Your Club is sponsored by Ipswich Borough Council
Issue No.141 – August
2006
Welcome to new members
Charlotte
Wickens from Martlesham who joins our junior
squad.
Jack and William Seccombe from Debenham who join our junior squad – sorry for not including them earlier but their application forms slipped behind my drawer and ended up in a casserole dish – honest -oops! They will also be competing at Framlingham.
Christine Boon who lives in Hawksted Ipswich. Christine has competed in the Blenheim Super Sprint Tiathlon and has entered the London Sprint Triathlon.
Congratulations to the Ironman finishers, Robert Peevor, Will Catchpole and Charlie Stannett. See later in this edition for reports from them and also from Nick Collinson.
Congratulations to Lee Bark for a clear win at Saffron Walden Triathlon.
53 – 12 Many of you will know that Ed Page’s shop was destroyed by fire last month. Ed’s is one of the most frequently visited shops by ITC members and many of you will share in my best wishes for a swift return to business. He is hoping to open a new shop in the Cowdray Centre Colchester, Unit D11. He is hoping to open week commencing 5th August
FRAMLINGHAM JUNIOR TRIATHLON
The following people have kindly offered to help at the
above event. If you Cannot make it please email me NO LATER THAN
WEDNESDAY 23RD AUGUST at bubble.squeek@ntlworld.com or call (01473) 412291. The race
starts at
Richard Balaam, Ron Bareham, Nik Bestow, Paul Bones, Oliver Calver, Daniel Clifford, Darren Coates, Ian Duggan, Chris Gabriel, Phil Hetzel, Steve Hicks, Karle Howard, Wendy Kelly, Mark Kemp, Steve Kidwell, Gary & Emma Matthews, Brian McGeeney, Jo Montagu, Mark Ramsey, Maria Reynolds, Mary Skeltcher, Isabel Smith, Kate & Charlie Stannett, Mike Stollery, Mervyn Wake, Laura Williams, Barry Whitcombe, Graham White, Julie Yallop.
Adrian Green, Shelley Spencer, John Gabriel, Ian Duggan, Dave Copland & Susannah Rosenberg have kindly offered to help set up on the Saturday morning, we are still seeking further offers of help. I will confirm the time for the Saturday setting up nearer the day. Thank you once again.
We are well underway with our events this year and the duathlon is the last in the calendar. Again I have taken the following names from the members list of those who have volunteered to help either at the race or with setting up on the Saturday. Can I again ask that you confirm (or otherwise) your availability to help by email at bubble.squeek@ntlworld.com or by calling Tonya or Jeff on (01473) 412291, thank you:
Tonya Antonis, Lee Bark, Antony Birt, James Bouttell, Nick & Heather Collinson, Dave Copland, Steve De Boltz, Ian Duggan, David Fellman, Adrian Green (Set up on Saturday), David Husband, Jeff Irving, Gary & Emma Matthews, Mike McGeeney, Simon Palmer, Rob Peevor, Maria Reynolds, Susannah Rosenberg, Jo shields, Derrick Smith, Spencer Shelley, Chris Sugars, Lou Tanous, Charlie Tovel, Ross Welton, Tom Wilmot and Paul Wythe.
Swimming
Saturday morning swimming is now suspended until after the school summer holidays. I know everyone who has attended the swim sessions this year will give a big vote of thanks to Tonya and Geoff for organising the sessions and all the coaches who have directed the sessions.
Alton water Training Day
Tonya Antonis
By popular request I am planning to run the above training
session at Alton Water on SATURDAY 19th AUGUST,
DON'T FORGET - John Gabriel will be running
his Duathlon Brick session at
Training Events at
Due to the popularity of the recent Greshams
Mini-Duathlon, the next junior session will be followed with a turbo / run session
The revised August
sessions are now:
3 August - Hilly Town Run, led by John Gabriel
10 August - Off Road Run (
17 August - Greshams Mini-Duathlon (7m bike :
2m run), one lap of Playford circuit on bike followed
by three laps of
24 August - Juniors Transition Training (6-7pm): Seniors Turbo / Run
Session (7-8pm)
31 August - Short Hills, Christchurch Park, led by John Gabriel
All senior sessions start
at
Please see the table at rhe end of ITCH for the club championship so far. Still much to race for!! In terms of rules, we only have one. You MUST WEAR CLUB KIT to qualify for the club championship. This has been reported in ITCH. Enjoy the rest of the season.
Realising a dream
What can I say to sum it all up? 7 months of training, a beautiful city, great swim in a calm Mediterranean, cycling in the Maritime Alps, running on the legendary Promenade des Anglais, the finish line, Heather being there and a baby due in the next few days. 2006, what a summer!!
We arrived on Thursday before race day to a very grotty
hotel. Much stress and a sleepless night, as the air conditioning wasn’t
working and there was no fan, boy Nice was hot!! With a 35-week pregnant wife
and an Ironman to do on Sunday I realised, as I lay in bed at 4.30am on Friday
morning, that I couldn’t do the next 5 days from this hotel room. But Nice in late June- what chances of finding another hotel?
Went to IM swim training to sort myself out, came back, breakfast, then hotel
hunting. We lucked out! New hotel, 200m from transition, rooms 5 times the
size, with air conditioning that worked, and a great view from our balcony and
all for only 18 Euro more per night. Much sweating and carrying cases, boxes
etc to the new hotel (great race preparation!!), we were settled in to the new
hotel by
Did all the usual stuff over the next two days. Worried, drank plenty, registered, racked the bike, I couldn’t wait for Sunday.
Sunday 3.15am up for breakfast.
Lots of jostling on the beach and the canon goes off. We’re off- thank God, at last. All that training, all that waiting. It’s going to be a long day, I need to be patient, pace myself and not chase the race. I have to let the race come to me.
Swim was awesome, got stung by jelly-fish, but couldn’t care
less. Out of the water in 53 minutes. How the hell did
I manage that? Onto the bike- no problems and out of Nice
into the mountains. It was a tough day on the bike. Steeper and tougher
than many of us had expected, I heard it described as an ‘Etaper’s’
Ironman. The 21km climb was a constant drag of 7%, which sapped the legs and
ate away at the time. The results showed that about 100 people passed me on the
bike and I was so tempted to up the tempo and race the bike, but I kept to
heart rate and concentrated on my own Ironman. Bike time
Felt great as soon as I got out onto the run and hey, I was
suddenly passing people who had passed me on the bike, and many of them were
walking. So….. Ironman isn’t a bike race then- what a surprise!! This really
spurred me on and I quickly got into my run pace knocking out each 10km in
almost exactly an hour. Pace slipped a touch in the last 15km, but across the
line with a marathon time of
Another few days from today (18th July) and Heather will have her very own equally tough challenge and her preparation has been even longer, 9 months. 2006, what a summer!!
Results:
Nick Collinson 11:54
Derrick Smith 12:19
Anthony (a Manx mate of mine from Etape
du tour 2005)
On Thursday, after flight delays
and roadworks on the motorway, we arrived at
On Friday, I registered & tried out the
On Saturday, I got relabelled and joined Rob at the briefing where neither of
us could actually focus on the display screen, but I got name-checked - as
proof that people should stay for the roll-down no matter how slow they are!
On Sunday race-day, the hostel provided breakfast from
Standing at swim-start I found myself crossing myself when a priest offered a
blessing – and then heard myself getting name-checked again on the PA:
“Charlie Stannett – make sure you finish this time; Kate, you make sure he
does”.
So, no pressure.
The swim started with 1500m straight out to a small, dark blue turn buoy which
was occasionally obscured by big boats. I reached the buoy and turned left but
then I got lost as I headed for the bright orange “Powerbar”
floats. Eventually I was told by a
support canoeist that they were not part of the course and to ignore them and
head instead for another dark blue buoy, before then turning left to try and
find the entry to a canal (at least I think that’s what she said – it’s a long
time since I had to ask for directions on a lake in German).
The canal entry was obscured by another big boat and I got lost again, so
headed toward the sound of the PA. Another canoeist eventually headed me off
and guided me to the exit. I lost a lot of time but, stopping only to shake
hands with my saviour, I eventually finished the swim to the sound of Kate’s
support - a “keep going you silly bugger” that was even
The bike was two laps with two main climbs on each lap, including the “Rupert Bear” climb (my translation) where Kate had sprayed a “mutley crew” message across the road.
On lap one I managed both climbs
fairly comfortably, staying seated thanks to my pizza pan sprocket. I did stop
to help a woman who’d punctured (I gave her one of my inner tubes), I lost my
chain once, and I had to reattach my speedo with
cable ties. I also stopped to see why my brakes were binding and found they
weren’t - it was the wind blowing up the downhill stretches which was keeping
me below 35mph!
I was lapped by some of the lead bikes which meant I got some really BIG cheers
when people assumed I was in second place, then third
place, then… A bit later I was well chuffed when a marshal came roaring past
with black card at the ready chasing a blatant draft train.
Lap two was a lot lonelier and some of the marshals had gone home. Even some
safety cushioning had been taken down.
But some villagers were still there shouting out “Supaaahh
Charlie, hup, hup,
IPSWICHHHH”. (The race numbers had our names on but by now I was hearing the
support as “super-charlie-fragile-ipswich”.)
Some aid stations were running out and at a fairly key point I was given
over-diluted drink and started suffering. I had such a sharp cramp attack as I
started hitting Rupert Bear the second time that I nearly fell off but I
managed to complete the ascent to another aid station where I was able to swap
to a better mix. Rather strangely, unlike a Mexican who had followed me up, I
declined the beer I was offered.
When eventually I got to the run, I had no doubts about being able to finish
the distance but had some real doubts about being able to meet the
cut-off. I “ran” the first half
reasonably okay, making very slow but steady progress but then the cramps hit
again and my leg seized as I start on a lonely second half.
The cramp wasn’t helped when I got hit by an evening sprinkler system, but
things cheered up when, instead of the purple lizard hallucinations I was
expecting, I got flashed at by a woman who, thinking it was all over, was
skinny-dipping.
At 27km, I decided to time myself “power-walking” for 1km. I realised that if I
sustained that pace I would be able to finish with about 10 minutes to spare –
and figured that if I carried on forcing down the “iso”,
eventually the cramps would ease.
After about 5km of stomping I found I was able to run about three lamp posts
before the leg re-seized, so started “jog 3, walk 1” intervals, playing cat
& mouse with another one of the Mexicans.
(Evening lessons in Spanish and years of doing slow marathons can help
in this situation.) I did thank everybody at one of the final aid stations but
declined another offer of beer – I hadn’t come all this way not to finish.
At 40km, international team work came into play. Kate met me and rang ahead to
William to ask him get a beer in. Just before the main finish area William gave
me the beer and also relayed the strict instructions from Nick in
Then the world seemed to erupt. Don the commentator is shouting about a
“special friend from
Handshake from Helen Egger, hug from Don, kiss from Kate, high-fives all over,
then that wonderful moment - only slightly damned by feint praise as I hear Don
continuing “and all you people watching, just think, if Charlie can do it,
maybe you can too” - when I stand on the finish ramp and finally, finally get
to drink my beer.
Good giggle.
Well I am back at the office
and the aircon is on full blast. It seems impossible
that the Ironman Austria is over and done !
I have just had a mid morning
bag of crisps and what’s more I had butter on my toast at breakfast.
Thanks you for all the support
and good wishes. It was a big day and if there was one point which I can give
you a glimpse of it came at about 70 miles on the bike - its late morning and
very hot and I had done one lap on the bike just lost the chain and had to stop
and sort it out my hands covered in black grease and just about to hit the
hills a second time.
You know its coming and you can
see the poor souls ahead like dots on the hill grinding in the low gears and in
a few minutes its going to be your turn. You shift
into your lowest gear and hope to find an even lower one but that’s it and its just a question of can you sustain the effort. Sweat
pouring down over your sunglasses as you shake your head. Sweat in your eyes
and you cannot wipe them for fear of falling over. Crest of the hill in sight
and I can see
Tessa but I cannot shout or do
anything - she sees me and jumps in a hurry to try and catch a photo. No worry
the aid station is 50 metres ahead and I stop the bike grab a water bottle
remove the sunglasses and squirt the water full blast in the face
and down the neck. Relief was
exquisite. Tessa shouts encouragement and I'm gone but wondering whats coming next and then at a junction about 3 or 4 miles
further on there is kid in a wheel chair clapping encouragement. It rips at you
in your mind and your heart and from that point on you know you can do it !
Rob Peevor and Charlie from the club also did the
event and I am looking forward to meeting them for a beer or two and a recap of
the full drama. Charlie for those who may not recall stopped with me at 93 miles
last year in Sherbourne so for both of us I believe that these laid to rest a
few of the Ironman Ghosts.
Special thanks to Tessa Rory
Kate Sal and Ed for their support on what was a very long day.
ps yes I do ache and the feet hurt - you dont
need to ask ........ no not again that’s it from this ironman.
pps very good luck to you doing Sherbourne Chris Kate and Mark.
Winner Lee Bark 10.08 40.32 20.53 1.11.33
10th Barry Whitcomb 12.46 47.30 19.58 1.20.14
36th Dave Husband 12.14 50.07 23.41 1.26.02
48th Simon Palmer 15.09 48.36 24.05 1.27.50
60th Anthony Birt 16.45 48.35 24.36 1.29.36
105th Jackie Chubb 14.57 59.32 25.19 1.39.48
Winner
Matthew Sharp 4.55 33.30 17.21 55.46
8th Dave Copland 6.37 32.55 18.52 58.24
50th Graham White 9.13 38.07 19.47 1.07.07
74th Simon Palmer 8.23 38.37 23.31 1.10.31
88th Paul Wythe 8.53 44.31 19.41 1.13.05
104th Nik Bestow 10.50 40.25 23.28 1.14.43
James Powley won the Capel St Mary Fun Run with his younger brother Ben 7th on the hottest day of the year thus far. (11th June.) With a big start list seemingly put off by the 29 degree heat and a 1pm start, James picked up the winners trophy covering the 1.3 mile route in 8mins (this includes being sent the wrong way and losing 20 secs). Team Powley could not maintain the success as Dad, Nigel could only finish 2nd in the 5 mile race in a time of 28.19, blaming a 150+ mile cycle training week, that fell on deaf ears!!!!
Winner Lewis Gamble Thomson 26.33
39th Dave Copland 30.29
48th John Wankowsli 31.00
187th Nik Bestow 37.36
231st Amanda Mallett 39.08
309th Jason Baillie 41.38
309th Susannah Rosenberg 44.54
323rd Barbara Tottle 46.20
Wed 12th July
4th Richard Woodward 24.52
6th Dave Copland 25.03
14th Steve DeBoltz 27.53
20th Maria Reynolds 32.05
21st Susannah
Rosenberg 32.35
Wed 19th
July
3rd Richard Woodward 24.39
6th Dave Copland 25.14
14th Anthony Birt 28.02
16th Maria Reynolds 32.21
17th Susannah Rosenberg 32.47
Wed 19th
July
3rd Mark Ramsay 24.20
15th Anthony Birt 27.26
17th Dave Husband 28.15
22nd Brian McGeeney 30.03
24th Maria Reynolds 31.56
These are the items we have in stock.
If you wish to order something not in stock please tell Heather; she will be placing an order later this summer.
|
ITEMS NEW KIT |
cost to club |
cost to member |
ES |
S |
M |
L |
EL |
|
Tri-top male with zip |
£20.90 |
£17.00 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
|
Tr-top male with zip and pockets |
£24.50 |
£20.00 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
|
Tri-top female with zip |
£22.00 |
£18.00 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
|
Tri-top female with zip, pockets |
£26.00 |
£21.00 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
|
Tri-suit male |
£44.00 |
£35.00 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
|
Tri-suit female |
£48.50 |
£39.00 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
Tri-shorts unisex |
£25.00 |
£20.00 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
|
Junior Tri-suit |
£44.00 |
£35.00 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
Cycle shorts |
£30.00 |
£24.00 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
S/S cycle top |
£32.00 |
£26.00 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
|
L/S cycle top (full length zip +£2) |
£34.00 |
£27.00 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
|
L/S Airtherm
training top |
£40.00 |
£32.00 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Gilet |
£37.00 |
£30.00 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Bib shorts |
£34.00 |
£27.00 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Bib tights (thermo +£2) |