Ross Welton

Ross ‘chicken legs’ Welton rides both for "tri.bull" and Ipswich triathlon club.

Diss Duathlon race report - 1st April

A warm and windy day greeted the plethora of Ipswich Triathlon Club members, 13 in total, for what was for most this seasons first foray into competitive action. It was excellent to see so many members congregating at the start lines, all sporting club kit along with many other layers (some more than others Derrick!!).

The start times were in three waves 5 minutes apart, apparently split by age, and early season enthusiasm appeared to send people off for the first 5km run at what can only be described as warp-speed before reality kicked in and normal ‘panting’ service was resumed. The run course was fairly flat and loosened the legs off nicely for the cycling to come.

After the fast first leg, a rapid transition onto the bikes. I decided, after advice from Steve ‘if you see me on the bike then I’ve already taken 5 minutes off you’ De Boltz, that I would try leaving the shoes clipped into the pedals in an attempt to shave valuable nanoseconds of my time. In short, this wasn’t a huge success, and I fear there may be a photo doing the rounds that proves this….(Note to self – work on transition).

Once the feet, shoes and pedals had met the cycling was immensely enjoyable. The 3 lap circuit was mostly flat, although any incline seemed to be greeted with a fairly fierce headwind and pot-holed farm track combination. There were some long fast straights to flush out the cobwebs and give the new bike, (I may have mentioned to a few people that I have a new bike), a test. I was propelled on by the thought of knowing that Captain Steve, Dave Husband and Tony Birt would all delight in passing me, so pedalling as fast as my ‘chicken legs’ would take me, I completed the 30km bike ride still feeling pretty good and knowing that there was just the final 5km run to go, a repeat of the first leg.

The thought of running 5km is not overly distressing, although, as I’m sure many of the competitors will agree, Duathlons have an ability to make the second run feel like the Marathon des Sables (perhaps a slight exaggeration). With the legs suddenly feeling ‘a little heavy’ it was just a case of running/jogging/plodding/falling to the finish line to complete my first race as an official Ipswich Triathlon Club member.

I think everyone who attended felt that this was an excellent season opener, and the post race atmosphere amongst the red and black clad team, with tea and cakes rapidly in hand, was great to be a part of.

Full results: www.tri-anglia.co.uk/DissDuathlon/
Photos, courtesy of Mary, can be found at http://photos.yahoo.com/brian.mcgeeney@btinternet.com/ under an album called 2007 Diss Duathlon

April Fools day also saw the red & black turning out at two longer-distance runs...

	Dave Copland, sporting his special go-faster hair cut, used Bungay as part of his preparation for the Norseman triathlon later this year, which starts in a fjord and finishes with a full marathon. Up a mountain. This was Dave's first attempt at a marathon - and he smashed quite a few members' personal bests, which probably helps explain his smile despite having some problems toward the end.		Kate Stannett showed a big smile as she came close - very close - to equally her personal best, set in London a couple of years ago. Kate suffered a recurrence of an injury at around six miles and rather foolishly carried on but, with help from her physio and some enforced rest, she should be ready for the Flora London Marathon at the end of April as part of her training for IMUK.
	Adding weight to a suspicion that there were happy pills in the water being dished out, Julia's massive smile gives the game away that she was actually away with the fairies when Kate passed her with just a few miles to go: "I was really in a little world somewhere else then, and [Kate] brought me home!" Julia did a really good time - which bodes well for the IM70.3 in Antwerp later this year.		After completing the first half almost bang on schedule, Charlie Stannett started cramping up and decided to treat the second half as a training shuffle - dropping almost two minutes a mile in the process. That said he still did his best marathon time in over twenty years - a numerically suspicious 262 minutes - and is looking forward to a cramp-free marathon in London in a couple of weeks time.
	The Bungay marathon comprises a two lap course. A half-marathon sets off for just one lap of the same route two hours after the marathon starts - which makes for an interesting mix of banter between the two fields. At least two members of the club took part in the half-marathon option: Oliver Calvin and Iain Downie. Along with Dave & Julia, Iain got sun-burn - whereas I gather Oliver (runner 975, left) was well-chuffed with knocking masses off his previous best!

Times

Full results & some photographs at www.bungay-marathon.co.uk  - and some interesting photographs of Dave's very distinctive running style at www.digitography.co.uk - but the photographs used here are from Dave (although I'm guessing Susannah took them).

I hope to include news of our Flora London Marathon entrants in May's edition of ITCH.