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Chester Triathlon Report (by Peter Roome)
This Sunday, the 10th Chester Triathlon was again hosted by Chester Tri.
The year before last it was the heat, last year the rain and this year the wind that challenged the athletes.
Taking the challenge was an excellent turnout from Mersey Tri with 32 competing and several more providing support and encouragement from the sidelines.
The Dee was cool but calm for the 1500m swim with Carl Fallon being the fasted from the club out of the water in 23:36
The (almost) 40k bike section was most affected by the wind with the return part noticeably faster than the outward journey. Alan Jones took the honours on this section, riding like the wind and the fastest man on the course in 58:17
The 10k (ish) run, on a twisting and congested two lap course, is not designed for speed with fast progress only being made through a series of overtaking sprints. Gerry Lenehan was the fastest for Mersey Tri in 38:37
Overall, Carl, who capitalised on his excellent swim with a solid performance in the bike and run, was the club's first man home in 2:16:15 and 36th man overall out of 313.
However, the most impressive performance of the day came from first-time triathlete Elaine Maylor who came 11th in the swim (25:44), 16th on the bike (1:15:54) and 8th on the run (42:51) making her 9th female overall (out of 80) in a total time of 2:27:33. With a first-time performance of this standard Elaine should be looking to buy a large trophy cabinet!
Other Mersey Tri finishers' overall times were:
Hugh Rieley 2:18:15
Barry Hughes 2:18:35
Mayeul Ducrot 2:22:18
Gerry Lenehan 2:23:47
Pete McCarthy 2:24:12
Simon Prendergast 2:26:47
Peter Roome 2:27:12
Alan Jones 2:28:39
Mike Lisle 2:29:12
John Armstrong 2:29:29
Paddy Cousins 2:31:57
Martin Pritchard-Howarth 2:34:32
Paul Thelwell 2:34:41
Phil Young 2:37:59
Ian Simnor 2:39:09
Susie Coughlan 2:39:27
Janice Murray 2:40:36
Angus Law 2:47:26
Kenneth Hall 2:47:58
David Roberts 2:49:23
Roy Bradley 2:51:36
Andy Tutte 2:51:41
Keith Birchall 2:51:44
Liz Kirkham 3:00:01
Caroline Crosswood 3:00:31
Sally Evans 3:01:00
Karen Birchall 3:01:01
Sarah Thomas 3:02:51
Richard Spencer 3:07:56
Emma McNamara 3:21:06
Full (provisional) results including transitions (which look like they're guessed!) are on http://www.chestertri.org.uk
This shows that the first two across the line and the only two to go under 2 hours, both sponsored by Tri Central, were disqualified. Presumably for working together on the bike. All Mersey Tri athletes completed with clean sheets.
Finally, thanks to the organisers for another great day out, to the supporters for braving the elements (which blew down the Mersey Tri club gazebo) and my personal thanks to Pete McCarthy for getting me there (and back) in style.
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Sefton Triathlon 28th June 2008 (by Peter Roome)
The Sefton Triathlon is the largest community triathlon in the UK with over 1200 competitors ranging from school year 3 upwards.
This triathlon is certainly not Ironman - even Anthony Gormley's Iron Men look the other way - but it is certainly accessible to people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities with disability and relay options. You don't even need to own a bike or helmet as they can be hired for the event.
The younger children compete in age groups of varying distances but school years 9 upwards do the 'full' distance:
150m pool swim
5k bike
2.5k run
These make for a frenetic-paced race!
· The swimmers headed off at 15 second intervals and, with no streaming by expected swim time, this section is not just a test of sprint speed but also some luck.
· The bike section is no ordinary 5k - riding on rough grass saps the energy faster than The Tourmalet ( I'm guessing anyway!). The mountain bike was the weapon of choice for many - carbon discwheels, tri-bars and teardrop-shaped helmets would have been technical as well as fashion disasters here.
· The run is no ordinary 2.5k run either - it was at least 3k. The organisers making up for short-changing the runners in previous years. Thankfully (for most) the run was on the prom rather than the sand - I think the sand has been risk-assessed out of the event.
This event is on Southport Waterloo AC's home turf and, with the run being long, the men's race in particular was dominated by the runners. Four of the top ten were from Southport Waterloo and many others enjoyed the experience (http://www.southportwaterlooac.co.uk/news/news6.html#A28_06_08)
Men's first place was taken by Ian Roberts who was fastest on the bike, second on the run and sixth in the pool and so nearly two minutes ahead of the rest of the field.
Women's first place was Hanna Tarver - school year 9; again a great all round performance taking advantage of the long run which she won.
Mersey Tri had a few out today including:
Peter Roome 31:32 (second vet, but no prize...)
Philip Slinger 40:50
Diane Hawkes 41:45
Jane Lang 50:42
Full results are on: https://www.blacksheepsports.co.uk/franchised/results.aspx?emanagerid=40
Several other Mersey Tri members were there - helping out, cheering on their kids and, perhaps, talent spotting!