Race Report W/E 1st December
Advent has officially begun and like that temperatures plummet and the trees remove the last of their leafy clothing. All this didn’t stop our club from racing. We had four big races, all tough in different ways, and all deserving of a big shout out from us – even though two of them probably garnered all the attention.
But first – welcome to all of our new club members to your alternative to social media news on how our club is racing! A little like Strava: if you’re not in the race reports, it didn’t happen. So, do please keep me (and by extension all of the rest of us) informed on what you’re about to do, doing and have done. We do also have a Race Calendar which will be imminently populated for the remainder of the season, and I do encourage you to try to use it. Unlike Facebook and pub cluster conversations, it provides others with a clear view of interesting races and where they may be competing with fellow club members. I will issue a separate announcement explaining all!
Ironman Western Australia
Freshly turned professional, our own Ruth Astle headed down to the Southern Hemisphere for her first official pro race – IM Western Australia, based in Busselton. Fresh from a highly successful Kona trip, Ruth did not disappoint.
Despite a few setbacks (our resident social media addict suggests there was a mechanical and a puncture), Ruth finished 8th female Pro, just outside the top half of the Pro field, and 43rd overall, in a tyre flaming time of 9hr 18min!!
Tribe Run for Love 3 – multi-day ultra marathon
Taking things a notch harder, Cheryl Boshi and Emma Swinnerton headed to the Azores for a multi-day stage event, running around a volcanic island. They both appeared smiling at the end of things – so I guess that counts towards double kudos!
From Cheryl: “First Xtreme ultra marathon (50km) across the most beautiful terrain – jungle, pine, moss, volcanic rock, sand, mud, water, clay, gravel…. the last few kms included a slippery rock with rope descent in the dark! TOUGH is an understatement as we were both carrying injuries but “slow & steady” did the trick! Wet wipes, camp fire & camping added to the challenge ????? and then we woke up to run / hobble on day 2”
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Endurance Life Coastal Trail Series – Dorset
Of course, THE “club” race of the weekend was the annual trail running toughy down near Lulworth Cove in Dorset. The Coastal Trail Series offers some beautiful races throughout the off-season. This end of calendar year event is one of the hilliest and often one of the windiest.
This year saw Helen Fagan, Lizzie Matthews, Alejandro de Miguel Solano and Rob Gray take on the 10k event. Emma O’Neile, Sian Morgan and Holly Hardy took on the “half”. And, John Borton decided to go even further and run the Marathon! As Vince Rowe wasn’t running this year, no-one was brave enough to face the Ultra!
An unexpected surprise was to see that the winner of the Ultra Marathon was renowned triathlete Chrissie Wellington!
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In the 10k, Rob stormed in first in 42 min, followed by Alejandro, Helen and Lizzie within the next half an hour – some fantastic fast running given the terrain!
Some tight running on the half saw Emma, Sian and Holly all finish between 2hr 18min and 2hr 25min!
John proved his continued great performance this year, finishing 8th in the marathon in a great time of 3hr 28min!!
Well done all – some great endurance building for the coming tri season!!
Patagonman
Those of you on Facebook will have been aware of our little contingent taking on the second instalment of this X-triathlon – and of course, those of you who’ve been in the club for a while will know that it included our club vice-chair (Jane Osborne), ex-social secretary (Trin Head), ex-fixtures secretary (Pete Doubleday); and this was alongside, slightly fresher faced Jonathan Montoya Saunders (typically seen competing alongside Nick de Bouillane and Shaun Wood), and Andrea Sala – all dab hands at long distance, but, aside from Pete and Jane, not for such a brutal race as this.
The race took place in the foothills of the Andes, commencing with a chilly c.10’C 3.8km swim off the back of a ferry, proceeding to a 176km mixed terrain bike ride, and finishing with a 36.5km trail marathon! Temperatures and altitude alone make this a slightly daunting race. And, for more insight, do (if you’re on Facebook) look at the many posts from Trin, Walt and Jane – they’re great reading!
We had some epic racing (helped I’m sure by the fantastic support crew of Walt Rothon, Sarah Watts and Shane McCauley – with bonus on-course encouragement from Ruth’s other half Barnabus Purbrook).
Pete was first home in just under 13 hours, and given who we had competing and the average times, this was really, really fast! His Jedi pupil, Trin, then came in barely 7 minutes later – amazing work, given the cold swim clearly had an impact – but a really fast run leg clinched this for her!! Jane wasn’t far behind though, crossing the finish line well under 14 hours!!! And, rounding things off, with nearly the exact same splits (bar the swim) were Andrea and Jonathan, finishing less than 3 minutes apart!!!!
That is some epic end-of-year racing, and we look forward to hearing more about it at the Christmas Party!!
As usual, if you’ve been missed, have extra race news (or a little blog), or have upcoming races you want to make public, please email me on fixtures@fulontri.com
I realise the newsletter keeps reminding you of the Race Calendar, and I have yet to populate the rest of the season with Races. This will be done by the end of the week, and I will issue a separate post and Facebook announcement to help you find it and figure out how it works. We had some great initial engagement before the website hit a brick wall this year. Help us prove the doubters WRONG and use our website to share what’s going on in your 2019-20 race season. It can work, and it can be a great tool!
One more race report until the party!!