Stubbington Green Runners

On Sunday 27th June I competed in the first of three National Ranking triathlon events that I’ve planned to do this year.

Judi and I decided to stay locally in a swanky B&B which turned out to be not quite so local to the event. However, my start time was 11:20 which is late for a tri and meant I could enjoy some porridge for breakfast before we left for the event, (Porridge seems to be a SGRAC favourite, see South Cerney Tri report by Wayne).

Trouble with the late start time was that we were running after midday on the hottest day of the year, probably about 27C and bright sun. Anyway the event was Olympic distance (1500m, 40K, 10K) and the lake swim took place in “The Mere” at Ellesmere a really picturesque venue in beautiful Shropshire.

The triathlon had great organisation and there was a good standard of competition because this was a qualifier for the World Age Group Championships. I came out of the water in 23min 55s and was lying top 10 in my age group I think at that stage. On the bike route, which was undulating with a couple of steep climbs I managed to claw back a couple of places, bike split was 63:30. The PA announced my departure from T2 after the bike and I was in 5th place at that stage.

The run was tough and I mean tough, hot and lumpy, but I stuck at it and as there were two out and back legs, you could see the opposition and I knew I was closing down on them. By the end of the race I’d recovered to 2nd place behind Nick Kinsey, (check out his web site you tri buffs).

Overall time was 2hr 9min 55s, which I was really pleased with and was only about 30s off the time I did in 2007 in much kinder weather conditions – Maybe it was the porridge. I’m doing Bournemouth tri next week but the next National Ranking event is Worthing in two weeks time when I think I’ll be joined by Richard Thomas, so perhaps I’ll let him do the tri report. (Note: Picture is me having just competed in the ITU Long Course Triathlon Champs in Canberra in 2006 – Now that was hot!). Mike White.