Mucho Racing

Almost too much to report on partly due to a problem with the editing on the website… Fortunately we have Dan from Shiftscape on our team to sort it all out. But that does mean that there’s two weeks worth to catch up on…

The main event from last week was Derek’s attempt to qualify for the World Sprint Triathlon Championships (no that’s not him in the picture). The format is that the top 4 in each age category qualify from each qualification race – then there are a few places in the roll down based on your time compared with the winner. So just to make things difficult Derek finished 5th – a brilliant performance particularly on the bike but one that leaves us scratching our collective head wondering if he will make it to New Zealand – my feeling is that he will……

So on to this weekend and time for Fran to brush off the trisuit for the first outing of the year at the Beaver Triathlon. Chris joined her on the startline so the TriPurbeck big guns were out in force. I was there too. Surprisingly the lake swim was 19 degrees although the water was completely opaque – literally couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Both swam very well and were out on the bike course early in their respective waves. Fran hit the bike hard clocking the fastest 1st lap amongst a field that included pro athlete Louise Collins. Overall her bike split was 2nd fastest a few seconds behind Collins indicating that she is in really good shape but a miscalculation on the nutrition front meant a slower run than she would have liked. Still finished 4th overall and 1st in age category. Chris meanwhile stormed off the bike to a 1hr24min run split finishing 25th overall and 3rd in his age category – again great early season form.

Most of the action on Sunday was back in Dorset with a few TriPurbeckites racing in the triathlon in Swanage (hold on I thought that was in August?). Great performance from Culvin finshing 4th overall and posting a time that suggests there’s some fireworks to come later in the year. Jonathan finished in 30th place but more importantly off loaded a few years to squeeze into the 35-39 age category – result! Jane King took 5th overall in the ladies race – great performance racing in TriPurbeck colours for the first time (although secretly we’ve always counted her as one of ours!) And Mark and Mandy blew the cobwebs away taking it as a training race.

Meanwhile, over in Poole there was plenty of TriPurbeck representation in the festival of running. Chris (showing off now) followed up his performance in the Beaver the day before (can I say that?) with an excellent 17th place in the 10k in 36.15. Justin posted 37.15 – still quick but not too keen on the heat and John Skilton ran 47min. Simon wasn’t too happy with his time but the race experience is always good. Probably performance of the weekend though goes to Jed who ran off the front of the boys 10-11yr olds to win by nearly a minute from the field – amazing.

So finally on to main event – the men’s 40-44 age category race in the speedy beaver. Having got my wetsuit out of the cupboard for the first time since last September I think my competitors were unnerved by the appearance of torpedo head given the warmth of the water. 750m is about twice the length of my normal swim set so I was pleased to reach the shore and even more pleased that there was a 500m run up to transition so I could overtake some of the faster swimmers. Now everyone knows that the golden rule of triathlon is never try something in a race that you haven’t tried before. This is a laudible piece of advice and crossed my mind briefly as I mounted Fran’s race bike never having ridden it before. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised when stretching out onto a flat section I went for the tri bars only to find my knees knocking against my elbows and on reflection next time I’ll bring my own bike. The run was out and back giving me the opportunity to spot any other old blokes but I got distracted trying to spot any of the aforementioned beavers and missed one, who subsequently finished 12 secs ahead of me. The final score was entertainment/comedy value 10, race execution nil.

Juniors up next on Saturday – its all getting very exciting…..