and forgot all about trying out new gears which may have accounted for the final surge and Dave shouting "Go Nigel. She's flying! " when I discovered a gear that was go faster pace!

10. Look and Learn - by being somewhat slower than the average team, well every team I managed to observe some very slick tactics and smart team kit....some great work out !

In all honesty I would like to say that I had a great time even though it was the hardest cycle I have ever done and to thank Dave and Nigel for being so patient, supportive and encouraging all the way round as I was definitely the weakest link in our team. It was fun and I will be out there again. This is why I am involved in sport!

Sunday 3rd April 2005
Athletes raced in three different venues on Sunday and depending upon where you were you had different conditions.

Julie Treadwell has a mild, calm day as she raced the Bournemouth Bay 1/2 marathon as part of her build up for the London Marathon, where she is running as Lady Robin Hood!

Alex & Phoebe Chester (& dad) had torrential rain at Kelly College in Dartmoor as they started their campaign in the SW Series and Bryce Dyer, Nigel Eldred & Graham Starmer had cold, windy conditions at the Blandford Triathlon.

Bournemouth Bay 1/2 Marathon.
Julie finished in 445th place overall in a time off 1.54.53, all told there were approx. 700 athletes in the marathon and another 500 doing the 10k.

Kelly College Aquathlon.
Alex took some good points in the Kelly College Aquathlon, part of the South West Series coming 2nd in her race, swimming 6.35 for 400m and running 29.15 for 5k, to finish in an overall time off 35.50.

Phoebe raced home to 3rd place in her age group swimming 3.47 for 250m & running 9.07 for 2k to finish in 12.54.

Mention also has to be made for Ian Chester who was using a 400m swim & 5k run as part of his build up to the London Marathon, he swam 7.10 & run 23.08 finishing in 30.18 & 5th place in his age group.

Blandford Triathlon
400m swim, 15 mile bike, 4(ish) mile run.
Over 230 athletes stated this now traditional season opener, the third different run course in 3 years meant the athletes had a difficult time predicting their splits, that said some PBs in the pool and fast times on the bikes saw a good finale on the run.

Overall Bryce was 11th recording times of 6.02, 43.35 & 27.17 to finish in 1.16.54,
Graham came home in 20th position with times of 5.56, 46.04 & 26.50 total 1.18.50
and Nigel was well up the field in 114th with 6.30, 52.46 & 35.18 overall time 1.34.34.

All athletes bettered their predicted times in each discipline & overall.

Graham has sent in a race report;

No, this is not Blandford Triathlon, this is my make or break Triathlon.

If I can't finish this due to my foot problem, I would have to scrap my whole season, so I come into it very nervous. Also, with no run training for five weeks – even more pressure!!

The day looks good. No rain, little wind. Check the run course beforehand to find out it's not a loop like before but an out & back.

Arrive at transition & get set up. Check INs & OUTs.

Swim start & we're not all together. I'm on one side of the pool and Bryce & Nigel are on the other side.

Count down then set off. I could see this silver blob (that’s Bryce by the way) & kept an eye on where he was in relation to me. Got out OK. Told by Scott 5:50 (PB) then get sent the wrong way by the Marshall so I had to back track.

By that time Bryce had caught me so in the playground I tried to pull the netball post down behind me to slow him down.

Got to the bike & had to refocus. Not a bad transition but Bryce was out before me. I caught him back at the mount line. We both had a little problem with both sets of traffic lights but after that, once he'd got his 56 x 11 going, I didn't see him again. As for my bike, it went smoothly. No problems.

Back into T2. Bryce was just leaving so I knew it was going to be a tough run to catch him but went out positive. Felt OK. Got to the long drag & could finally see Bryce in the distance. Could I catch him? May be not but I didn't give up. I got to the turnaround & was settled into my running now. The foot was feeling Okish so feeling positive about that.
Got to the finish with a little sprint.

Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th March 2005.
While some of the team were involved in the training day Phoebe Chester was at the Dorset Swimming Championships, the following is a quick update on her races;

Phoebe raced 10 races this weekend, which included 3 finals - 100IM, 100 Back
and 100 Free.

She got a PB in every event she competed in. The biggest of the weekend being a massive 35 seconds off her 400 free, bringing her PB
down to 5:47.

Eventually finished the weekend with 2 bronze medals - 50 free and 200 Breast.

So all in all a pretty successful weekend.

Sunday 30th January 2005
Romsey 5 mile
While Bryce decided he would take on the mountain bikers Graham & Clive decided they would test themselves against the running fraternity.
 
Over 550 runners took part in the 5 miler at Romsey, Graham set a new PB of 29.32, while Clive was fourth in his age group with a time of 32.07.

MTB race
Bryce isn't the only one racing over the winter period but he is the only one that tends to submit race reports. Having won in 2004 at the Duo Normandie where he took on and beat road cyclist at their own game and continued that winning streak against "roadies"" in the Boxing Day time trial Bryce decided that he would see what he could do against other cycling disciplines. So started with the mountain bikers.

Well, this was first venture back into MTBing for exactly 10 years. I did a couple of half hearted season back in ‘95 racing in the fun class and being my only race for a month was looking forward to dusting down the race head.

For those that don't know MTB racing is a much more laid back affair. Whereas triathlons are pretty intense and time trailling eccentric MTBing involves the whole day with a lot of hanging out sprinkled with some racing. The thing that causes most confusion is the cat system. There are a lot. It splits into either age related or ability such as juvenile/sport/master/veteran or beginner/fun/open. Plus there's also expert/elite for the psycho's. I had thought about where to put myself for a while and wanted a chance at some silverware without looking like a complete ringer. As it was I went for Fun and this proved a good choice as this is normally the biggest field and is for people wanting an hours worth of racing who are coming back into the sport. In reality the differences between cats is vague. My lap times would have put me in the top 10 of Open as well (but with the choice of some hotly contested personally engraved silverware what would you do?).

The day normally begins with some chat, a couple of warm up laps reviewing the course, followed by chat, some more chat and so on. I was going to warm up on a turbo but this would have looked a bit weird so I opted for the low key approach.

The sport has moved on a bit. The course was horrendously twisty and technical compounded by a sodden course (which from what I remember were the 2 things I was lousy at before). Previewing the course proved I couldn't actually get a turning circle round some features and the peat being churned up made things slippy at best and uncontrollable at worst. There were no power sections and the climbs were steep.

As it was I got on the start line and with 800m of fire road (and with me on the front row of the grid) it was plainly clear I needed to get away sharpish. At least if I was that lousy, people still had to get round me which would prove impossible the way I ride.

The start line was a loose gravel incline – nice. So the guns goes off (fired randomly inside a 10 second window) I then faff for a pedal at which point the rest of the field then decide to disappear….not good. Currently in 20th at the first left hander. At which point I then decide to risk riding along the ditch line and shove upto the big ring. Next time I look around the entire field is 100m back. Now in 1st. Early thoughts of ‘ringer’ evaporate once we turn left into the woods. I was all over the place and everyone is soon all over me as we twist and turn. I was just physically too big to get round some turns and my choice of line was dubious. At which point someone flies round me and disappears. Now in 2nd. The entire back half of the course was through woods over dry ditches, steep descents and muddy single track. We got to a section whereby it would loop backwards and forward over a ditch about 8 times. I ended up having to run through this. This then dropped me to 4th. I was not happy. A fair amount of bottle is required and whereby I would power my round through brute force the more experienced would glide around. As it was, anytime there was a straight line I would gain massive amounts but when anything technical appeared it was hell. After lap 1 I was in 4th but used the fire road again to haul myself back up into 2nd. The leader was gone at this point. I held on for a half a lap but that damn ditch multi crossing again saw me dismount and again a rider came through. I clawed up behind him towards the end (and the leader as it turned out) but there was a technical section to finish and I conceded a lot wanting to secure 3rd with minimal risk. Not a bad result.

Sunday 2nd January 2005
Primera Duathlon
Graham & Bryce decided the would start the year as they intended to go on - by racing, so while Di & I were enjoying ourselves in Canada, they were enjoying themselves in the New Forest.

This is Bryce's account;

This race was over a new course in the new forest. The weather was cold but dry with a moderate breeze.

This race had a few predetermined objectives and had a few question marks. This was the first multisport race I had used my new bike for, excluding the ballbuster affair this was the first traditional duathlon race format I’d been in, and was the first hard run race experience since having Scott take over and jack up my run mileage.

Beforehand I wanted to strain my run ability (especially on the 2nd leg) to see where we were. The course was short with a 4k/20/4k balance meaning that unusually the race was split with a 50/50 between the two disciplines favouring the all rounder. The run course began with a steep descent and then follows this with a three tied steep ascent and then a flat to finish.

The race:

My frame of mind beforehand wasn't good. I just didn't feel particularly positive about it. Nonetheless I had checked the course extensively and arrived early to secure the best rack. After the gun went off I decided to play with the faces in the field I knew to rattle a few cages by getting into the lead group and accelerate down the first descent of the run. Graham, Brockers, and Kev caught me at the base of the ascent although I didn't want to give them a lot of line so at the top of the climb I decided to put the hammer down a bit to minimise any losses. As it was despite initially losing 100m to Graham once the gap had gone out he didn't take any more. At which point having sat on Kevs shoulder I decided to put him into difficulty by putting a few short surges in to bridge upto another guy in front. This was confidence inspiring. I ran into T1 in 8th although after transition I was in 6th (although I was dizzy so I knew I’d worked hard).

Then the problems started. Just like previous triathlons it was taking too long to get any speed out on the bike (Brockers confirmed this by saying that he and a couple of other were behind me for a while before I accelerated away) I'm not sure why this was as I always felt before it was blood pooling from the swim but in this case this wouldn't apply. Eventually I got going but it took me too long to get upto Graham (long after the long straight I’d intended to do most damage) and it meant I was pinned down behind him on the technical descent section. I got him and a lot of others thus bringing me into T2 in 2nd place and with the fastest bike split of the day but it was a poor ride. I also redlined and was tired at ¾ of the bike leg, I would have expected a slightly bigger cushion and ran out of road.

Come the 2nd run my head just wasn't on the ball and my technique was lacking. I was running defensively and was expecting to be caught. I held off the field until the ascent at which point I was caught by a gang of 3 (including Graham). At the top I just couldn't recover quickly enough (important point) and the 3 took 100m out rapidly. What I should have done here was go for broke and gambled by going balls out to keep within 50m as with a decent sprint I probably could have closed further later. At the time I thought I had someone else behind me (but didn't) so played safe for 5th. This was a disappointing attitude and was inherent with many races last year. This constitutes a lack of confidence still and irrespective of times or result I was very disappointed afterwards. Chances are by looking at what happened I still would have ended up in 5th but I didn't look behind me (cardinal sin) to clarify who was there. The winner was a specialist and the other 2 gave Graham a good working over after they finished with me so they weren't bad either.