Reading Parkrun - 26.10.13

The Jones family decided to add yet another Parkrun to their resume on Saturday and took part in the Reading Parkrun. As first timers all their times were effectively PBs.

The times were:

Pete Jones               24.52
Fiona Jones              29.15
Sian Jones                46.02

Well done all.

Chris

Bedford Parkrun - 26.10.13

I was the sole participant from Flitwick Tri at this event. Fortunately conditions were ideal being mild, dry and with no wind.

 

In a time of 23m 59s (1 second outside my PB) I came 36^th out of a field of 153 and was 1^st in my age category.

 

Les

Perkins Great Eastern Half Marathon

Liam & I along with friend Michael took part in the above event on Sunday 13^th October in Peterborough . It started and finished at the Embankment and was run on closed roads throughout the city centre and surrounding residential areas. The course was pancake flat with definite PB potential.

 

It was a mass participation race with some 5,200 entries to the Half with another 1,600 entrants to supporting races. As such the organisation had to be, and was, superb, the marshals were mostly supportive as were the spectators. The goody bag included a technical t-shirt and a medal plus the usual gels & fruit etc.

 

The only negative was the awful weather i.e. cold, windy & persistent rain before and during the race. Fortunately conditions did improve one third of the way into the race when at least it stopped raining.

 

Of the 5,200 entries results were only published for those 3,842 that completed in the 3hour 30 minute time limit so either there was a lot of runners taking longer than 3.5 hours or many stayed away due to the adverse weather conditions.

 

Unfortunately neither Liam nor I achieved a PB with Liam coming in with a time of 1:43:16 in 993^rd place based on chip time, and I got a time of 1:55:22 in 1955^th place.

  

Les

Ampthill Trophy Cross Country - 20.10.13

Sunday dawned bright but showery after plenty of rain overnight and earlier in the moring which made parts of the Ampthill Trophy Cross Country route  rather slippery.

The route was 2 laps of Ampthill Park with the organisers finding plenty of uphill and downhill sections but very little flat which made for a tough 5 mie course.

5 FlitwickTri members took place and the times were:

Stephen Clough     43.36
Dan Georgescu      44.25
Chris Wright          45.10
Les Potts               47.06
Pete Jones            49.04

Well done to everyone.

Chris

Bedford Parkrun - 19.10.13

This week's Bedford Parkrun featured 3 FlitwickTri members with Les running, Pete taking part as tail runner and Liam volunteering.

Times were:

Les Potts        24.42
Pete Jones     43.36

Well done all.

Survival Of The Fittest - 12.10.13

Pete, Fiona and I were in Nottingham yesterday to take part in the Men's Health - Survival of the Fittest event. Think 10K run with a series of assault course obstacles and several dips in the River Trent and you won't be far wrong. Alternatively follow this link to the event website and have a look at the video.

http://www.mhsurvival.co.uk/nottingam/

The weather was damp and overcast though largely rain free during our race but the heavens opened afterwards. Judging by the amount of mud we encountered it had also rained very heavily earlier in the day.

The event was challenging and the two dips in the very cold river were bracing (that's the polite version) and much of the race was completed soaking wet and very dirty. Despite this it was a really enjoyable event and all those taking part had big smiles on their faces, even those who were clearly struggling.

We decided to stick together as Team FlitwickTri and kept running all the way and worked together where necessary to get over the obstacles. Some of them required a team effort especially the 2.5 metre tall wall at the very end!

We finished the event in around 1 hour 45 minutes and I have no idea where we finished but to be honest that wasn't the point. The idea was to get round and enjoy ourselves and in that respect we felt like winners and collected our well deserved medals.

We don't have a before photo but here is one of us afterwards:

It would be great to go back next year with a bigger team.

Chris

Bedford Triathlon - 6.10.13

On Sunday 6th I entered the end of season Bedford Super Sprint triathlon, the 3rd of 3 identical races held during the year. The format is a 400m swim, 24k bike ride and 5k run round Bedford Park, a route familiar to parkrunners.

 

Due to my slow swimming, I had a very early start time of 7.50am. However, the weather was fine with no wind and later on it turned into a very warm day. Swimmers were set off at 20 second intervals and swam up and back the first lane before ducking into the second lane and so on. That meant there was much less overtaking (or in my case, getting in the way) than normal. In fact, I even managed to overtake the chap who started ahead of me. The bike was a little longer than the 20k standard sprint distance and I overtook quite a few competitors and was only overtaken 3 times myself – twice by the same person who stopped for some reason and once by a club cyclist not in the event. I was motivated on the run to get inside my 1hr 30 target time, which I did finishing in 1:28. However, although my chip recorded all the splits, for some reason it did not record the finish. However, all’s well that ends well as they were good enough to accept my self timed finish for the record. I suppose they might not if I’d claimed 4 minute mile pace on the run.

 

Compared to the Kimbolton and Roade events run by Just Racing, it didn’t feel quite as well organised; eg there was only one briefing, seemed to be fewer marshals, bike racking was a free for all, swim start times were meant to be in number order but in fact were only approximate – but these are minor things (chip issues aside) and I definitely preferred the course. I will certainly look to enter again next year. Also, they gave detailed stats on the splits, which shows pretty clearly where I could do with improving. Out of 360 finishers, I was 311th in the swim, 140th on the bike and 146th on the run, for 173rd overall. So, it’s a good thing the swim is the shortest element.

 

Steve

New Garmin Connect group

I am delighted to announce that there is now a FlitwickTri group on Garmin Connect. This includes an event calendar which can be updated to include events people are doing and website links to the event organisers.

It is early days for this and I am still learning about its capabilities. It should, I believe, be possible for members to add events and I suggest in the notes that you add your name if you enter the event so we can see who is doing what events.

If you have any problems please let me know.

Chris

Parkrun Northampton - 05.10.13

Pete  Jones and I decided to have a change of scenery this week and visit Northampton Parkrun for only the second time. Running conditions were very good being cool, dry & windless.

 

Conditions obviously suited both of us as Pete beat his Bedford & MK PB’s by 19 & 21 seconds respectively and although not his best time ever his time of 23m11s put him in 66^th place in a field of 205.

 

This race also saw me get a new 5k PB coming 77th in a time of 23m47s.

 

 

Les

Royal Parks Half Marathon - 6 October 2013

A lovely morning greeted me at Hyde Park this morning for the Royal Parks Half Marathon. This is a big event and this year was the biggest ever with 14,841 people taking part.

The route took in many of the sights of London with all the early sections round the tourist hotspots including The Mall, Westminster Bridge, Embankment and Hyde Park Corner on closed roads.

I was chatting to a really nice bloke at the start and we decided to run together until mile 10 when he eased away from me. This was clearly a good strategy for me as I managed to knock over 3 minutes off my PB. I also learnt a very good lesson today and that is to have your name on your vest. there was a huge crown supporting the event and it was amazing to hear so many people cheering
 me on by name. It gives a real lift which was very welcome, especially in the last few miles.
Another plus was that I raised nearly £800 for RNIB.

I ended up finishing in 1:41:27 for 1454th place out of the 14,841 people taking part.  

Chris

Bedford Parkrun - 05.10.13

This morning I was FlitwickTri's sole representative at Bedford Parkrun. Ahead of tomorrow's half marathon I had been due to be tail runner but someone else was happy to do that so I acted as pacer instead. I was asked to do sub 30 minutes and was slightly quicker at 29.13 but many of the people running with me were very happy with their times and some new PBs.

Chris

Roade Triathlon - 30.09.13

Hi Folks

 

On Sunday 30th Sept I took part in my first Roade Sprint tri with Stephen Clough.

It was a nice day and we both enjoyed the well run event. The swim was a bit

cramped having only 4 lanes but I did manage to over take a couple of people – very

rare for me !

 

As it was a new race for us both, we both got PB’s

 

Stephen piped me in a time of 1hr15m against my 1hr20m.

 

With 513 contenders I was please with my 320th place and Stephen finished 252nd.

 

It was a nice 2 lap cycle with one sharp bend which nearly caught me out and an

odd 2x out and back run along village streets....

 

 

 

A good way to spend a sunny Sunday

 

Pete Jones

Ikano Robin Hood Half Marathon – 29th September 2013

Liam & I took part in the above event and apart from the traffic chaos in Nottingham city centre before the race it was a superb event.

 

In addition to the 6,585 runners in the half there was full & mini marathon events also taking place. The city centre roads were closed for the entire race with ample water and Lucozade stations throughout. There were lots of supportive marshals and an enormous crowd encouraging us to the finish.

 

The route was almost entirely flat and the weather perfect being sunny cool & windless.

 

For me I had a race of two halves completing the first 10k too fast in 51m41s and the last 10k too slow in 57m27s. Despite the slow second half I did finish with a time of 1:54:56 some 1minute 42seconds off my PB. I came in at 2,596^th place.

 

Given that Liam was running with a foot injury he finished in a very decent 1,390^th place in a time of 1:45:01.

 

Our reward was a great medal and we even managed to blagg some food & drink from the Sweatshop VIP marquee before they realized we weren’t entitled to be in there!!

 

Les