CWTC

Sunday May 27^th was the Emberton Park Sprint Triathlon, doubling up as the British Age Group Championship and Worlds Age Group qualifier.  To my knowledge I was the only club member there, but I’d be amazed if that was the case again.

Near Milton Keynes, it is about 2 ½ hours away from Chichester so an overnight stay is essential, but it is well worth it (and it has a camp site for those so inclined). As a Big Cow event, with such a lot at stake for the elite athletes, the organisation was brilliant and the course was perfect.  Fortunately, after the cold and rain in proceeding month, the weather turned out to be perfect too.

As you can imagine, the field was pretty good!  I have only competed in the Chichester and Arundel triathlons before, so with athletes competing for World Championship places I was surrounded by the fittest group of people ever.  Body and bike envy was rife, but as anyone could enter the event, there were fortunately a few other ‘participants’ like myself rather than ‘competitors’.

The course is a 750 lake swim, 20K bike and 5.5K run (billed as 5K).  Those of you who know me know that I’m in the bottom lane for swimming and am generally at the back of our Sunday morning rides, so although I have a Arundel and Chichester still to come, this for me was my 2012 personal challenge.  A lake swim – my first!  750 metres -  my longest!  The nerves were high, especially as my only attempt at open water swimming had been a freezing, choppy aborted sea swim a couple of weeks beforehand.  However, Steve and Lisa were brilliant at the Tuesday club swim session.  They allowed me to just plough up and down to try and do the distance to get confidence, and they gave me some really useful tips for the day.  Without their reassurances I would have fared a great deal worse than I did.  Surviving and not being pulled out by a canoe was my major goal.  If I got to the bike stage I was going to be one happy man!  Sure enough, Steve and Lisa’s advice paid off and I swam at my own pace, with good water all around me and got through it.  Slow (almost last in my wave) but at times I was actually enjoying it.  The lake was relatively warm and the course set out in a diamond shape, so there were markers to aim for every 200m or so.  Not too much debris and the water that I swallowed didn’t taste too bad! Even the kick in the head didn’t dispel the euphoria I felt when finally hauled out by the marshalls at the end.  For those of you who enjoy the open water swim, I cannot imagine a better setting that this one.

The bike route has a couple of lumpy inclines but is predominantly flattish with a couple of great 30mph+ gradual descents in there too.  Certainly nothing to compare with Brian’s Sunday rides.!  My average speed was 18.9 mph in completing the course in 39.50m so you speed merchants out there will fly round.  Lovely quite roads and not at all technical, it really is “heads down” and on the tri bars for a good deal of the course.  I loved it, but again thanks to Brian because of all the winter training on the Downs I knew that there was nothing to be daunted about.  Even as one of the slower cyclists in our club (and not with the super-flash PlanetX/Cervello/Tri/TT bike and aero helmet as most others were) I approached the ride with confidence knowing that “only” 20K meant I could “go for it” relative to my ability.

Lastly the flat run course which is two laps of the lake.  I’d done a couple of brick sessions and a PB in the Bognor 10K the week before so was fairly confident for the run.  For me, 24.00m for the 5.5K course is about right so I was perfectly satisfied.

Crossing the finish line you were greeted with loads of fruit, Gatorade, water and a medal.  There were stalls etc if you wanted/needed them, especially as there was a bit of a wait before you were allowed back into transition to collect your bike etc.  This, and the lack of loos were the only two drawbacks of the event which was otherwise excellent.  I think there were about 1000 competitors and I didn’t hear anyone complaining about anything other than those two points.  They are running another one there in early September I believe and whilst I have no experience of any other events outside of Chi and Arundel, I would recommend this course to anyone interested.  I’m already considering going back next year to do better in the swim…I may now be converted to this open water lark!

Shaun

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This is not a race I’ll remember with fond memories. As they say, “the wheels came off” ………. well during the race it did, literally!

I took the caravan up to Grendon so I wouldn’t have to drive up early Sunday morning. I woke up at 5am for breakfast and there was ice on the car. “Not looking good” I thought. Even the honey (breakfast) had congealed during the night in the caravan and was no longer pourable. It was cold! The lake was just over 12 degrees so the swim was still on. However, I think the race official had just stirred his tea with the thermometer before testing the lake.

The swim was very cold, the transition to T1 was interrupted by bouts of cramp, my wheel came off 500m from T2 and the run was a mixture of straight legged running (cramp again) and final dash to the finish line.

In summary it was all very exciting… not! As you can imagine my time wasn’t anywhere near qualifying, however, had a good run once the cramp subsided. Looking on the positive side there are some lessons learnt from my experience; wear either two wetsuits or full on 10mm dry suit if the temperature in between 12 and 13 degrees and only bunny hop sleeping policemen if you’re sure you tightened the rear skewer up sufficiently.

Andy Roberson

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Two CWTC Members entered the Salisbury Fast Twitch Sprint distance Triathlon (400m Swim,19 mile Bike and 4 mile Run) on Sunday 13th May. Kurt Gunby, aged 17, came 1st in his age group (1hr 28 mins 24 secs) and 16th overall in only his second Triathlon (His 1st was Ringwood where he got a little lost!).

Whilst Persephone Hagan, aged 47 was also 1st in her age group and 2nd female overall (1hr 36 mins 18 secs). The weather was perfect: sunny with no wind, but not too hot.

Both reported good races but, as always, were able to find areas in which to improve! They will now be concentrating their training for the qualifying race, in July, at Bedford, to try and gain a place in the GB team for the 2013 European Championships.

Well Done both.

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Just a small group of hardened Triathlete’s from CWTC made the journey over to Steyning for this year’s ‘long distance’ triathlon (800m/35km/8km)

Unfortunately, one of them was me and I brought my usual luck with the weather with me as it rained continuously and temperatures struggled to 5 degrees.

Luxuries such as being able to see where you were going and being able to feel your hands and feet definitely weren’t forthcoming. This was reflected in some of the transition times people were posting.

Coupling this lot with a 4am alarm call meant it was a tough day at the office which shows the resolve of us Triathlete’s.

Results:

A similarly small group (those that didn’t fancy a 4am start!) had entered the sprint distance race held slightly later (400m/18.5km/4.6km) although the rain had eased slightly, conditions were still pretty awful.

Results:

Well done to all finishers. Those that are considering Arundel Triathlon had best bring their waterproofs as that’s next on my list J

Toby Bigwood.

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Sunday saw at least 15 club members join in on the 75 mile Randonnee ride around the Isle of Wight although some added a few more miles by cycling to the ferry port.

The day started with members meeting in Chichester and picking up fellow cyclist along the way.   We then joined around 2000 other cyclists at the port, (top tip for next year is to get your tickets on line a few weeks before the event) after getting tickets we all boarded the ferry for the 20 min trip across the water.

The signs were not good when the rain started first thing and didn’t stop until were had got about 30 miles into the ride when the clouds ran out of water and the roads started to dry for a while at least.  Due to the rains a lot of cyclists endured puncture’s as Jan can testify with having 2 blowouts (need to invest in decent tyres Jan!!).  We stopped for sandwiches at the Yarmouth check point which was about 50 miles in, a bit of a struggle to get back on the bikes and we were on the final leg back to the ferry and back home.  If you want a challenging but rewarding ride the next Randonnee is in September.

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