Sunday 10 March 2013

What a weekend

Well, what can we say? In a word, Awesome!!! This weekend has seen some fantastic racing from everyone, and ultimately a fantastic performance and representation of team work from Coalfields RT.  This club was set up for this very reason and the bond is fantastic guys lets hope it continues for many races and seasons to come.

So the multisport season began on Saturday with Garry and Elliot dipping their toes in National water by racing the Dambuster Duathlon, 2013 National Duathlon Champs and world championship qualifier.  Neither registered their intent as had no intention of travelling to Canada to race at the worlds, however for an opening benchmark event, this one will long be etched!  Weather forecast was for heavy rain in central regions and a temperature of 4degrees feeling more like 0!!! It was pretty cold but at least it was dry-ish! Both were in wave 2 and Garry started strong in the opening 10km run staying close to the second group finishing this leg in a PB of 35:53, and Elliot also gaining a personal best of 36:57. The bike leg was honest and cold both suffering cramping,  with about 5 of the 26 miles remaining, Elliot passed Garry and powerfully went on to post a strong 1:06:06 clawing back Garry's minute by taking 1:30 out of him with one leg to go he was 30sec up overall.  But Garry could see El when it came to the final 5km, about a mile in, Garry passes with words that can't be repeated! all i can say is, they both agreed that they could not feel either their legs or feet!!! Finishing in 27th and  35th respectively out of 800! Garry and Elliot posted respectful times of 2:01:30 and 2:02:18 putting Coalfields RT in the map!

Then today! The Stokesley 21mile TT was another huge individual and team success. Garry, Elliot, Mick, Kerry, Georgia and Angela all stepped up to the mark in the "race of truth"
What was a lie is that it is supposed to be spring!!! British summertime in 3 weeks time? It was bloody Baltic. Slower times were recorded over previous years all round due to the conditions which saw wind and snow but overall as a team I think we need to be extremely proud of ourselves!

With the boys having the 3 highest team finishes, Elliot in 7th, Garry 11th and Mick 13th they take the 1st overall team prize for Coalfields RT. This was overshadowed by amazing Ladies performances! Everyone was amazing but overall credit today was Kerry finishing 1st Lady and Georgia joining her on the podium in 3rd place.  Not bad for a group of triathletes eh?

One weekend in guys and we are already making winners! Long may it continue and thank you all for your enthusiasm, commitment, teamwork and friendship.

Next up Cleveland charity duathlon on Saturday..... To be continued