Julia Yelloly

Julia (shown here at Norwich) demonstrates her photographic skills...

...capturing Danny going so fast his slipstream starts to knock over a very large bottle...

...while mystery man Matt adopts a more sedate position.

Blenheim - Saturday 2nd June & Sunday 3rd June

June 2nd was the women's event and June 3rd was the men's. I didn't realize there were so many women doing triathlons. In my wave there were about 200 and there were about six waves that day (same next day with the men).

Everything was organized really well with a huge transition area in the courtyard. It's hard to find your bike in the 1000s of others though. The women next to me suggested I use the statue of Neptune, opposite, to locate my bike - v. useful!

This was my first open water event. What a lake! It was quite clear and not too cold. There was a bit of a run to transition. The waves were 15 minutes apart which meant that the bike course was a bit crowded at times with 3 waves on the one route (with three laps of the route). The run route was lovely, round the lake and not busy. It was a privilege (that we paid for!) being in such a beautiful place.

Iain (Downie) was the second out of the water and 16th swimmer overall. We saw Dan at the start and I recognized him on the bike route and got this photo (see left).

We also saw someone else with an Ipswich top and looked him up in the results - Matthew Wix - Spencer's brother? We saw Spencer in the results though not in person, beating Iain by 1 second again (he did this in Warwick last Sept too)!

Mike Stollery also did the race and had a good one though we didn't see him there.

The full results are on the Blenheim wesbite at http://blenheim.triathlonresults.co.uk/ but here are the people that Julia mentioned.
 

Blenheim was recently shown on Channel 4 - watch for the repeats! (Channel 4 occasionally broadcasts triathlons on Sunday mornings as part of its "Adrenalin Rush" series.)

Strong performance by Ipswich ladies in Ironman 70.3, Wimbleball (Exmoor) - Sunday 17th June

Five members of Ipswich triathlon club took part in the 2007 UK Ironman 70.3 triathlon held in Wimbleball, Exmoor, on Sunday 17th June.

Sometimes referred to as a “half-Ironman”, the Ironman 70.3 comprised a 1.2 mile swim in Wimbleball lake, followed by a 56 mile ride around the "vicious" hills of Exmoor, before concluding with a 13.1 mile multi-terrain half-marathon in the grounds of the lake.  The UK event is one of around a dozen around the world which are used as qualifiers for the Ironman 70.3 world championships, and is regarded as the toughest of the lot. Why is it called "Ironman 70.3"? Well, try adding the numbers 1.2, 56, and 13.1...

First Ipswich member home was Brian McGeeney, who was taking part in his first event at this distance. Brian had suffered a fall at about 54 miles when he'd been out for a practice ride - I've seen the wounds - but on the day he decided to stay on his bike for the full distance.  Brian finished 135th in the M35-39 (male age 35–39) category, with a very creditable time of 6hrs 47mins.

Kate Stannett was next Ipswich member home, with a personal best of 7hrs 06mins, which gave Kate her first podium finish in these events. She came third in the F45-49 category but lost out on world championship qualification by just one slot.

Supervet Grayhame Fish was our next member home with 7hrs 36mins, which gave him 5th in the M55-59.

But just two minutes behind Grayhame was Anne Fish, whose 7hrs 38mins gained her second place in her category. Unfortunately, like Kate, Anne also missed out from world championship qualification by just one slot.

Last club member to finish was Charlie Stannett. Charlie vaguely collapsed in the transition area between the swim and cycle but after recovering went on to complete the race on tick-over to perfect his Polo distribution technique, albeit in a bum-numbing 8hrs 22mins.

Website for fuller results: http://half.ironmanuk.com - and watch out for the IM70.3 in Antwerp, where we also have a bunch of club members competing. (If you are competing, can you make sure you've contacted Nick Collinson, who has been coordinating our invasion.)

Brian McGeeney

Brian tries the "lean into the corner" approach to swimming...

...while Amanda favours cycling..

...and Maria sensibly opts for the helicopter.

Wattisham triathlon - Saturday 23rd June

The first Wattisham Triathlon turned out to be an event to remember. With forecasts of torrential rain it looked like it was going to be a seriously wet day, and the race briefing was moved indoors after the heavens opened. Fortunately the shower was short, and whilst wet underfoot, the majority of the race missed the heavy rain.

The 300m pool swim was conducted on an under the ropes course, with some high speed swims from Ipswich entrants. We had been warned about the off road bike course in the race briefing, being told the first section would be on loose gravel, and “if it looks like a 90^o turn ahead, it probably is”. As a result there were a number of dismounts featured in the first section, including Mens Captain Steve De Boltz, who managed a full body roll yet remounted to record the fastest bike split of the day. The bike course finished with a section on the runway, where the pace increased significantly.

The run course was again flat, with the final section returning on the runway to cross under a finish tape suspended between 2 military cranes, ending a tunnel  lined with attack helicopters – the most impressive finish line I’ve ever crossed.

Impressive results were achieved by all participants, but particularly Amanda and Maria who won their age groups, and Steve who managed 10^th position overall. In the team event Claire, Buey and Becks just missed breaking the hour time, and both of the girls were virgin triathletes.

Lee is keen to run the event again next year, and has asked participants for their opinion on turning the event into a 400m/20km/5km sprint, with an on road bike course held in April. This could be a great season opener – on possibly the fastest course in the country (you don’t get much flatter than a runway).

Thanks to club members who turned out to support, including Ross, Iain and Julia. Some photos from the event can be found at http://photos.yahoo.com/brian.mcgeeney@btinternet.com in the album labelled 2007- Wattisham Supersprint – Thanks to Mary for bringing a camera.

Wendy Quantrill

...seen here at Ipswich duathlon.

Harwich sprint triathlon - Sunday 24th June

June 24th saw me take part in my first triathlon – the Harwich Sprint.

Bit of background...I’ve been a club runner for three years but have been plagued with shin tendonitis for 18 months (getting excuses in early!) so each pain-free run is a bonus! I was a regular cycling commuter at school and university but had never ridden a road bike until 2006. I love my road bike and my mountain bike has been relegated to towing my four year old daughter’s ‘tag along’.

Swimming… could manage a few lengths of slow breast stroke. Realising I’d need to improve on this I signed up to some one-to-one lessons at Next Gen and managed to learn front crawl and I gradually built up to be able to do 300m non-stop.

On the day…. Felt totally sick with nerves from the minute I woke up. I knew I could do the bike and run but the thought of the swim was bringing me out in a cold sweat.

Arrived in good time, racked up and had my number drawn on my arm (felt like pro at that point). Walking out into the pool area to see about 30 people lined up next to the pool in various lycra/speedo/underwear/tri suit combinations was surreal. Especially as there was an audience in the seats above! The slower swimmers started first which was good – having to watch speedy swimmers would have made me even more nervous.

Eventually it was my turn and I set off and managed front crawl for all 12 lengths. I could see my husband in the next lane as the ‘Ipswich’ on his shorts kept flashing past me. Ducking under the ropes at the end of the lanes was something I wish I’d practised as I was pretty slow at it.

Exiting the pool felt good and it was only a short jog to transition where of course I flapped about where my bike was! Got my stuff together and was only slightly put off by the Stannetts having a giggle over Charlie’s ‘talcing’ by the competitor next to him!

Got on bike and set off. First few minutes were weird – I felt like I’d forgotten something - very odd to be dripping wet on a bike! Bike was fun but windy. One of the highlights was zooming down hill towards roundabout where a lovely policeman had stopped the traffic for us letting us carry on in front of the waiting cars.

Back into transition and pulled socks and trainers on. Headed off across soggy field and thought ‘I can’t do this – it’s too hard’. Once on the concrete of the sea wall I recovered a little and managed to really enjoy the run. I could probably have gone a little quicker but I was just enjoying myself thinking I was about to complete my first triathlon!

Crossed the line in 1:27:30 - which was under my target - with huge smile on my face. We stayed for the hog roast and awards presentation which was really lovely and picked up our certificates from the organisers.

My final times were 300m swim - 7:16, 24k bike - 54:21, 5k run - 25:26 and I was very chuffed to find out later that I was third in my age group and 13th lady out of 38.

Big thank you to Harwich Runners and Swimming Club for great organisation and marshalling – and to Ditte my swimming coach!

Can’t wait to do it all again and am on the waiting list for Waveney 2. Cross your fingers for me!

Ipswich triathlon club members did well at Harwich, which is one of the sprints featured in the ITCH league.
 

2007 EVENT VOLUNTEERING - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT

Culford Triathlon 29 July

Dave Copland has e-mailed all the volunteers on his list. Please confirm with him that you have received his e-mail, and that you are clear when and where you are on duty.  I know that Dave has had to allocate more than one job to some volunteers because, frankly, the event is still currently under-staffed.

Whilst Dave has 15 volunteers for the pre-event set-up,  Dave needs approximately 46 volunteers on race day itself and, at last count, only had half that number.  We know that the authorities are being more stringent about safety issues such as road signs so we needs lots more people to volunteer for the race day duties if this event is to continue to be run successfully. Contact Dave on culford@ipswich-tri.org or 01473-250713 now to offer your help.

Ipswich Junior Triathlon 26 August  - contact Simon Palmer at simon.palmer@talk21.com to volunteer.

Ipswich Duathlon 23 September - possible CANCELLATION - by John Gabriel

In the last issue of ITCH it was reported that we needed many more people to come forward as volunteers for the club organised races in 2007. Since then I have discovered that at least 3 of the people on the volunteers list for the Ipswich Duathlon are also down to race and only 1 other has offered her services as a volunteer.

Put quite simply this race cannot be staged unless we have the required amount of volunteers and we need over 30 to ensure this race takes place. As Race Director I will be reviewing this at regular intervals and if we don't have enough volunteers before the end of August I will suggest to the committee that the event be CANCELLED which will not only rob athletes of a race but also reduce the ability of the club to financially support other club activities.

So the choice is yours, stand up and be counted, volunteer at duathlon@ipswich-tri.org