Mounts Bay Harriers

I really wasn’t feeling like it this morn after more than a week of doing nothing (apart from catching a stomach bug while on holiday in Bonny Scotland). However, like any good Scot I was determined to get my money’s worth, so I signed on last night and gave the St Levan 10K a miss in case it interfered with my new approach to Tri training. I did go for a swim with Brooksy and co, but that doesn’t count as my swimming is chronic anyway.

I cycled over to the start with all my kit packed inside the big yellow duffel bag, and said hello to some of the familiar faces from the local Tri scene. The MBH massiv was there in force including big Dan Lugg, fresh from the London Tri and doubtless looking for a PB today. Charlotte Hurst, age group winner in the same event was also present and correct - could she pull another win out of the bag after her Capital effort…time would tell. Jason Walker had that hunted, haunted look that usually means only one thing - another PB! Sam Perkin was his usual irrepressibly cheery self, so I had to make myself scarce in order to get into a more introspective frame of mind.

The tide was high, but we were holding on. “50 seconds to go” said Cooter, the man with the hooter. I hadn’t been saying “1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi..” to myself and nor had anyone else judging by the perceptible satellite delay between the hooter sounding and the familiar water-borne stramash commencing. After only just avoiding a bad case of (someone else’s) foot in mouth, I slowed the pace and took the long way around the two buoys that marked out the 750m swim. It’s more fun hunting them down on the bike and run anyway…

This time, the concept of “neutralised” time betwen the swim and T1 had been abandoned, so everyone would know just where they stood as they closed in on the finish line. Exiting the water, I was near the back of the pack with the usual assortment of remedial swimmers, breast strokers, aquaphobes and those who flinch at the thought of a plantar sandwich. Hey ho. I managed to get back to transition and out again without stepping on anything sharp or unpleasant, and was soon cranking my way uphill out of Marazion. Before reaching Rosudgeon, i’d managed to overhaul a goodly number of those pesky people who can swim either fast or in a straight line! All of a sudden a familiar figure shot past on my right, hunched over his Tri Bars with a “hello Don” - ’twas Hixxo! Over the next few miles we switched positions several times as I struggled to find a rhythm, finding my legs disappointingly stale and free of fast twitch firepower. The fast section down to the Newtown roundabout was spoiled by a slow moving farm vehicle heading a queue of traffic. A few daredevil riders, including myself, sprinted up the outside while Cooter sensibly stayed in the gutter and undertook the obstacle.

I left T2 on the heels of Hixxo, and overtook him before the beginning of the Green Lane cycle path. It’s a far more civilised way to start a run, than the steep approach favoured by Cris and Co on their May and July events. The first few K were easy enough, but I could feel a stitch unravelling somewhere inside. Phil Sanger was on hand with his camera and some words of encouragement at the bottom of the hill up to the turn. “You’re going faster than you think” he shouted. “F**k, I hope so” said the guy next to me. On the final drag up Virgin Hill, Hixxo overtook me again as the needle teetered close to the big E, but the difference in our inside leg measurements made all the difference on the ridiculously steep drop back down to the field and the finish, and I came in a few yards sooner. It was yet another good day for the Bay after Pete Le Grice’s all-conquering performance at yesterday’s St Levan 10K. Overall, Kyle Kearey finished hot on the heels of MBH part-timer Neil Eddy and Alice Nicholas was third lady, just edging out Charlotte H.

Full Results and split times here:

http://www.racetimingsystems.com/public/results.aspx?raceid=1087

Yet again, I managed to miss the pasty/beer at the end, but I mustn’t grumble… ah the hell with it: where’s my pasty? Where’s my beer? Gripe, moan, grizzle, rant, rave….

;-)

Don “AikenDrum” H

Results HERE - Children’s results HERE

Photos on Facebook HERE

Pete Le Grice done us proud tonight by winning the St Levan 10k fair and square in 33:38. He beat second placed Noel Kindon of Cornwall AC by 30 seconds - and that’s not easy to do!!

Rachel Tresidder led the ladies home in 42 minutes dead and finished in the top 20.

1 0:33:38 LE GRICE, Peter (1st male)
8 0:37:37 SANGER, Phil
9 0:37:59 JOHANSEN, Miles
16 0:40:23 MARSTON, Jeremy
19 0:42:00 TRESIDDER, Rachel (1st female)
25 0:42:43 MATTHEWS, Ian
30 0:43:23 JAMES, Ian
34 0:44:02 RUETSCH, Arnaud
35 0:44:23 RANDALL, Carol (1st 40-44 female)
41 0:45:54 GIMBERT, Shawn
43 0:46:15 ANGOVE, Paul
44 0:46:16 PERKIN, Sam
47 0:47:03 MCCLAY, Karen
48 0:47:04 KANE, Duncan
54 0:47:55 WALKER, Natalie (1st 35-39 female)
59 0:48:51 HIBBERT, Clive
60 0:48:57 TURNER, Yvonne (1st 45-49 female)
67 0:50:45 KEWN, Jeremy
69 0:50:46 KEWN, Nicola
70 0:50:50 RINGWOOD, Michael
73 0:51:27 MARSTON, David
74 0:51:33 BURROWS, Robert
76 0:52:03 BARLOW, Thea
85 0:52:55 DAVIES, Steve
97 0:56:16 MATTHEWS, Susan
105 0:57:37 STONE, Jackie
109 0:57:56 GABBOTT, Wendy

1st male team - Pete Le Grice, Phil Sanger, Miles Johansen and Jeremy Marston

1st female team - Rachel Tresidder, Carol Randall, Karen McClay and Natalie Walker

Juniors - 1st in their age categories
Archie Vingoe
Ellie Ringwood
Jacob Wood
Lauren Davis

It’s been a couple of days since I completed the ‘Triple’, I can just about stay awake for longer than 30 minutes, my shuffling around the house is speeding up a little and I’m starting to think about when I should realistically do a little bit of recovery based training. Before I get into full flow, the reason I was able to complete this event was down to my support crew, Mark, Paul and Tim; they suffered with me, made rational decision for me when I was unable to and most of all they had the same level of desire as I did to get the job done. My friends from sunny Cornwall were always part of the team and they were awesome, but a special mention for Tim, who just rocked up from Carlisle to watch for a couple of hours and stayed for the duration  is fully justified (I definitely owe you several beers in Las Vegas!).  

Getting into the spirit of it all?

PRE-RACE 

Training for this event had gone pretty much to plan, apart from an 8 week blip during May and June, where overtraining had a massive effect. I’d averaged over 20 hours a week since the turn of the year with the majority being done in very unsociable hours, this was done to both simulate effort whilst tired and to keep my training and family time as separate as possible.

The trip to the race was uneventful and we arrived in enough time to drive the bike course and take a walk around the run course, before we checked in to the hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours. The registration and brief held no surprises and so it was off to bed as well prepared and rested as I could possibly have hoped for

THE RACE

Travelled over to what was become ‘hell’ for the next couple of days, and with my bike racked and ready it was time to get ready for the longest swim of my life. The furthest I’d done in training was 5k but I had felt really comfortable at that distance and knew that I would have no problem with the swim. We seeded ourselves in the lane according to who thought they would finish first, and so I pushed off at the head of the queue with 456 lengths to go. I had planned to do sets of 2.5k (x4) and then be left with a measly 56 lengths, simple enough plan I thought. The only problem was that I had to contend with the different pace of the other 3 guys in my lane, I am always aware that the race isn’t always about me and that I will have affected the rhythm of the others as I seemed to be tapping feet every few lengths to get past. The swim was my worst fear in triathlon but I actually am starting to enjoy it, although I am no Michael Phelps, I feel that I am gradually getting better. I had a target of between 3:30-3:45 for the swim and was pretty much bang on as I exited in 3:42, and 6^th place.

A quick jog round to T1 and a leisurely change of kit saw me head out on to the bike. I really didn’t know how this part was going to go, but had made a decision to ride an aggressive set up and trying to hammer it (relatively) in daylight hours. This was working well and I was up around a 33kph average for the first 112 miles, after that it started to go a lot slower. This I think was due to being dehydrated from the swim and also the terrible road surface starting to take effect. It had to be total concentration all the way through as there were so many pot holes that it could be race over  at any moment, plus the constant vibration had a cumulative fatigue effect as well.

Oi! I was drinking that!

Around 19:00 we were told to get high vis and lights on and that was the first time I had stopped, in 9 hours I had done 182 miles and so was in good spirits. Then as light faded the true test begun and was to last until the finish. The darkness just seemed to sap all energy from my body and the effort no to fall asleep was phenomenal, in fact like the Double from the previous year I did nod off a few times (although it was only for a second) and woke with a start. I’m not sure of the time because everything became a blur but I had to pull over and crawl into the back of the van for my first of 3 ten minute power-naps. When I woke up I felt amazing and this was enough to carry me through for another 2 laps before repeating the process. After the second ’sleep’ the sun was coming up and I was hoping this would be the lift I needed, wrong! It was just as bad so I did another 2 laps had another 10 minutes and then I was left with only 2 laps. By this point my undercarriage was in tatters, so sitting was agony, standing was just as bad as my legs were in bits, but at least I had 78 miles of running to look forward to. As I rolled in on my final lap of the bike it was with total relief that I hadn’t crashed, that my bike hadn’t had a mechanical and that I had done 2/3 of the race. During this 336 mile spin, I’d moved up from 6^th to 3^rd, I think at one point I was 2^nd but that didn’t last long and trailed 2^nd by 1:30 ish as I went out on the run. The bike took me 21:45.

Eating and sleeping at the same time, top tip.

10 minutes of bliss!

Maybe a bit over-excited about the run

Now it was the ultimate test of all the 3 disciplines, I had done one training run of 35 miles but that was in March. Since then I had only done 15-20 mile efforts, poor prep I know but I didn’t want to risk injury prior to the race. I haven’t been doing triathlon long (0206 was my first race) and I’ve never been in a position where I am challenging for the podium, so I worked out a strategy early on. I was going to go hard on the first marathon and put pressure on Hanno (2^nd) and hopefully make him blow up, and maybe (but not realistically) worry Paul (1^st) in to making a mistake. This was a massive risk I was taking but as intend never to do anything like this again (well not for a while) I didn’t want to finish thinking ‘what if I’d attacked. So off I went, with a lot of advice from a respected athlete doing the Double, telling me that I was being stupid and that I would blow myself to bits for the final third of the run. 

Always smiling!?

Well, he was completely right, but fortunately for me my gamble paid off and everybody else was just trying to survive at that point. I have never felt so completely empty as the last 12-15 miles of this event, the best I could do was to shuffle through the darkness and not fall asleep whilst walking. My body had completely shut down, I could take on no food, water was a struggle and all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep. Once again my crew where amazing, they just kept me going with encouragement or threats, not sure which at that point. It’s difficult to put into words how I felt but I never want to be in that place again, I was not a happy bunny. And so it was to the final lap (of 63) I had pictured this moment many times, but none of the scenarios had been like this one, I had nothing left, no feelings of joy or relief, it was just the constant effort of putting one foot in front of the other. As I crossed the line I didn’t care about anything other than going to sleep, but then as my timing chip was taken off it started to dawn on me that I didn’t have to do this anymore. I WAS FREE! My time for the run was 19:14. I had come into this event with a time goal rather than a placing, and I had hoped to go under 40 hours, I think if I had been further down the field that this would have been achievable but due to pushing harder on the bike and definitely sacrificing myself on the run it was never going to happen. But I would swap that any day of the week to finish in second place in this experienced and talented group of athletes and I feel very humbled by the whole thing. 

SWIM   3:42:07

BIKE    21:45:51

RUN     19:14:06

TOTAL 44:44:04
 

1st Paul Thompson 2nd Scott Markham

Approx 30 seconds after the picture above...

Scott Markham

Facebook photos HERE

Four juniors and 30 adult Harriers made their way to Indian Queens alongside 605 other runners! 22 MBH seniors manged to better their half marathon PBs, notable climbs were Phil Sanger who now finds himself in 3rd place on the clubs PB HM fastest times and Richard Savage comes in as a new entry in 10th. We were down on numbers due to injuries of a few of our faster runners and this meant that the ladies team finished fourth and the mens fifth (even though all the six in the MBH men’s team finished in under 1:28!)

Representing the children were Charlotte and Megan Richards, Bethany Tresidder and Katie Walker. They all ran exceptionally well but I can’t find a copy of the results at the moment although I know that Charlotte completed the course in 6:40 and Megan in 7:02 - a new PB for her. Well done to you all

There were a few half-marathon first timers here today - husband and wife Jackie and Steve Davies, Natalie Walker and Eve Lay. Natalie put so much effort in (especially with Yvonne shouting at her from behind to go faster and to catch Richard Boucher up) that she collapsed as soon as she crossed the finish line and was attended to, eventually, by a policeman and two St John’s ambulance men. Eve Lay was so pleased to have completed her first half that she screamed as she crossed the line - anyone would have thought that she’d won!

Phil Sanger had a storming run finishing in 1:22:30, being the first Harrier home and finishing 30th overall. Mhairi Saville was our first lady home in 1:30:29 gaining her a 3rd place in the female under 35 category.

Other Prize winners of the day was Clive Hibbert 2nd and Dave Austin 3rd, both in the 65 plus category.

Zoe Mason had a frothing bum due to her jelly babies getting wet in her rear pocket - not a pretty sight. Nor was the sight of Ian before the race getting changed (see Facebook for evidence) or Jeremy afterwards putting on some dry clothes and mooning to the rest of the hall. Why do men have to flash their bits?

Zoe also had her own ‘changing tent’ with both Andrew and Sam holding up big bath towels in front of her - no peeping lads!

Sam Perkin knocked 63 minutes off his last Indian Queens time but still managed to talk through every 13 miles, poor Steve and Tammy Rosewell finished 9 minutes quicker than last year! There’s no stopping Tammy improving these days!

The course itself is about the flatest you can find in Cornwall. It’s a mixture of both road and trails through Goss Moors Country Park. There were even a couple of crocodiles, a leopard and a bear thrown in for good measure - although the cows seemed to leave everyone alone apart from Tammy who had to do a bit of weaving to get through!

It is usually a scorching day for Indian Queens but this year it rained. This made conditions a bit slippery through the Country Park. Karen McClay had a fall but was soon up again.

We were treated to a silver band part way round, even though Ian thought as he approached that they were playing vuvuzalas! he’s going deaf as well as blind!

Everyone who finished was presented with a bright green t-shirt which showed the route on it. Don Hutchison decided to be different and put it on back-to-front and didn’t realise until he was told when he rectified matters.

All-in-all it was a good day out, a well organised race with lots of marshals. The organisers even disqualified 2 people - named and shamed for wearing ipods, which is a good thing and their own fault as these are not allowed at GP races and everyone was warned at the start - they obviously didn’t hear! had their headphones in, ha ha.

The support crews of the Tresidder and Saville families were out in force and their voices could be heard for miles!

.

30 1:22:30 SANGER, Phil -PB
38 1:24:38 WALKER, Jason - PB
50 1:25:27 SAVAGE, Rich - PB
52 1:25:32 HICKSON, Andrew- PB
60 1:27:07 SIMS, Nigel
67 1:28:05 MARSTON, Jeremy - PB
72 1:28:22 HUTCHISON, Don
89 1:30:29 SAVILLE, Mhairi - PB(by 18 minutes)
99 1:31:30 TRESIDDER, Rachel - PB
124 1:33:49 HOLDEN, Charlie - PB
157 1:37:12 MATTHEWS, Ian
160 1:37:35 PERKIN, Sam - PB
161 1:37:35 RICHARDS, Steven - PB
241 1:43:58 MCNEVIN, Philip - PB
259 1:45:35 HIBBERT, Clive - PB
265 1:46:14 MCCLAY, Karen - PB
271 1:46:39 ANGOVE, Paul - PB
284 1:47:29 AUSTIN, David
294 1:48:00 BOUCHER, Richard - PB
300 1:48:30 WALKER, Natalie - PB
303 1:48:37 TURNER, Yvonne
333 1:50:42 ROSEWALL, Tammy - PB
373 1:53:59 MASON, Zoe - PB
395 1:55:41 BURROWS, Robert
404 1:56:19 MARSTON, David
425 1:59:19 MCKIE, Kirstin - PB
440 2:00:43 DAVIES, Steve - PB
487 2:04:59 WATKINS, Yvonne
491 2:05:52 STONE, Jackie - PB
527 2:12:36 LAY, Evelyn - PB

Full results HERE

Just in case this has whetted your appetite for another 13 miler next Sunday, don’t forget Truro Running club would like to invite you to join them in trialling the new Truro Half Route on Sunday 8th August at 10am.  Meet on the Piazza, Hall for Cornwall, Back Quay, where route maps will be provided.

Join them afterwards for a beer/Orange Squash(?!) and or lunch, when you can let them know what you think of the new route. Alternatively contact Race Director Trish Prady trish170263@hotmail.co.uk   with your feedback

Results HERE - some photos on FaceBook HERE and HERE

Well the weather didn’t stop 90 competitors turning up and racing! It had been a lovely day up until about 5pm when the mist and rain started to come in over Penzance (well it was Air Day at Culdrose). By 7pm, race start time, it was wet - and not just in the water! At least it kept members of the public off the Prom!

The water temperature was lovely and warm - when I turned up to set up at 3pm the pool was packed, and they were still turning up for a swim at 5pm when the rain started.

Once again the under 20s stood out, with six completing the course in under 15 minutes - and two just one second over that time, and all finishing in the top 20! Jordan Roberts picked up first under 20 male, finishing fourth overall in 14:04.

Neil Eddy finished in a record time of 12:29 - it took most competitors longer than that to complete the run alone!

Alice Nicholas was, once again, first female overall in a time of 15:30 - just outside the top 20.

13-year-old Vicky Burlingham put in a splendid performance finishing third female overall and first under 20 female.

Dave Pell and Sasha Osborne once again picked up first prize for the over 40s.

There were a few family groups taking part this time - the Hoadleys, Stanleys, Brooks, Keary brothers, plus others which I’ve most likely missed.

Please note for the next event iPods, MP3s, etc are NOT allowed - nor are bare chests (Iain Richards please take note!)

Male Open
1 Neil Eddy (Cyclelogic) 12:29
2 Pete Le Grice (Mounts Bay Harriers) 13:00
3 Kyle Kearey (Mounts Bay Harriers) 13:17

Male Vet over 40
1 Dave Pell (Cornwall AC) 14:18
2 Jason Walker (Mounts Bay Harriers) 14:57
3 William Luckhurst 15:59

Male Junior under 20
1 Jordan Roberts (Hayle SLSC) 14:04
2 Matt Trewhella 14:11
3 Thomas Wood (Mounts Bay Harriers) 14:17

Female Open
1 Alice Nicholas (Mounts Bay Harriers) 15:30
2 Charlotte Hurst (Mounts Bay Harriers) 16:10
3 Vicky Burlingham (Carn Brea SC) 16:18 (also first under 20)

Female Vet over 40
1 Sasha Osborne 17:04
2 Tamsin Eddy 17:21
3 Jackie Roberts 17:54

Female Junior under 20
1 Amy Jolly (Carn Brea SC) 16:48 (Vicky Burlingham already having picked up 3rd Female Open)
2 Imogen Terry 17:31
3 Sabine Hoadley 20:38

Many thanks to all my marshals - everyone turned up early!! Sorry that you all got so wet.