ITU World Championships                                     12-09-2010

Congratulations to all our Tritons that battled the relentless wet weather in Budapest at the World Championships this past weekend.  8 Tritons qualified for Team GB this year over the Sprint and Olympic distance, adding to the list of accomplishments that our athletes have worked so hard to achieve this season.

Our first Triton to compete on Saturday morning, to a chorus of GB and Triton supporters was Freddie Sumption.  Freds obliterated the field over the Sprint distance, finishing in the top ten in her age group in a time of 1:11:19.  This year, it was all about Great Britain, with 14 GB athletes finishing in the top ten across the age groups in the Sprint distance alone, shows the high calibre of the field making Freddie's performance all the more impressive.

Sunday brought a better day with a few rays of sun and at least a small reprieve from the driving rain for the Olympic distance event.  7 Tritons started with Malcolm Davies leading the crew with an 18th place finish in AG, going under the 2 hour mark in 1:57:18.  Following close behind, in 2:00:10 was Gavin Rand, posting a 23:00 swim split to start his race.

Despite a few course technicalities, our Tritons pushed on and perservered.  Coralie Glaunes was the next Triton over the line in the F35-39 category, rounding off her season with a 31st place finish in her AG.  There were some absolutely stunning times this year, and following suit to Coralie's performance was Will Smart, in his first World Championship, in 2:23:16.  Vernon Thomas, as ever, in top form, followed a few minutes behind in 2:30:44, finishing in the top half of his AG while Jane Hinne rounded off our crew, highlighting a 28:20 swim in an overall very hard day at the office!

Commiserations to Rob Baker who had an unfortunate meeting with the tarmac on the run course the day prior to the Olympic distance event.  Your encouragement and sportsmanship on the course, supporting all the Tritons was second to none.  Congratulations to you all for your achievements this year!

Vitruvian                                                                   04-09-2010

Massive congratulations to Simon Carter, our new male Club Middle Distance Champion!  Simon had the race of his life this past weekend, shaving 45 minutes off his time from Vitruvian last year!

Joining Simon was his better half, Martine Nield, who completed a relay team of girls consisting of Peppi Holder and Sophia Jansson.  It was a misty start to the morning and Sophia did an exemplary job of sighting the buoys in the fug that covered the resevoir.  Sophia came out in the top of the field in 35:26, her relay team sitting in 2nd positon as Peppi took over on the bike out of T1. 

After a fugtastic swim, Simon put his head down and screamed out and over the rutland ripple, taking 25 minutes off his bike split from last year!  Thanks to a pair of shiney wheels, Simon had that extra edge he needed to cream the competition.  Peppi was a woman on a mission, pealing over the bike course in a time of 2:52:03, leading her team through T2 in 3rd position. 

Neck and neck, with Simon hot on her heels, Martine edged him out by a mere 18 seconds, the girls team finishing in 5:04:01.  A testing run, out and back over the dam, Martine ran to the shouts of the spectators in a 1:34:47 half marathon split.  Simon PB'ed again on the run, 15 min faster that last year, finishing in a cumulative time of 5:04:19.  An absolutely fantastic day for all.

Well done to everyone and a chapeau to Andy for getting the Luurve Machine back to London!

London to Brighton

As if he needed to add anymore massive race attacks to his extreme list this year, Glenn Hatrick decided that yet one more attempt was the key to finishing off the season right.

Early dawn saw 106 starters en mass on Blackheath Common.  After crossing the common alongside the roads through Bromley to Keston, you switch to the trails. 

Stage 2 of the run takes you over the hills and onto the Surrey Downs on proper x country trails.  'Lovin every minute of it' Glenn perservered and head down charged over the undulations passing into stage 3 of the run well covering 18.5 miles within the 4 hr cut off time.  Athletes are monitored throughout the race and must finish within specific cut off times for each stage.  Not an easy feat over 56 miles making for a very long and difficult day. 

Stage 4 takes you south-west through Ashdown forest and by now you have truely left the city behind with nothing but cows, cows and more cows for company.  The final stage of this epic run takes you up Ditchling Beacon before you begin the descent towards the coast.

Glenn once again had a stellar performance and came 41st out of 106 starters, finishing in a time of 11 hours and 22 minutes!  A hard but satisfying day at the office well deserving of an entire cake.  Good on you Glenn, can't wait for the next challenge!

National Club Relay Championships                       21-08-2010

Its called the triathlon equivalent of Glastonbury, a ledgendary weekend of racing, camping and partying-complete with mud, rain and wellies!  It was a big weekend for the Tritons who 'rocked' the race starting with the ladies coming 3rd female team overall!  Here comes the girls creamed the competition in 3:35:31, but following close behind was Team 185, leading all the Tritons mixed teams in a total time of 3:36:16, placing 31st overall! 

The nature of the relays is a chaotic mix of athletes and spectators creating an atmosphere that is contagious!  This year was not without its small moments of chaos but the Tritons came through with some great results.  Some fantastic splits highlight a cumulative split of 31:24 in the swim for Team 115, a 1:36:13 bike split for Team 114 and a 1:21:42 for Team 185!  Many of the teams put more in than they thought and therefore this makes the result all that much sweeter. 

This year, was the year of the double double, which saw Steve Wood cream the Nottingham Sprint the next day off the back of a bbq dinner fit for champions!  A top ten age group finish and 35th place overall set the bar for all those challengers for next year!  Chapeau!

A fantastic weekend of laughs and definitley not one to miss next year.  Well done to everyone who raced!

Team Lifestyle Bexhill Sprint Triathlon

The International Man of Mystery was spotted again at the 2nd annual Bexhill Sprint Tri.  It was a testing morning for Will Smart as the sky opened and the rain thundered down for the duration of the race making a choppy swim in a churing sea.  Despite the strong current and the horrendous weather Will posted a 13:32!

A minor mishap in T1 didn't slow Will down and he was off onto the 25km bike, head down to the lashing rain and charging up the hills speeding over the terrain over 3 minutes faster than last year.  After the initial uphill to get out of Bexhill, the ride was fairly flat and it was a case of hanging on and just keeping it steady.

23 second PB on the run this year for an overall finish of 1:27:11, in 11th place in M 20-24.

Well done to you on your result!

Hackney Marsh Half Marathon

Cedric Lassonde has done it again, adding another first place finish overall in the half marathon to his list of extreme accomplishments!  Cedric posted a 1:12:21 showing he is well on the road to preparation for the XTerra in Switzerland!  Congratulations on your result.

Bedford Olympic Triathlon                                    15-08-2010

Another Tritontastic weekend for our 5 strong troupe at the British Triathlon Championship!

Rob Baker led the way this weekend in Bedford with a 2:09:18 for an 8th place AG finish, and 45th overall!  Vern Thomas, Rob and Coralie Glaunes all posted top ten AG finishes, placing 4th, 8th and 9th respectively. 

Steve Woods was on form and posted a 2:20:37 while Will Smart smashed a 2:48:54 finishing in the top 25 in his age group. 

Congratulations on a great race.

Roll on the Ironman tally!   3 more Tritons claimed by the new sensation that is sweeping the nation....

Outlaw!                                                        08-08-2010

So good it 'oughta' be outlawed?  If the comments from the athletes are anything to go by then the inaugural Outlaw Ironman 'oughta' be experienced!  Jumping right from sprint to Ironman and missing everything inbetween, Kelly Jorgensen matched the gruelling pace that the Tritons have been keeping this season and made our Ironman total now 14!

After an easy stretch out over the 3.8km swim posting 1:02:12, Kelly entered T2 and with his trusted steed began the epic journey out over the realm of Notting'hood.'  The scenic journey takes you through over an undulating course past lakes, through forests and villages finally landing you back to Holme Pierrepoint for the beginning of the most arduous section of the race, the marathon.  

Despite an imperfect build up of running leading up to the Outlaw, Kelly managed a sub 4:30:00 run split- a solid and steady run that brought him through the finish line to thunderous applause in a time of 11:46:29!   A fantastic result, congratulations.

DIUK 

Glenn pulled another Hat-rick this weekend when he not only smashed an Ironman, but just for good measure, made it a double!  Glenn has finally found his distance-double Ironman, because, not only did he do both legs of the double marathon faster than when he did them in a single Ironman, but he also claimed 4th spot overall, after only 28 hours and 20 minutes of racing.

The swim is a 7.6km maze of lines in a pool.  Not quite sure how one does not go mad or dazed and confused after trying to keep track of how many laps or how far you've gone, but Glenn mastered the swim and made it look easy in a time of 2:39:20.  

Into T2 where Team Hatrick was under strict instructions to supply food, food, and more food. Thanks to the supplies of the Belfast clan, Glenn was carbed up and ready to go well into the night, and thus he went off on the bike.  One rescue, endless laps through the cover of darkness and 360km later, the long bike was over and what remained was 84km of running.  Easy peasy.

Glenn wrapped up this crazy race with the 3rd fastest run split of the day and still he looked at the ambulance with defiance. 

Congratulations on an amazing race.  One more to add to the list of Ironmen for 2010.  Well done!

The Norseman

More news in the world of extreme triathlon where Simon Neville decided to up the ante and race across the pond in Eidfjord, Norway at the Ironman called the Norseman.

What do we know about the Norseman?
1.  Its bloomin hard and 226km of mixed terrain road/off road and x country
2.  You must have your own car support crew-there is only one aid station on the run
3.  Weather on the mountain is extreme and can and will affect race day accordingly

After a likely sleepless night and a 3am registration, Simon and his fellow athletes were escorted via boat to the start of the race in the middle of the Hardangerfjord.  5 am kickoff to the sound of the ship's horn and they were off.  Simon posted a 1:27:03 swim in cool water between 15-17C-pretty good going!!  

Support crew in tow, Simon headed off round the 180km bike leg over 3 serious climbs with a few others inbetween and over the treacherous and hilly mountain roads-the first climb taking him from 0-1250m above sea level.  On a varying course with many steep inclines and resulting fast descents, a support car with a multitude of wardrobe changes is imperative!  The final  climb of the day up Imingfjell took Simon through T2 in 8:41:50.  A very respectible time on such a difficult course.

The first 20km of the marathon are a fairly steady and flat route, but the next 17km are where it gets interesting with a wide variety of terrain including sharp hills, and jagged rocks that required althetes to walk not run.  Simon posted a 4:46:12-an absolutely amazing split considering the amount of climbin and mult terrain experienced over this entire race.  The finish of the run is a rocky path that takes the average competitor 1hour and 20min to walk up!!  

Hands down to you Simon on your 15:10:32, another extremist in our midst!  Well done!

London Triathlon  

6 Tritons a PB and two medals make for a happy team.  Jane Hinne and Gavin Rand raked in the goods on home turf posting 2nd and 3rd positions in age groups!  

On a windy and challenging course Gavin managed to defy the aggressions of the Batman and PB over 3min faster than last year. Jane was on fire and posted a 1:08:58 bike split-clearly all the Bexley TT's are working their magic!  Diccon Driver was second Triton home, posting a 1:04:33 bike split for a sub 2:30 finish in 2:28:36.  Off the back of a successful Dextro Energy London where he posted a 2:24:37, Arvid Tage came through the finish 3rd Triton home in a time of 2:34:40. 

Hot on Arvids heels, finishing only 27s. apart on the bike was Andrew Smith in a time of 2:37:31.  In his debut triathlon of the season, Ian Trim posted a 2:39:17, a fantastic time for the first race of the season. 

Congratulations to all that raced this iconic race!