More Iron
More great performances by members to report starting with Ironman Barcelona. Karl, Gwyn and Anne headed out to the sun and managed some impressive performances. Despite a challenging swim conditions particularly over the first 1k, Karl just failed to break the hour at 1:00:44 with Gwyn a further 8 minutes behind. Anne produced a strong bike leg and Gwyn recording a 4:05:00 run. Final results saw Gwyn home in 10:51, Karl in 11:41 and Anne in 13:52. Well done all.
On the running front, Richard Purkiss and Liz Spiers both competed at the Autumn Forest of Dean Half Marathon. Given Richard's strength as an off-road runner, he had no problems with the very undulating course and set himself a new PB on the way to winning in a time of 1:17:57.
Liz also had a very solid run completing the course bang on the 2-hour mark finishing 37th in her age category.
After his Ironman UK exploits, Nyall thought he'd sign up for the Stroud Half Marathon to keep his mind focused and body fit. He takes up the story:
The plan was to take all the training I'd done, enhance it and try to get some speed in to my half marathon pace, however due to the family needing some time back after the many hours training for IMUK and a couple of holidays, the half fast approached with very little training.
So with just a few Parkruns under my belt, the thought of 13.1 miles was not good, however on race day the electric atmosphere from both runners and spectators soon gave me the belief that anything was possible. Just as the start hooter went off there was a friendly pat on my back from Karl Maskrey, who was there to support a mate on his maiden half.
The rest of this ‘write up’ is encouragement for all members who haven’t ventured to half marathon distance that this is the race for you.
The friendliness of the runners was immense
The streets were lined with people for at least 8 miles
Mainly traffic free route
Enough Jelly Babies to feed the whole of Tewkesbury
Marshalls were excellent
A quality medal and a T Shirt
So my finish time was 2:04:55 which I was very happy with. Well done to Anthony Clarke who broke the 2 hour mark.
A quick heads up - If you sign up before 30th November 2017 you get next year’s entry for under £20, which for entry, T Shirt and a medal is a bargain. I have already and hopefully they’ll be more TTC’ers on the results list next year.
Finally a group of TTCers made it to North Bristol for what was one of the last Tris of the year. This sprint event was based at Tockington School which was in a valley which meant the first mile or so from T1 was pretty much all uphill with a slightly tricky descent back to T2 finishing with a largely off road run.
Members acquitted themselves well. First home was Caroline in 1:20 which earned her second place inn her age category followed by Terry in 1:26, Julia (1:29), Sheena (1:33) and Tracy in 1:34. A good event to finish off the season.
Hopefully we will have an update on the awards dinner next time with a few incriminating photos!
As the nights draw in and the season comes to a close let me know what you're up to even if its not triathlon related and what plans you have for next year. We all need a bit of inspiriation at this time of year.
North Bristol PICTURE OF US
