Weekend round up 29th May

So this weeks competition is spot Fran in the 220 magazine….. twice! More importantly, TriPurbeck athletes have been racing again – Richie sportiving (new verb) in Somerset, Kerry doing crazy stuff in Cambridge involving Kayaks and obstacle courses (I know … you thought it was just a Tri club!) and Derek rather conventially doing a race involving a swim a bike and a run. Not just any race though – turns out he was in the national sprint triathlon championships, finishing 11th in his age group. Brilliant result in his first ever open water swim event. Local stuff next week in the Weymouth Middle and Sprint – still time to enter, there’ s already a few TriPurbeck people due to be there. Here’s Derek’s race report:

‘Speedy Beaver is based in the grounds of Belvoir castle near Grantham and this year was both the national sprint distance championships and a qualifier for the world sprints in September.  The setting is terrific and 450 entrants thought it worth a go in what were clouded skies but good racing temperatures.  The swim was in the castle lake, which was rather shallow in parts, prompting the organisers to note that swimmers in difficulties could wait for the canoeists, or simply stand up and walk out!  As a landlubber I thought the interesting part of the swim was the 450 metre run uphill to transition, although to be fair we could remove our wetsuits on leaving the water if we wished (still to be carried of course!).  The bike course was a fast “horse-shoe shape” with the first 5 miles or so into the teeth of a gale so legs were aching for a short 1/2 mile 1 in 10 climb at the turn, before a mad dash for home with a tail wind and a few interesting downhill corners.  The run was along wooded paths in the castle grounds, again climbing one of the few hills in Leicestershire but the downhill return leg gave a good opportunity to see people struggling on the uphill outwards leg. I enjoyed my first open water tri but shall we say that my swimming needs attention!  Nevertheless I finished 11th in my age group and managed to get another race entry for Tripurbeck’