POLICE X-COUNTRY

Mark,
I made a terrible mistake yesterday of running in the national xc champs on the Town Moor in Newcastle. The weather was fine the race was over 7.5 miles and consisted of 3 laps, which unfortunately included the appropriately named two cows hills. The course was on rough grassland the first half mile flat was followed by a long uphill gentle drag which led onto the two cows which were incredibly steep and by the time I went over them for the third time I had renamed them accordingly!!!! I was North Yorkshires only entry on the day and I have to say I looked the part in my 12 year old force vest and shorts which have seen better days and I was sure that someone was shouting " I've got your number 118 ". Overall it was the first xc race that I had run in for about 7-8 years and despite the lung searing pain I quite enjoyed it. I think I just managed to squeeze inside the top 50 in a time of 49 minutes. I may even go back next year.
Ratty

THREE PEAKS FELL RACE

Caroline Pollard and myself arrived in glorious sunshine and a cool breeze, perfect for running. I have never seen so many hard, gnarled fit looking men and women in one field before! For those that don't know the course, the three peaks in the yorkshire dales are a hard days walking so the prospect of running them is a daunting one. The first "hill" penn-y-ghent is over quick enough - the descent was hard, uneven and rocky which is manageable until you realise that you have two more descents to do - the final one being 7miles of downhill to the finish! the run across the valley was pleasant enough and I passed through the Ribblehead checkpoint about a minute down on Caroline. we then noticed the specially opened route up Whernside - steep to vertical just about sums it up. We were reduced to scrambling in places. It was on the way down Whernside that my cunning plan of trying to catch the pocket-rocket Caroline on the descents began to fall apart as my both feet began to blister underneath my heels making running down a lot harder than going up! Caroline took a tumble off Whernside, so not to be out done i managed to fall coming off Ingleborough just so we both had some lasting momentos of the day. Caroline crossed the line in 4hrs 36min, with me lumbering over in 4hrs 47mins. Many thanks to our other halves who supported on the day and Neil Stanton - with camera - who should have been running! it is a hard race and not for the faint hearted, the terrain is awful, not letting you relax for a minute, but the feeling at the finish is superb. Will I run it again next year? mmmmmmm, as the blisters heal and the pain fades I am beginning to think, I could go faster, prepare better, mmm - Tim you might be right, I might become a runner one day! Mw

IRONMAN FRANCE - NICE

HATHERSAGE TRI

It started with a 420m swim (14 lengths of a 33yard open-air pool). The swim was a bit rough with plenty of pushing and overtaking - I think a lot of people had been very optimistic with their estimated times. The transition area in the tennis court outside the pool was excellent and had a big uniformed Security guard checking bikes in and out.

The first part of the 12mile bike course is Lumpy with a right turn with a compulsory foot-down stop then the long climb up from Froggat that everyone was talking about before the start. I went up in the saddle on 42x19 - it's about 3 miles but not very steep. Then it's a fast winding descent down into the village where me, and I think most other people, were held up by traffic briefly as the run route crosses the road.

I set off out of transition like a scalded cat to make up the time I lost in traffic - after about 50m on the flat the route turns up a steep road, then an even steeper rocky track, then when you think you are at the top you run out onto an even steeper climb onto open moorland and rocks complete with wind and drizzle then it's a very steep descent all the way down to the finish.

I finished the bike course thinking it was a lot easier than I expected but was suprised by the serious fell run - only 6.25k but it felt a lot further. I finished 6th overall and 2nd Vet (unfortunately no prizes for vets) in 1:17:27 ( Winner Rob Owen 1:12:00 - also a vet). The race is the Derbyshire County Championships but there were a lot of First Timers - transition was at least half full of mountain bikes. Overall, apart from the problems with the swim and the traffic on the last kilometre into the village, it was a great event - all the fun of the Yorkshire Dales but only an hour and a bit of pain. The course favours good runners and was very tough in the dry, it would be real slog in the mud. It would be a good training event for anyone doing Hellvellyn.

The organisers are hoping to run the event again next year and make it even better.

Cheers

Andy Senior

THE LONGEST DAY

LONDON TRI

With this being my first attempt at triathlon I woke up quite nervous this morning and by 9am I had my bike and all my gear set up in the transition area, I then went back to the hotel to rest, get fluids in and just try and relax!.

I was in Sprint Group 2 which started at 12:30, so was back in Transition by 11:45 and in my wetsuit by 12. Everybody around was really friendly chatting away, nerves showing on all us first timers, but the atmosphere was fantastic, much more camaraderie than I have ever experienced in 5 years of running. At 12:10 they called us to swim assembly and gave us the swim caps, which we duly put on, it then seemed an age till they took us down to the waters edge. Once there I realised we had a 50metre swim out to the start, loads of people were jumping in and swimming over, but I waited as long as I could, before finally taking the plunge with about 5 mins to go. The water was colder than I expected and was salty which I hadn't expected either. Soon I was at the start and had taken everyone's advice and stayed to the back. The race started and I was off, within a minute or so I had relaxed into a swim stroke that was not brilliant but was moving up through the field fairly well, was only kicked a few times by the turn and by then there was more space to swim. I got to the end swam onto the pontoon and was helped up and ran out of the swim area, wetsuit off and up the stairs and round to the bike, swim completed in 17:53 - I had hoped to be under 25mins , so was really pleased.

I remembered to get the helmet on first and was off, quickly got into a rhythm on the bike and drank as much as I could through the 1st 5km, the biking was fun, I have never been on a bike in a race so the competition was great, and actually found myself passing people as I went, along a lot of the course was a strong head wind which slowed me down, but I was fairly evenly paced as I came up the ramp to finish the second lap and the 20km bike ride, a bit of confusion as I entered the arena, I jumped off the bike too early and had to run with it a bit more than I should, then as I got close to the rack I made the mistake of unclipping my helmet, an official stopped me and made me fasten back up before racking the bike !, Bike completed in 44:38, slower than I thought I could do, but the head wind didn't help. I was quickly into my running shoes and off again.

The first 1km of the run was hard, legs were a bit wobbly, but as running is my strength I was soon into a nice even pace, and before I knew it I was entering the arena at the end of lap one and knew I only had 2.5km left to completion, as I came through 3.5km I heard a shout of 'come on NYP' and looked up to see Raffi, it was really good to get the cheer!. By the time I was in the last km, Raffi had moved round to high 5 me as I ran past again, then it was up the ramp and into the arena to go through the finish line in 23:20 for the run and 1hr 32mins 22seconds. I had said before if I can do 1:30 plus transition I would be please, well T1 was 4mins and T2 was 2mins, so my time excluding transition was 1:26, 4 mins quicker than predicted.

The experience was fantastic, the atmosphere just as good and the sense of achievement I have yet to come down from, my time was nothing special, but to me that wasn't the important part, I've done my 1st and now I have Ilkley to look forward to in 4 weeks.

Simon

ESTONIA HALF IM

Hi everyone
Estonia was great. Ain-Alar Juhanson (Lanzo IM winner) picked us up from Tallin airport & drove us Paide (about 100km away). You can't miss his car - he's got his name on the doors and it says 'Ironman Triathlete' underneath - cool!

There was enough food at the pasta party to feed an army. Food (the local pizza restaurant was great - £6 for a meal for 2 with beer!) and beer (about 90p per pint) are very cheap.

On Saturday there were 50 people on the start line including the pro's (there were an unbelievable 100 marshals for the race!) in a lake 4km out of town & the water was a refreshing 16 deg C due to all the rain. Unfortunately the weather was the same as in the World Champs at Helsinki - very wet - which is not normal for the time of year. The body marking was different - like war paint on both cheeks on your face! The swim was 2 loops & lots of space to say the least - I was fairly pleased with 34 mins. But in transition I could hardly feel my hands & it was raining - had problems getting my arm warmers etc. on & then Verity slapped me on the bum as she came out the water a minute after me (what can she do if she ever went swimming!!). The bike course was 3 loops on a flat course in rural countryside - the road surfaces were good and there was hardly any traffic. The loop brought you back into the centre of town three times. The fairly stiff breeze and rain kept it tough though. I did about 2h41 (which is about the same as HIMUK at Sherborne which was hilly) & Verity not far behind with 2h53. T2 and the finish line was set in a great location - in an amphitheatre below an old fortress. The run was four loops took you around the old fortress and then up and down the main street in town. By now the rain finally stopped. I was pleased with a run of 1h31 and came in with a PB at 4h55 overall. Verity had a great 1h55 run to give 5h32 - 15 minutes faster than her previous PB. Pizza and soup for everyone at the end & Ain was on the microphone welcoming everyone in. The awards ceremony was great - Ain's sister runs the local dance group and they gave a show for us. Verity was 5th lady and she won 125 euro & got on the stage with all the pro's!! I got 3rd vet - it's the first thing I've ever got in triathlon!! We then packed the bikes and had a great party after the race.

Ain gave us a tour of Tallin on Sunday morning and then we flew back - a great weekend!

Many thanks Ain for all the hard work you & your family put in. We had a fantastic time. Hope you managed to get those crazy Swedes back without too much trouble! Get some sleep now - I bet winning Lanzarote felt far easier than this weekend for you.

,

Dave Thompson,

IRONMAN UK – August 21st 2005

A race report from the other side of the transition fence – the ‘IRONCREW’ volunteer.

Saturday -12:00 – 18:00

Transition check-in and the start of a very long weekend!

We were asked to relieve the current Ironcrew checking bike and helmet safety prior to transition entry. Why do we the competitors never read the race instructions before races? So many competitors with missing bar end bungs, no helmets to be checked and a look of complete and almost confusion when asked to don their helmets and fasten them up for us to check. This role turned out to be an excellent opportunity to check out pretty much every make of bike and wheel you can think of. We even managed to get Bella Comerford’s autograph! Most people were in plenty of time to rack their bikes and deposit transition bags, however some were very close to the mark, including a very good looking Kiwi elite who turned up at 5:45pm before the 6pm transition closure.

At 6pm prompt transition closed and we cycled back to the official Ironman campsite just five minutes up the track! The farmer had set up fully plumbed in facilities, showers etc with plenty of hot water, and had arranged for a local wedding caterer to provide onsite food. We had a fantastic meal of – Apricot and Walnut Chicken Pasta, Spag Bol, Apple Crumble and custard for less than £15 and there was loads of it. Great carbo-loading opportunity for the competitiors! We’d highly recommend the campsite to anyone thinking of going next year.

Race Day – 03:45 – 02:00 (yes we were up for nearly 22 hours!)

Breakfast was a feast as well, even at 4am. We were glad not to be a competitor at this point as we tucked into sausage and egg baps, prospective Ironmen looking on with envy.

04:00-06:00 – Body Marking

Tracy particularly enjoyed this job and found herself a prime position! On exit from the swim their numbers had mostly rubbed off so we did wonder what exactly the purpose of this was, as they all also had identity wristbands on.

06:00-08:10 - FOG!

Bringing back memories from the half Ironman in 2003, we really felt for the triathletes whose pre-race preparation was slowly being wasted, not to mention the ever increasing prospect of an early morning cut off, or worse a cancelled swim, and the change of race to a duathlon – nightmare prospect. We managed to locate Amanda and Reesy in the crowd and take some photos of them and loan mobiles for last minute calls to friends and family!

08:10 – Race Start

They were off! At 300 yards the elites were starting to settle into a stroke but there seemed to be some confusion going on with the swimmers behind. It emerged that a whistle in the crowd had set them off too early and a brave canoeist placed himself between virgin water and the swarm of speeding swimmers. Much protesting but the race was soon re-started without a hitch, so far a memorable inaugural UK Ironman!

We thought this may be a chance to see some of the race or enjoy a coffee – OH NO the race organiser pointed out the 1500 WHITE change bags that had been left in transition which required moving 150 metres up hill to the finishers enclosure. We formed a human chain and started passing the bags, some of which were extremely heavy bearing track pumps etc and were already splitting open. 45 minutes later the mission was accomplished, just in time before the lead swimmer arrived back!

Transition 1 – Stripping wetsuits.

Transition was set up with the bags hung on ‘A’ frames in a marquee; swimmers exited the swim and passed through this area into a changing area. We were charged with wetsuit stripping and sun block application duties. Let the chaos begin. The first few were fine, polite and grateful for the help and passed through with lightening speed. As the pace quickened it soon became apparent that the space provided was far too small and competitors jostled for room to spread out their things, it all looked a bit stressful at peak flow! Despite an anti-nudity rule I think the female Ironcrew got more that they bargained for (no such luck for the men). PHEW! Soaked, covered up to our elbows in suncream and fired up on the adrenaline from the past 30 mins, we started to see a slow down in activity – finally after a 100% swim finish we helped the last and at 73 the oldest competitor No.1500, Malcom Bennett out of the water and cheered him all the way to his bike – this is what it’s all about.

May be at last this was our chance to enjoy a coffee? – OH NO there were1500 BLUE bags with wetsuits that required moving 50 metres round the corner back onto the correct numbered peg from where they had just come. Again we formed a human chain and started passing each bag from person to person –haven’t we been here before? Again things were falling out of splitting bags, a bit of a security issue for people’s possessions!

At last, an hour’s break with lunch vouchers for the staff tent! We were well in need of this by now!

Transition 2 – 12:30 – 18:35

Bike to Run.

Lessons in ‘bike catching’ – next step in our Ironcrew education was how to smoothly catch competitors bikes upon their return. The reality proved a little different with bikes thrust, launched or abandoned with comments such as "if I see that machine again it’ll be too soon" or " I don’t want to see this for the next year". We all managed very well, even if we had to run the length of the transition area having grabbed a bike not meant for our particular area. This proved to be quite a tiring job both mentally and physically trying to give support and encouragement to the very tired, hot and sunburnt athletes, some of whom were debating whether to run or not!

Amanda arrived, looking remarklably fresh! With a spring in her step and a massive smile she was off on the run. Then the realisation hit that Reesy wasn’t in yet, we checked his bike area just in case we’d missed him. 10 hours… 10 hour 10 mins… the minutes slipped by…. come on, come on…. then suddenly he was there, just in time, 10 or so minutes to spare until the referees closed the run exit. A mild panic and then he was safely on his way! It was all surprisingly emotional helping the last few competitors beat the deadline and even more so consoling those who had run out of time. Tracy helped a chap from Serpentine Tri Club who had missed the cut off by 1 minute, he bravely revealed that this was his very first event and said probably the last!

We waited to see what needed moving – to our relief it was a break for tea.

The final leg. ‘Marathon’ – 19:30 – 01:05

While the majority of the Ironcrew prepared for the faster run finishers we set off on mountain bikes to find Amanda and Reesy on the run and lend some support to other runners out on the course. Due to the late start the light was now fading to the point that 4-5 miles on the outbound route it was dark and very difficult to spot competitors – sorry that we missed you Amanda. Luckily we had head torches and reflective jackets, more than can be said for the competitors that had to negotiate pitch black conditions round playing fields, through deserted woodland areas and along busy unlit dual carriageways. We really admired their determination – we were anxious in places and we had lights and each other’s company. We came across many runners completely alone in the dark, some who were justifiably quite nervous especially ladies who appreciated our lights and company. It doesn’t bear thinking about the what if’s, and how anyone would know if someone had collapsed or fallen in bushes etc! We found this quite worrying for an event of this size and many athletes were commenting upon it as we cycled along next to them. However, they did it and we take our bike helmets off to them, but we will not be entering UK Ironman for this reason. Tracy gets spooked getting up in the night, let alone having to run 26 miles in the dark. Note: take headtorches and reflective gear if you do this next year and are likely to be out on the run course late!

The Finish

We cycled ahead of Reesy into the castle grounds and saw him finish with a big smile on his face! Well done for a strong run and keeping going up those hills! It was nice to see all the other people come in safely that we had talked to on the run course. At 16hours 59mins the commentator started a countdown as the last person was on his way with the bike escort and the remaining Ironcrew volunteers and few spectators left gave him a noisy finish. Sadly he actually missed the cut off but the winner, Brian Rhodes had stayed around to present him with his medal.

We retired exhausted back to the campsite which was deadly quiet with most of the athletes tucked safely up in their tents after their days efforts! We both enjoyed our Ironcrew experience and actually felt more tired the next day than after we had done Switzerland Ironman four weeks previously! Roll on the next one!

From

Richard and Tracy Harrison

"ADVENTURE TRI" CALLENDAR PARK, NEAR FALKIRK

 I could write a book about my weekend experiences. The whole event is managed mainly for the elite athletes and the channel 5 TV programmes. We were staying in the hotel with all the elites and kept being classed as one of them !! (That's because I won the race entry and hotel, meals, etc so, like the elites, my wife and I were paid for by the race organisers, Nova
International.)

There were elite teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, Netherlands and France. Out of the total of less than 100 athletes 36 were elites, racing in country teams.

The mens and womens events were totally separate at different times because there will be separate TV programmes for the mens and womens races. There were interviews with the elite athletes. (The interviewer was, I'm told,
someone from a TV programme called gladiators.)

The swim was at 10.00am. (The women swam at 8.45am.) We were told the water was 12 degrees. There was a dive start into very shallow very muddy water in 3 waves at 5 secs intervals. We had to get out, go over the timing mat, and dive in again half way round. Each loop was shortened to 600 metres (1,200m in total) due to coldness of water. After 50m I was clear last on
the swim but managed to overtake about 7 people. The results showed only 4 or 5 slower than me. Maybe a couple gave up (or I can't count). It was chilly !!

The 20km bike was at 1.00pm with a "le mans" style start where you run to your bike. I was one of the first to rack my bike and my wife noticed that Richard Stannard chose to place his bike next to mine - so maybe my choice of spot was the only thing I did well that day. She hoped to get a photo of the two of us mounting bikes together but apparently he was on his bike and
away while I was still only 2 metres from the start line. I found the course fairly horrendous - in and out of huge ditches, a long steep hill (twice) which my wife heard Richard Stannard say he cycled up the first time but was overtaken by someone running so he ran up it faster the second time. (I walked up it.) There were many steep awkward descents including, with no warning, two flights of stairs in quick succession. (I knew they were there on the second lap.) But the worst was the mud. There were several mud sections where I had to get off the bike.

About a third of the way through I got caught out by some mud on a descent and took a tumble. As well as grazes, etc I cut my right knee in a couple of places where it hit a tree root and I was in some pain. After that I was in a trembling state for the rest of the bike, mega-cautious, and the couple of people I had been racing with left me far behind. Another came past me while I was still on the ground. After that I never saw another bike which, with my nervous state, made it hard to race. And my chain came
off shortly after my crash. I assumed I was last - in fact I wasn't. (And my wife saw at least one athlete give up on the bike.)

The mud was really heavy and sticky. Not even a high pressure hose got it off my bike. And the ambulance man made me hose the mud off me before he would look at my cuts, by which time I was more than a little cold. (There were some showers available but I heard they were closed by this stage.)

The 10km trail run was at 5.00pm. The afternoon weather was cold and by that time I felt really low, poorly, and I have never felt less like a run. The women triathletes went 8 minutes ahead of the men triathletes. Two minutes after the male triathletes there was an open running race with about 250 extra runners who had not done any other racing that day. (I'm sure the first one went past me in less than 2 mins !!) The run too was rather muddy and hilly (one bit where I was tempted to use my hands to get
up) but I coped with that fine.

By Jon Zigmond