Archive for the 'Race Reports' Category

13
Jan

Roger Barr - G3 10k Race 1 - 2008

By rogerbarr 0 Comments
Categories: Race Reports

St Marthas church g3 10kThe first race of 2008 (Bushy Park Time Trials don’t count) and my first shot at a G3 race organised by Toby Jenkins from All About Triathlons. The G3 races aren’t your regular 10k running race as they involve sand, grass, mud and around 250m of climbing. If you’re contemplating entering either of the two remaining races I’d recommend you invest in either a set of fell running shoes (with pyramid soles) or cross country spikes. I opted for the spikes.

Closer inspection of the start / finish line loaned to Toby by John Lunt showed that any sprint finishes would require me to duck. The ASICs sponsored banner was little more than 6ft off the ground. The start was a fairly low key affair with a quick 3-2-1 resulting in the off for 350 hardy runners. I was careful not to start too hard and the 1st mile reminded me of those cold inter school cross country races I’d tackled as an asthmatic teenager. I steamed past my dad who was marshalling and I wondered if he was thinking back to the 1979 Hambledon Fell race where he’d gone off way too fast with the leaders only to fade badly for the remainder of the race. The only photograph to make the paper had him in shot, just before he passed mum and me.

The first major downhill of the race was straight down a very steep, slippery grass field and I can honestly say I was totally in the hands of my trusty spikes. The shorter chap who was leading must have been equally out of control as I wasn’t gaining on him. Then we started the big climb to St Martha’s church. Not only was this a deep sandy climb, but it was also bloody steep. Continue reading ‘Roger Barr - G3 10k Race 1 - 2008′

09
Jul

Dion Harrison - Half Ironman California

By dionharrison 0 Comments
Categories: Race Reports

Really enjoyed the whole experience of racing an American Mdot race and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants an early season race to keep the motivation during winter training.

Turbo update:
Jonny Hotchkiss had a very strong race and he was absolutely flying when I saw him on the run. Watch out for him mixing it with the top pros later in the season.

The newest Turbo recruit, Mark McNerney had a good race too and crossed the line in 4.46 which secured him the last role down spot for the World Champs in Clearwater. What makes the result more impressive is that he broke pretty much every rule in the “how to prepare for a triathlon” handbook! Admittedly, he’d been looking at buying a bike in the US for a while, but I’m not sure that is a good enough excuse to pick up a brand new Felt DA time trial bike at 6pm on Friday, ride it for 5mins and then race on it at 7am the next morning! To compliment the bike, he also opted for a brand new tri-suit, shoes and cleats. It all adds to the ‘adventure’ I guess! Rolling Eyes

Our times:
Jonny Swim-28:16, Cycle-2:21, Run-1:17 4:10:35
Dion Swim-25:30, Cycle-2:28, Run-1:28 4:27:50
Mark Swim-28:52, Cycle-2:36, Run-1:36 4:46:38

This was my first Half Ironman so I wasn’t really sure how to pace it so decided on the “backing off olympic a touch” approach and just hoped the wheels wouldn’t come off.

Unfortunately the swim wasn’t a mass start as the harbour was too narrow to accommodate the 2,000 athletes. Instead, each AG was set off separately with a 3min gap between waves. M25-29 was the 18th and last wave to start and knowing there are 2,000+ athletes ahead was a little daunting and led to the most Zig Zag swim Mark and I have ever done as we bridged the 3min gap to the wave ahead in the first minute. The water was a chilly 57 degrees and felt really crisp and fast so it was a shame we couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm and start swimming fast without crashing into people in front. The pros have got it easy being able to race in clear water! Andy Potts’ time of 22:35 (68sec 100m pace), 3mins faster than the next pro was absolutely awesome and it’s great to see a swimmer leading the race from start to finish.

Out on the bike, people were strung out down the road as far as the eye could see and for the first time ever I actually passed people on the bike which makes everything seem so much easier. For the first 30 miles, I was averaging over 43kph but then came the cheeky 20% hills which brought the average for the 90km down to 38kph. I know lance said ‘it’s not about the bike’ but in my case, I think it it is! The new Sigma Kronos is fast/fast/fast (and looks kinda pimp too which always adds that extra little bit of speed Wink )It’s nice to fly past 100s of Cervelo P3s on a bike that’s half the price. The Americans certainly like their carbon. I didn’t realise there were that many P3s in the world, let alone in California!

The run was always going to be slow as I’ve been injured for most of the winter but I was still planning to keep the first lap nice and controlled and then pick it up for the 2nd 10k. All was going to plan in so far as the first lap was steady but unfortunately the second lap was even steadier which put me out of contention with the leaders and meant I could just enjoy the atmosphere rather than worrying about racing too hard.

Dion

09
Jul

Dion Harrison - Blenheim

By dionharrison 0 Comments
Categories: Race Reports

 raced the Elite wave at Blenheim on Sunday. Gavin Smith and myself made up the Turbo contingent on the start line that included Steven Bayliss and a number of U23 Elites together with top GB AG athletes.Before I start my report on how not to race elite, it’s worth saying that Gav had a great race and finished 2nd!! Very Happy

Having finished 2nd at the National Aquathlon Championships the day before with a fairly good swim, I was hoping to hang onto the front bunch in the water. All was going well for the first 400m but then I started to drift backwards. Exited the water in 14th and began the run up the hill to T1.

That is when I began to notice the difference between Elite and AG. These guys were sprinting up the hill and are super quick through transition. I on the other hand had a fight with my wetsuit to get it off my left leg and as a result, missed the 2nd pack on the bike by 8secs. Half IM training just hasn’t given me enough sprint speed to close gaps like that. From there on it was just a matter of survival and trying to overcome the fatigue from the day before.

Great experience and all the tri talkers who moan about drafting races being easy, I recommend they try one. My time would’ve been good enough to win the non elite race but I wasn’t able to even make it onto the bike with these guys. If the wetsuit had come off my leg, it might’ve been a different story but hey ho.

Splits: Swim-10:17, Bike-33:51 (rubbish!), Run-20:44, Total-1:08

Great experience/amazing venue/perfect weather and I recommend it to anyone if they get chance. I’ll be back next year with a better game plan. Must learn to swim faster!

Roll on Half IMUK. A much more civilised distance!

Cheers
Dion

09
Jul

Esther Evans - World Duathlon Champs

By Estherevans 0 Comments
Categories: Race Reports

Over 180 women gathered on the start line faced with the prospect of running 10km, 40km on the bike and a 5km run to finish in 27 degree heat. Fortunately the distances were a bit on the short side, probably 9km for the first run and 37.5 for the bike but do I care, certainly not!After leading the first run in just over 31 mins for once they didn’t come streaming past on the bike and I was nicely placed in 4th going into the 2nd transition. With just under 5km left, I was delighted to finish 3rd overall and to win my age group. With a GB clean sweep the award ceremony was quite something.

09
Jul

Bala - Race Report - Roger Barr

By rogerbarr 0 Comments
Categories: Race Reports

I’ll keep this race report brief.The lake was cold and very choppy. As many of you know the wind blows right down the lake and it can almost be as rough as the sea!! Happy to come out of the water in the top 10. Race distance was 2000m for the swim and the time includes T1. (32mins10s)Clashed shoulders with some herbert coming out of transition. Conversations after the race revealed that this was in fact Turbo, Ed Hole!!The bike was hilly (see profile attached below) but somehow it seemed fast. Clocked an average speed of 23.1mph on my computer!! All that Ironman training is clearly in the legs still. Bike time was 2.10.51

I was a little nervous about the run as I don’t generally go well on hilly runs. HOWEVER I hadn’t bargained for all the FREE SPEED I’d been picking up at the wednesday turbo sessions. I stormed round the 12.9 miles (it was about 500m short) in under 1.25 (1.25.50 including trans).

I finished the race with a roll!! I quite literally rolled over the line in 4hrs 8mins (caused much amusment in the crowd!!).

So having flogged my body for 4 hours I was approached by the race referee. She explained that I had racked my bike by it’s handle bars and that she could DQ me for failing to obey referee/marsha. I explained that I had repeatedly tried to rack the bike by it’s saddle before the race, only to see it fall over as my 65cm frame + seatpin didn’t = the height of the racking poles!!

She took a little pity on me and decided to ONLY give me a 30s penalty.

Cheers Mrs!!

Results are at:

http://www.ukresults.net/2007/balamid.htmlI can tell you now that we had 4 great times from Turbos. Kate Foster finished 6th overall in the female race!Roger Barr - 4.08.54 (New 2007 middle distance Club Champ)
Ed Hole - 4.19.25 (looking good for IM Nice)
Matthew Bergiel - 4.30.39 (storming result mate!!)
Kate Foster - 4.42.29 (a massive PB…well done kid!)

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06
Jul

Half Ironman California - Dion Harrison

By dionharrison 0 Comments
Categories: Race Reports

Really enjoyed the whole experience of racing an American Mdot race and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants an early season race to keep the motivation during winter training.

Turbo update:
Jonny Hotchkiss had a very strong race and he was absolutely flying when I saw him on the run. Watch out for him mixing it with the top pros later in the season.

The newest Turbo recruit, Mark McNerney had a good race too and crossed the line in 4.46 which secured him the last role down spot for the World Champs in Clearwater. What makes the result more impressive is that he broke pretty much every rule in the “how to prepare for a triathlon” handbook! Admittedly, he’d been looking at buying a bike in the US for a while, but I’m not sure that is a good enough excuse to pick up a brand new Felt DA time trial bike at 6pm on Friday, ride it for 5mins and then race on it at 7am the next morning! To compliment the bike, he also opted for a brand new tri-suit, shoes and cleats. It all adds to the ‘adventure’ I guess! Rolling Eyes

Our times:
Jonny Swim-28:16, Cycle-2:21, Run-1:17 4:10:35
Dion Swim-25:30, Cycle-2:28, Run-1:28 4:27:50
Mark Swim-28:52, Cycle-2:36, Run-1:36 4:46:38

This was my first Half Ironman so I wasn’t really sure how to pace it so decided on the “backing off olympic a touch” approach and just hoped the wheels wouldn’t come off.

Unfortunately the swim wasn’t a mass start as the harbour was too narrow to accommodate the 2,000 athletes. Instead, each AG was set off separately with a 3min gap between waves. M25-29 was the 18th and last wave to start and knowing there are 2,000+ athletes ahead was a little daunting and led to the most Zig Zag swim Mark and I have ever done as we bridged the 3min gap to the wave ahead in the first minute. The water was a chilly 57 degrees and felt really crisp and fast so it was a shame we couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm and start swimming fast without crashing into people in front. The pros have got it easy being able to race in clear water! Andy Potts’ time of 22:35 (68sec 100m pace), 3mins faster than the next pro was absolutely awesome and it’s great to see a swimmer leading the race from start to finish.

Out on the bike, people were strung out down the road as far as the eye could see and for the first time ever I actually passed people on the bike which makes everything seem so much easier. For the first 30 miles, I was averaging over 43kph but then came the cheeky 20% hills which brought the average for the 90km down to 38kph. I know lance said ‘it’s not about the bike’ but in my case, I think it it is! The new Sigma Kronos is fast/fast/fast (and looks kinda pimp too which always adds that extra little bit of speed Wink )It’s nice to fly past 100s of Cervelo P3s on a bike that’s half the price. The Americans certainly like their carbon. I didn’t realise there were that many P3s in the world, let alone in California!

The run was always going to be slow as I’ve been injured for most of the winter but I was still planning to keep the first lap nice and controlled and then pick it up for the 2nd 10k. All was going to plan in so far as the first lap was steady but unfortunately the second lap was even steadier which put me out of contention with the leaders and meant I could just enjoy the atmosphere rather than worrying about racing too hard.