Swanage 2013

Great turnout from TriPurbeck on Sunday at the Swanage Tri. Well particularly at the coffee shop afterwards and the wall based support crew was swelling quite nicely by about 9.30am. Meanwhile, by virtue of entering the sprint event, I inadvertently found out that it is still dark at 5am at the moment. Fran decided to get up with me and run to swanage. Pause for thought…….

So, 6.25am and Chris Kelly, Simon Carvisglia and I were lined up on the stone quay ready to attack the well explained swim course …. all you had to do was keep the boats on your right….. no left, no right, no left…. and so on. So just time for a few loud comments like ‘cor it’s a bit parky this morning’ before donning torpedo head and diving in. Well actually turns out you could have walked most of it but I’m not complaining after posting a new pb for 750m of about 11 minutes. No it was 750m it said so on the information.Chris and Simon both put in great swims given their initial apprehension and we were all out on the bike course before the standard distance racers were out of bed. The bike course was hilly, the steps were steep (especially if you try and run up them in bike shoes Simon ) but the race was very enjoyable, made all the more so by knowing how much the standard distance racers had paid to enter! Simon and Chris both posted decent times in their first ever open water events.

In the standard distance race Guy achieved his aim of smashing his time from last year by over 10 minutes with improvements in all 3 disciplines whilst making a fashion statement with his own torpedo head (respect brother) and by writing his shopping list on his left forearm. Johnathan Foot was mysteriously racing for Zoom Tri and in the 40-44 age category but aside from these glitches he had a great race – especially once he got out of the sea where he was distracted by the crabs – and was able to focus on putting in TriPurbeck’s fastest individual bike and run splits of the day. I say individual as we won the team race with a Craven/Grice combo posting an excellent 2hr34min finish. That’s Charlie’s second win in Swanage in two years – results that reflect not only his skills as a triathlete but also a cleverly planned race schedule! Alison Milmer ducked under 3 hours having a good race and pipped Mandy who swam and ran well but still needs to get to grips with her new(ish) bike.

Carl S turned up after the race in time for a trip to the cafe (this appears to be becoming a habit?) and i can recommend the fruit scones. Good race, great company – tri club is back on Friday and there’s still plenty of race action to come before the end of the summer.