Zurich Ironman - The prequel

Hi All,

 

After leading a sedate country life for the past few years (well, as much as the kids would allow), I’ve finally downed the golf clubs and cricket bat to do something worthy of sponsorship! Many of you will already know from various nervous conversations, that on 27 July, in just 5 weeks time, I’ll be competing in the Zurich Ironman!

 

Long distance triathlon may not seem a natural transition from golf and the odd recreational event, and I can verify from the training regime that indeed it is not. For those not familiar with an Ironman, which included myself 5 months ago, it consists of a 2.5 mile lake swim, a 112 mile cycle, and a marathon to finish, all around the disturbingly hilly terrain of Zurich. It takes about 14 hours if you are lucky, with no stops, no rest or sleep! I suspect I’ll be the only Ironman entree who’s past outings total the Letchworth Duck ’n Dash - a prestigious if somewhat shorter event comprising a 600m swim and a 6 km run!

 

My body still hasn’t recovered from the shock since I signed up in January let alone the training since, but hopefully with the support of family and friends along the way and a mixture of blind faith and energy gels on the day, I may just get through it!

 

In terms of why I’m doing this, I’d have to chalk it up to the timeless, unstoppable combination of rugby club banter and beer! There is one good reason however, and that’s to raise money for an amazing charity, Sabre Trust. Sabre performs inspirational work building schools, training teachers and providing educational materials to enable children in Ghana to have a shot at education and a new life for their families. Without wanting to go all ‘Davina McCall' on you, it’s a superb cause giving opportunities that we take for granted for our own kids, and it’s one of the most highly rated development charities in the UK. 

 

You can find out more at their website (http://www.sabretrust.org) and you can follow their latest updates on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sabretrust) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/sabretrust).

 

So, if I could ask you to donate whatever you can via the link below it would be really appreciated and will go a long way to making the upcoming pain worthwhile! Thank you so much for your support - it will make a real difference.

 

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/zurichironman

 

Many thanks,

 

Jon Carter

Wolf Run - 15.06.14

On 15^th June my brother in law, Harvey, and I took on the Summer Wolf run at Stanford Hall, Leicestershire. It is a 10k obstacle course with lots of features to challenge everyone taking part. 

Although we took about 2hr to complete the course it has to be said it was the most fun yet. 20m after the start line was the first crossing of a river. After that the obstacles varied greatly but took full advantage of natural features. There were numerous rivers and streams to cross, lots of deep mud, water slides, tyres, hay bales,  rope climbs and trees to traverse.

I would thoroughly recommend any of these Wolf runs but get a team together – it makes it easier and hilarious at times!

Pete Jones

Marston Forest 5K

Another one of our local events saw 8 members in action at Marston Forest Park on Friday evening. It was a hot one as well with almost unbroken sunshine and 26 degrees at the time of the start.

Kiera Murphy was first into action in the 1000m children's race and she ran all the way hand in hand with her friend Millie.

In the main race the standard of runners taking part meant the leaders blasted off from the start with the winner finishing in a superb 16.07.

Please not that all times shown are gun times and these will be adjusted to the more accurate chip times when these are available. There is clearly a delay in people crossing the start line and the chip reflects the actual running time for the race.

Our times were;

Chris Wright                       21.28
Jack Wilkinson                   22.10
Steve Clough                      22.45
Les Potts                            24.29
Pete Jones                         24.41
Fiona Jones                        28.18
Sian Jones                          38.59

Well done everyone!

Bedford Parkrun - 14.06.14

A warm morning with very little wind meant it was almost perfect running conditions for the week's Bedford Parkrun. The event was also the event's third birthday which was commemorated with a number of presentations including our very own Les Potts for his volunteering efforts.

Times were;

Chris Wright                    21.41
Jack Wilkinson                22.56
Pete Jones                      26.01
Sian Jones                      39.47

A message from Lois.

It’s that mad time of year again and in a few weeks time I will be joining the Cycletta and pedalling 40km around the lovely “flat” Bedfordshire countryside.

This year I am raising funds for Cruse Bereavement Care Bedfordshire.  As you know I work for this charity so see the amazing work that is done by our volunteers. They are all so dedicated and give up their own time to help support people through some very difficult times.

I have now been at Cruse for 10 years so am dedicating this event to all our lovely volunteers and also hoping to raise some funds to develop our service to include group and telephone support.

If you would like to sponsor me that would be fantastic and much appreciated.  As well as helping Cruse your support will help me go extra fast, especially up those hills!  Just click the link below

www.localgiving.com/crusebeds

Many thanks

Lois x

London Triathlon - 1 June 2014

I entered the PruHealth London Triathlon held in Hyde Park on 1st June. As it was my first open water tri, I went over to Box End a week or two beforehand and hired a wetsuit for the season from the very helpful David Steadman at Tri-Crazy. At the end of the year, I can return it or pay £50 extra to keep it. I then gave it a quick test and wondered what the hell I’d let myself in for. It was an unpleasant experience; my breathing was all over the place and swimming in a straight line proved tricky. I had to resort to breaststroke to make it round. The second time was better but it was quite windy as I realised when I turned to swim back against the tide; again by the end I was doing breaststroke.

 

I decided to enter the Bedford Priory triathlon the week before London to get a bit of match practice in. However, it was changed to a duathlon due to algae in the lake. I pretended to be disappointed. The revised format was a 2.5k run round the lake, 14m cycle and 5k run. There was a very small field of 40 – possibly some triathletes didn’t bother turning up – and I finished 18th in just over 1hr 20m.

 

So, with one more open water practice at Box End, it was time to travel down to Hyde Park. This was a triathlon on a much bigger scale. As usual, I had left barely sufficient time to register, leave the bike at transition, get the wetsuit on and get down to the pontoon for the start, so I arrived at the ‘10 minutes to go’ holding pen after everyone else with the wetsuit still round my waist. No problem though, just get my arms in and zip up – ‘oh thats strange, why can I see the zip?’ I thought and then realised I’d got the thing on back to front. I find these sort of mini crises do wonders for taking your mind off the nerves before the start. Thank goodness for that 10 minute wait - at least I had remembered to put my tri suit on underneath. 

My main concern was the start but they were phased reasonably (waves of 80 every 10 mins) and it all went swimmingly. It probably helps that I am not the quickest swimmer so most of those around me were out of reach within a few seconds. Going round the first pontoon was a little crowded but overall it was almost enjoyable and thanks to the wetsuit my time was noticeably faster than I can manage in the pool. The cycle (14 m) went well and I overtook a fair number of people though many of them seemed to go past me on the run, when I did struggle a bit. My split times were 17.52 for the swim, 40.33 for the bike and 24.09 for the run, for a total time of 1hr 29m 8 secs (including 6.5 mins in transition - it was big and a long way from the swim exit!). I finished 510th out of 1370. 

Overall, I really enjoyed it and would recommend the open water experience, definitely worth practising beforehand though (putting the wetsuit on the right way).

 

Steve

 

St Albans Half Marathon - 8 June 2014

It was a beautiful morning in the park at St Albans this morning with clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind. The temperature at about 10.00am was in the low to mid twenties (in the shade) and conditions were perfect for almost everything apart from running a half-marathon. Unfortunately that's what Les, Liam and I had travelled there for.

There was a good sized field and 2503 finishers but a number of people dropped out mid race with heat related issues.

The event was well organised but the start was a bit congested and as the run was on narrow paths to begin with it took a good mile to try and pass the slower runners who had gathered near the the front. It soon got better with the remainder run largely on closed roads.

The route started undulating near the start but Liam and were running together and keeping a decent pace for the first half of the race. However I started to suffer from the heat on the long uphill stretch from 6 miles to 8 miles and Liam, who was coping much better with the conditions, pressed on. I came close to dropping out after about 8 miles due to overheating but decided to ease off the pace, especially on the many hills, to make sure I got to the finish. Thankfully there were plenty of water stops where I could get a cold mini shower and cool off a bit.

Speaking to Les as the end he had also suffered with the heat and the many hills that made the run so tough.

We agreed at the end of the race that the race lacked any real flat sections and it seemed like it was either uphill or downhill all the way round. 

Out of the 2503 finishers Liam Ko posted a very good time of 1.44.27 for 368th place. I managed to get home with a time of 1.55.37 in 841st place and Les Potts finished in in a time of 2.03.34 to finish in 1251st place.

The ice lollies handed out at the end were very welcome!

Chris

London BUPA 10K - Sunday 4th May 2014

The only decent day of the bank holiday weekend saw Pete, Sian, Fiona and me take part in the above event. For Pete, Fiona and me this was the second consecutive year we have taken part. For Sian it was her first entry into a 10K event and the first time she has run further than 5K!

This was a mass participation event starting and finishing on The Mall just by Buckingham Palace and passing a number of London's iconic landmarks and it was run on closed roads. The event was really well supported by the public and the many bands along the way gave the event a party atmosphere.

The race was run in ideal weather conditions with super medals and goody bags for the 12,133 finishers.

Flitwick Tri results were:

Les Potts            placed 3,112 in 50m46s  (the first time I have achieved a negative split)

Pete Jones         placed 6,434 in 59m12s

Fiona Jones       placed 6,481 in 59m18s

Sian Jones         placed 11,807 in 1h25m50s

Les