TriPurbeck’s miniscule maestro clocked up race win number 5 for the season today in what must rank as her best performance to date. Racing in the Challenge Henley Half Distance, Fran put in a great 31 minute swim split for 1900m, exiting in 3rd place, before destroying the bike section to lead into the run by 20 minutes! That pace was too hot to handle, even for current world duathlon champion Vicky Gill who last week beat pro athlete Tamsin Lewis to win the London Duathlon. Fran smiled her way through the finish area (which was one of those proper ones with carpet and potted plants and even a grandstand!! which of course we sat in) to take the win by 11 minutes. She even had to do an interview after the race, and when asked where her incredible bike split had come from, she commented that her husband had told her that there were 6 girls in front of her going out on the bike and she couldn’t understand why 4 of them had never come into view. Oops.
Friend of TriPurbeck, Chris Weeks raced in the iron distance event and also put in a great performance finishing 25th overall in just over 10 hours. After talking to Chris before the race, and examining the splits, we’re fairly sure that his results can be almost entirely attributed to a desparate attempt to catch up with Yvette Grice and offer her his phone number. Whether this was what inspired Yvette to a 3hr15min marathon split to win the ladies event is only conjecture at this time, but we have our suspicions.
Sooooo…. Tripurbeck Junior Triathlon on Saturday and Portland on Sunday – its not winter yet!!
Inspirational, congratulations !