Easter Racing

So off I go on a nice holiday and you’d think everyone would just stop racing and chill out for a bit but…. oh no on you all go entering races and winning stuff and frankly it’s time everyone calmed down and took a leaf out of Guy’s book – a bit of caravanning and no swimming, running or biking…………only joking………

Super swift Serena and jolly quick Jed were both in action at the start of the holiday in the national duathlon champs in Corby. Jed came in 24th and Serena an excellent 13th in the youth race despite coming off her bike in particularly wet and windy conditions – both now very competitive at the top national level – very exciting.

Iris Courtney and Eleanor Mowbray both took part in the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships having qualified through the regional heats and performed very well- Iris coming 48th and Eleanor 57th out of a field of about 120.

Iris and Eleanor

Serena and Sam Brown were in action again in the Poole Park 5k on Saturday with Serena beating ex-national elite runner Liz Yelling into 1st place in the ladies race in 18min10s and Sam produced a pb of 16.32 in second place in the men’s race. My advice is….. don’t run with them.

Colin Chalmers was in action on the Bustinskin Osprey Sprint recording an excellent 1hr05min finish and Simon C, Dave P and Gary S all ran in the Bournemouth half marathon. Dave won his age group (again) in 1.35, Simon produced a season’s best 1.39 in windy conditions as he continues his preparation for two of the flatest races on the ironman calendar – Wimbleball 70.3 and Tenby and Gary finished next in a 2min pb

Perhaps performance of the weekend though, goes to loony tunes head coach woman herself, who rudely interrupted my holiday to race in the European Long distance Duathlon Championships on Horst, Netherlands. The 10k run 60k bike 10k run format was a potential banana skin for Fran as she continues her rehabilitation from a torn hip flexor that hindered her running last year. So a sub 40min 10k for the first run was a very good start and then the customary dismantling of the bike leg saw the miniature maestro up to 4th place overall in the age group race and first British athlete onto the final run. In the end Fran only needed to ease through the second 10k to comfortably secure the silver medal for GB in a time that was (we reckon) comparitively 10mins quicker than last year. Nice work captain.

BTF report