Helvellyn
Given the nature of this race, it makes me proud that local company “TriHard” put it on. The water is flat and the rest of the race is not! taking in the struggle on the bike and a run up Helvellyn its self, it truly is spectacular. Did one of the brownlees once hold the record or did I imagine that? no I’m right 2007 and it goes into one of their “top 10 moments”…according to 220. Fantastic results were produced from our locality – with David Green of NSP coming in 4th and William Sisson of Triology in 8th – Not 2 names I know well, maybe they spend their time climbing and scrambling rather than in our flat sprints!
Peter Roddam of NE31 – balance = speed!!
70.3 Ironman Champs
So just like Kona – there are spots available to go for it against everyone else in the world, those who did well enough in a IM70.3 went to Nice to battle it out, the ladies on Saturday and the Men on the Sunday.
The route looked like 1 big climb followed by 1 bid decent on strava, and that was right up Natalie Batey’s street, putting in a very quick bike split and still had legs to spare for the run. 5:20 is a long 70.3 for Nat of Tricademy but was only indicative of how hard the bike was, 35th in the world in probably the most competitive 70.3 on the planet!
Jo Shallcross of Barn fitness came in 78th in 5:57 and looked like she enjoyed every minute of it (fair enough we didn’t see any pics on the climb!) Firefighter Natalie Mortimer was just before the 6 hour mark and 134th after her trade mark run.
There were 6 men the following day – Paul Bernardelli 5:22, Andrew Jackman Physiohaus 4:49 with team mate Andy Niven 5:04, David Cunningham 5:14 and Jeff Belt of Cleveland Tri at 5:44 – but the real drama was with Graham Crammond also of Physiohaus possibly the best chance of a medal having some success earlier in the year and in the shape of his life – another rider made a mistake and forced a heavy crash. Graham finished the race with a separated shoulder! hero.
They actually light this up for the pics!!
The same weekend saw Andy Mac return to the long distance world championships in Zofingen. I just love Andy’s attitude, the night before we exchanged a few messages about last year being a recce, its such an undertaking, 10- 150- 20 over the hills bike and run! Andy reflect – last year I was living in Dubai, this year I have been in Europe. I just thought watch this space! First run was just unreal, I have done it – its a calf burner that any sane person becks off knowing its a long day, Andy came in with the elites! and for the next 6 hours 53 mins it was just a similar, unbelievable effort finishing well ahead of a lot of elites and about 14th overall!! but target met – a silver AG medal!! – next year is top 10 he reckons!
Mallory Park
The regional academy travelled down to compete in the u20 festival and came back with plenty treasure! So many races we may have missed a few but headlines were..
Youth Male 1 Kieron Mutch 6th , Junior Dan Dixon 3rd.
Sue Gardiner updated us about the younger athletes:
The IRC Team came away from Mallory Park with so much bling! We had 2 individual podiums with bronze for Ellie Van der Merwe and Harry Courtney but it was the strength in depth of the North East that made it an exciting and positive weekend. Based on individual scores, on Saturday the NE came away with silver. On Sunday their combined relay results got them bronze with one team battling to 3rd. It’s a bright North East Future!!
The same weekend, Lara Greggs of Suncitytri took Bronze in the U20 Aquathlon too!!
Suncitytri – Triathlon
By pure chance I met with 1 of the race organisers Jo Petrie the day before in the Baltic – “Its not the usual weekend” he worried, but the next day the sun was up and I was out with the camera to get what I can. The later the year, the lower the sun and this gave an unusual warm feel to the pictures, if not the athletes! the albums are here
The water was flat and a gentle slope meant a bit of running before diving in, it looked like Matty Davison took full advantage of this, competing in a relay, but it was Redcar’s James Wilson who was out first with Matt Lambert of Triology just a minute behind, Stephen Knight of Tri Lavender came out 30 afterwards with Wearside’s junior Connor Prior. Garry Walker chasing Lara Greggs out the swim is a familiar sight for me and today was no different! Predictably, Stephen and Garry went past the young guns on the bike but couldn’t chip in to James’ lead and finished the run in that order too.
The ladies was a different story with Lara, Abbie Lewis of Ryton were out on the bike with daylight behind them. It took some time but Steph Maclean Dann passed into 1st spot however the looping nature of the course gave constant feedback that Wearside’s Claire Cook was closing the gap! Steph was out of sight on the run and Claire was pulling away from the field too to finish in that order. Lara was battling in the run with a good lead, tired legs and a very quick Becky Coleman of NSP moving very well! by the zebra crossing Becky was closing hard as Lara looked over her shoulder and kicked on. Lara knew she would be caught within half a mile, Becky knew she would make the catch within half a mile – but the finish line came first and the result went that way!
Outside of that there were other memorable moments, Paul Robson couldn’t find his shoes in T2 and went out on the run in bare feet! I was on the bike and managed to lend him mine – not ideal but he went sub 17 and the 2nd fastest of the day. Not bad in a pair of Adidas slipons!
Graham Currie took the Vintage males (60+) 18, 40, 20:30 for an overall 1h 21!! in 37th and 2 ladies stole my heart after a 40min swim, kissing dogs, waiting for each other and getting a group shot on the run, Charlotte Allan and Anna Thomson finished the race having being the epitome of what this race is all about.
Teesdale
Darlington Tri Club put on a pool based Tri that takes a challenging cycle route followed by a 3 mile off road run. The weather was unkind but John Howells got out to get some great pictures you can find on Tri Northern Pulse Facebook page. A pool Tri is in effect a time trial – you have no idea where you are other than in relation to those in your wave, Lewis Timmins knew exactly what this was about – breaking the course record on the bike and Kieth Murray’s heart in the process to take top spot Junior Catherine Roberts took the female spot on home turf for Darlington. What I thought was a great touch was the “First timers” Category Lewis Ives taking the male award and Helen Waite the female.
It was a day for raincoats, overshoes…for most!
Superleague Jersey
Even Jersey saw poor weather – high winds and rain meant no bike split for the corporate entries however the Pro’s and the Kids were left to do battle against it and why not as they really are the experts. Northerntriers Sophie Mutch and Will Dixon competed in the enduro – swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run. Both had a great race and more importantly a great time mixing with the Pro’s and just taking it all in, even if Sophie appeared to be wearing a puffa for most of the weekend! Hopefully Malta will prove a little warmer on the 19th of October. I wonder if Hetton is an ideal training spot for this sport given these 2 stars are regulars in the summer?
Outlaw X
We tracked quite a few who travelled down to this event by the ever popular OSB events. Sarah Metcalf of Durham Tri had made a bit of a social media appeal with regard to the weather and that it was her first 70.3. Looking for any advise. I’m well aware that she may be inexperienced but she’s quick, “Don’t waste too much time in T1 getting dressed for what might not happen – if you think you might need it just keep it on your bike” (just to add, her very basic road bike) She probably didn’t have time to think about it really – 5:12:52 – she was done! 4th in AG and 13th Female! Andrew Jackman of Physiohaus pulled out an amazing result, fending off the elites to come 12th overall!!
It was no doubt a big day for big Colin Story of Wearside tri. He;s had a few injuries over the years but got to pull his best hero face on the coveted orange carpet!
TRI X
This sums it up brilliantly by Tricademy’s Daryl Oguona
Advertised as the toughest half ironman distance event in the world, oh go on then, why not.
In transition at 07:15 for the 08:00 start and the heavens decided to open up. Absolutely drenched from that point on.
The swim took place in Lake Windermere, Ambleside, 1.2 miles, unusual for me but I was out of the swim somewhere in the top ten, the bike course to come may have been the reason why there was less good swimmers in the field and more cyclists. I managed to get a nice clear start and held on to a group at the front which made a nice change from battling in the middle somewhere.
Onto the bike which can only be described as Brutal, for those that know the passes in the lakes you’ll know what this entails, to all others, its steep! The first climb of the day took us straight up the ‘Struggle’ after only a 1 mile warm up, The descent back down Kirkstone Pass was the most dangerous I’ve done in a long time, pools of water on the road covering pot holes and I Couldn’t see 5 meters in front with the rain coming down hard, then the brakes just weren’t good enough in those conditions so had to back off and take it easy(ish). Coming back through the transition at about the 15 mile point is the closest I have come to pulling out of the race, taking into account the weather and the fact we had to still tackle the steepest roads in the country. But that something inside tells you to just keep going. So the rest of the ride basically covers Blea tarn, Wrynose pass, Hardknott pass a 10 mile loop then back up Hardknott pass and back up Wrynose pass from the opposite sides. After struggling up the climbs and sliding down the 30% slopes of Hardknott pass I eventually made it back to Transition in 5th place.
Onto the run, initially it was meant to go up Fairfield mountain range covering, Nab Scar 1492ft, Heron Pike 2007ft, Great Rigg 2513ft and finally Fairfield Summit at 2870 ft, which would be 13 miles. Due to thunderstorms on top of Fairfield this wasn’t possible so the organisers who wanted to keep the race fair and true to its origins changed the route to go up to Nab Scar and back to transition twice. It ended up being just under 14 miles and eventually climbing 4170 ft. mentally extremely tough to get all the way back to transition and then go back up the mountain twice. I managed to finish 7th overall 2nd Vet.
Great race and met up with the fantastic Ryton, Sun City and Wearside triathletes who kept the moral up in the grimmest and toughest of conditions on the toughest of courses you can imagine. Thanks For the support out on the course, Great to see Ray Christie bound past me coming down the mountain like a mountain goat. Mark Head looking like he’s enjoying the sport again and won prize for the most imaginative run bag kit, Dan Anderson looking in the best condition I’ve ever seen him(he didn’t mention the Lakeland 100 once).
If you’re looking for a challenge then don’t look any further, if the course doesn’t make it tough enough I’m sure the Lakeland weather will. They also run a full Ironman distance course if you would prefer that!
Moist
Disability Tri
Near the end of the month we saw what has to be one of the best team efforts in the region. Nothing stops anything when it comes to this event, where there are hurdles or barriers – there are solutions and ways round which captured the spirit of what this is all about. Take a look at the Facebook page for more information and a shining example of what this sport can bring to any group or community. My favourite story from this was that a girl could not swim so opted to do kettle bell lifts instead, her coach set a target of 160!!! and she nailed it. There really is a community feel to this will local athletes and business donating their resources, 1 being ex Newcastle star Shola Ameobi.
ETU Constanta
We have see Calum Johnson in good form recently, smashing the quayside 5k and the midweek super sprint, well maybe racing on home turf is good for you as he pulled out a top drawer result in Constanta European Cup with a Silver Medal! As these Elite races tend to go – it was bunching all the way until eventually the top 3 just put some daylight between them on the run and Cal managing to stay in that group to outrun all but team mate Sam Dickinson for a GB one two!
What caught her eye…..? The live stream of Leigh Proctor being very smug about not having to race TriX in the rain!!!
What caught his eye…..? The girls in suncity triathlon stopping for a group pic!!
northerntrier 