Tuesday 29 July 2014

Congrats to our IronMen/Women!

Big congratulations to all of our athletes who raced this weekend – some big performances out there, hope you're all recovering well!


First mention of the week has to go to our long-course first-timers! With some excellent races already in the bag, Micky Morris was expected to do well in Sunday's​Outlaw Triathlon, but boy did he deliver – sub 11 hours for a first ironman is an awesome achievement! Micky was cheered over the line in 10:56:03 by Rob and Angela W – we hear he looked like a natural so expect more from Micky in the future! (Even though he says 'never again' … we've all heard that before :P). Lisa Irving also had an excellent ironman debut at Ironman Zurich, defeating a tough course in 13:43:44 – hope you're very proud. Good warm-up for Lanzarote next year?!



Joining Lisa in Switzerland were Elliot and Kerry Gowland, both of whom also had excellent races. Despite suffering some ITB issues on the run, Elliot stormed home in a time of 10:11:29 in his first Ironman of the year … surely this bodes well for Kona later this year! (Also probably worth pointing out here that Elliot must be the only person we know who could possibly be disappointed with this time for any long-course tri? :P) Kerry's return to IM Zurich has seen her knock an incredible 1 hour 41 off her previous PB for this course – testament to a lot of hard work over the last couple of years. Absolutely flying this year Mrs G!



Also racing this weekend, we had Keith Sutton racing at Droitwich Sprint Tri, picking up another trophy as first V40 (4th overall) – top effort!


Closer to home, a number of our athletes were out in orange and blue at Bamburgh for the Castles Challenge Tri weekend. First up were the sprinters on Saturday, another scorcher of a weekend providing tough conditions for an already difficult course. After struggling with cramp on the bike and run, Mick Lavender still managed to hold on to an excellent 2nd place in 1:07:33, Gav Richardson following in 1:14:59 – 29th place from 338 competitors is a great effort! Topping the podium again, Jen Batey had an excellent race, more than a minute clear of the 2nd placed female.


Finally, 4 of our teammates started the 'middle distance' tri on Sunday morning … an 'interesting' sea swim made for a difficult race, with the 1.9k swim actually measuring approx 4km! 2 laps would have been over-distance, so running back into the sea for the third and final lap of the swim was certainly something! Steve Williams was only swimming and cycling in this event due to an ongoing ankle injury, but hopefully this swim was good prep for his upcoming long distance swim in Coniston this year! Mick Proud and Georgia + Angela Campbell all made it safely through this (in Mick's words) " 'kin outrageously long swim", and on to the tough bike and run courses. Standout performance of the day again from Mick, coming 13th overall and 2nd vet, with Georgia coming in 5th O/A, 4th senior female after some stunts on the run (again ... turns out face first is NOT the fastest way downhill on the run?), and Angela following in 6:48:58.


Congratulations all, and thanks again for all the excellent support from the rest of the team this weekend. Superstars :)