Transalpine Run – 4 to 11 September – www.transalpine-run.com
 
-        2 Ful-On Tri teams… Alistair & Gavin, Anna & Jaco
-        305km across the Alps – apparently that’s seven and a half marathons
-        13,500m of climbing – one and a half times the height of Everest
-        Eight days on foot… and a whole lot of carbs!
-        We’ll be starting in Germany on Saturday 4 September, travelling through Austria and finishing – we hope! – in Italy on Saturday 11 September
 
Gavin and Anna are raising money and any donations would be very gratefully received and will make a big difference to the three charities
 
Gavin is raising money for the Dave Aitchison SportsAid Fund – assisting up and coming young triathletes in the Triathlon London & SE regions - www.justgiving.com/Gavin-Pape
 
Anna is raising money for St Michael’s Hospice in Basingstoke (they are helping and supporting close family friends dealing with Motor Neurone Disease) – www.justgiving.com/annafrancisrun - and the LATA Foundation which supports projects and charities across Latin America – www.justgiving.com/annaf-run
 
We’ll send some updates and photos from along the way

After nearly a decade of rain free racing the national relays fell foul to classic British summer conditions! 14 ful-on tri teams turned out to do battle across the mixed, female and male teams. As always the day’s racing was fast, furious and fun.

After a wet night under canvass the ladies and the mixed teams were up bright and early starting with a bit of sunshine, the mixed teams were let by team Pears (Jess, Parys, Nick K and Euan) who hammered round to come in 7th overall with team Pomegranates chasing hard and Mangos (with Conan doing leg 2 and 4) in just behind them. Just over a minute behind were the leading ladies team of Gogji berries with Loganberries and Starfruits racing head to head all the way with only a minute apart at the end with team Kumkwats finishing in a torrential downpour to round off a cracking morning’s racing.

So with everyone who raced in the morning showered and enjoying a nice cold beer hiding from the rain the men’s teams set about doing battle in the drizzle (Conan setting about his third set of efforts and Alistair his 2nd!) Team Ugli fruits having overhauled Team Grapes and Donal’s stonking 6th out of the water were in good shape in the top 10 on the bike until Stu Archer fell foul of a puncture half way round the course on his first lap! After making it back to transition pretty swiftly given the lack of air in his tire on a busy wet narrow course his call for a replacement wheel was answered by the legend that is Iain Macleod who having just finished his leg swapped his wheel over and Stu set off like a man possessed to set a impressive time given the delay. The Ugli boys of Matt F, Nick H, Stu A and Simon K eventually fought back to take 16th overall.

The next 5 male teams were separated by less than 10 minutes with Kiwi Fruits, Soursops, Cranberries, Guavas and Grapes all enjoying the wet conditions although the wind easing led to some blistering bike times showing the clubs strength and depth in cycling. I am wary that the above write up does sound a bit like a drunk man describing how to eat a fruit salad.

Then the battle royal of the day, Superheroes v Smurfs v wonder women v Elvis, the real racing at Nottingham is between the fancy dress crews. Opting for the non aero, rain absorbing qualities of full length Elivis costumes (including wig, medallions and chain ring endangering flares); Euan, Stu W, Walt and Andy B set about kicking some fancy dress butt. Although given the weather conditions the suitability of a white Elvis costume if not using a rear mud guard could be questioned, the boys pushed on regardless; Elvis on full time trial bike, with rear disc, papier-mâché aero quiff helmet, cape flying and massive brown stripe less than delicately painted up backside is not something that you will see very often.

With the heavy downpours coming through thick and fast the appetite for sitting outside in the rain drinking and eating pizza was somewhat diminished with only about 20 takers hanging on for an evening. Those who braved the elements enjoyed an evening of damp drizzle, cheesy tunes and watching the annual theft and repatriation of club flags in the darkness. The record for the number of people you can get in Andy and Eleanor’s tent was challenged during one particularly heavy downpour, we now know with some certainty there is no musical taste in the club given the contents of the ipods that set about draining Stu’s car battery and there may have been a little bit of ‘bridging’ work done between FOT and Hillingdon!

Roll on next year where there is chat of racing in full knights amour, star wars (an excuse for Simon to dress as princess Leia we fear) a fearsome vets quartet on the horizon and with a bit of luck some sunshine.

Thanks to all the team captains, Shiv, Simon, Sarah, Sally and Stu for all their help to make it a cracking weekend all round.

Ful-on Tri showed what this club is all about at the weekend as a trip down to the south coast for the Swanage triathlon turned into a convention for 'Drinkers with a triathlon problem'! Unfortunately, the local pub didn't serve pasta, so the usual pre-race meal had to be substituted for pasties accompanied by a large assorted selection of the fine local ales & ciders on offer.
 
Impressively, everyone present not only managed to make it out of bed the following morning for the early race start, but came home with some great results. Top honours go to Jo Perriam (fuelled by Olde Rosie's Cider & Caffeine Gels) for winning her category and third overall female in the sprint race (just 16 second behind the winner), closely followed by Stephanie Robson (3rd in category), Barbera Vintcent & Vicky Hawker. In the classic distance race Pete Doubleday proved that "Grandma's Albatross Ale" works just as well as carb-loading, whilst Matt Honey & Gavin Bradley both improved on previous years times. Meanwhile, past and present social secretaries Tim Briggs & David Gibney both powered their way round the course to demonstrate that you don't have to be teetotal to be a fine triathlete!
 
A great race & top weekend on the south coast was wrapped up with a delicious post-race BBQ courtesy of Matt & Nick Honey and family. A great weekend was had by all!!

Some club news from Copenhagen this weekend too at 'Challenge Copenhagen'.

Highlight result of the day was Jo Hayman coming 2nd in Age Group and 5th overall AG female in her first iroman distance event in 10:39. Alex Hussey achieved a great PB coming in at 10:04.

Mark Hayman came 24th/237 in AG in 10:13 in debut race. Nick Kensington spent over an hour by the side of the road fixing multiple punctures and had to borrow a pump from a farmer. Mark and Jo nearly didn't make it at all as Mark lost his passport and after a search til 3am only found it the next day 5 mins before they needed to leave for the airport!

'Challenge' was certainly right as the heavy rain the night before saw a wet start and very technical bike course with a few crashes. Fortunately the rain cleared up for the rest of the race. Well done all for flying the Ful-on Tri flag abroad.

A small intrepid band made the shlep round the south circular on a grey damp Saturday morning, while the severity of the hangovers varied the intensity of competition was high. With our big rivals all fielding large strong teams this was going to be a tough one!

A massive thanks for Andy Bloham, Matt Ford, Simon Kenyon, Donal Harte, Emma Partridge and Adele Schulz for their turnout and performance.

Andy led the way with an impressive 5th overall with Matt and Simon having a super close race with just a second separating them. Donal blasted the 7th quickest swim of the day and Emma led the girls home with an impressive run on her way back from injury with Adele proving that ironman training does not mean you cannot blast round a short aquathon and have fun.

Jekyll and Hyde Duathlon up next for the mob match and an end of season London League burn out - remember your club needs you! and you, and you and you and na na na...

Sat 7th August saw the annual summer party move venue to the Parsons Green Social Club.  Those arriving at 4pm were treated to nearly 2 hours of rain free summer games. It was the battle of the competitive families out on the sports field with The Rokers, Hanleys, Honeys and Powells giving it their all. Team numbers were made up by some of our keener club members with Conan Gibney, Gavin Bradley, Sarah Watts and others all taking part in the egg and spoon, wheelbarrow and sack race action.

Later in the evening, long after the sun had set and the sports field was suitably boggy, we ventured back outside for the inaugural Ful-on Tri Tug of War competition. 4 teams battled it out. The victorious winning team comprised Tim Briggs, Tarne Bevan, Ceri Ruzzi, George Karolemeas, Alex Little + Paul Brockway. So 3/6 recent IM seemed to be a winning formula! Hopefully they'll be back to defend their crown next year..

A great spread of food and suitably cheesy disco tunes followed. Thanks to the 130 or so members who made it a really fun event. If anyone's got a good pic from the day, drop it to publicity@fulontri.com and we'll pop it up here.

Last weekend a few members mixed it with the likes of Jenson Button, Iwan Thomas and Vernon Kay at the biggest triathlon in the world. Yes, the London Triathlon provided its usual assortment of outstanding atmosphere, massive transition area, lots of racing argy-bargy and dubious course measurements.

Changes to the layout produced long courses compared to the past few years and, with run times for the leaders down by more than 6 minutes vs the Olympic course of 2009, little chance of a PB.  

There were still some notable performances: Tristan Shipsides and team beat the Team GB girls of Cassie Patten (swimmer), Rebecca Romero (cyclist) and Emily Pidgeon (middle distance runner) in the race for a new course record in the sprint relay.

Andy Bloxam took 3rd overall in the Male Sprint in 1:10:55 closely followed by Paul Brockway in 8th in 1:13:34. John Thorpe came home in 2:10 for 9th overall in the Olympic sub 2:30 wave. Strong performances too at the Olympic distance for Jonathan Scott in 2:18 and Mark Joyce in 2:20. Well done to all club members who took part!

With over 10,000 competitors over the weekend, 300+ in each swim start (over 540 in the first wave of the male sprint – a new record apparently), and amazing support along much of the route it is still hard to beat the buzz of being in such a big race.  

Much like a big night out in Central London… it seems like an effort to get there, you know it’s going to be expensive and it’s a pain to get home but, there is buzz of excitement from the moment you arrive and you always end up having a great time… give it a few months and you probably can’t wait to do it again.

The girls represented at the inaugural Ironman Regensburg on August 1.

Fitting all 2,000 athletes in to the tiny Gerbenburger See was a challenge in itself. The field spread out after the first of four lengths of the lake. Only just wetsuit legal, it was like thrashing around in a hot tub, just with out the hotties in bikini's and champers.

The bike course was two 81km laps with 1,500m of climbing before a flat ride back in to UNESCO World Heritage town. The wind picked up as the day progressed making it harder the longer you were out there. 80 marshals kept the racing pretty clean, while spectators lined the route leaving you no time to ease off the pace.

The run was brutal and down right mean. Cursing the organisers, the course went through a kilometer of cobbles in town and then out around a lake on gravel rolling paths, over seven kilometers of it per lap. This was not a fast marathon course.

Tarne Bevan was the super star of the day, not letting in to a foot injury and powering on to finish her first Ironman in a respectable 12.21.24. Nicole Paine toed the line on her 30th birthday yet had an unfortunate injury early on in the run and had to end her day short, unable to put any pressure on her foot. She didn't leave the day empty handed though with a solid swim PB of 1.23.16. Penny Comins finished sixth in F30 age group in 10.48.11, a 50 minute PB and 34th woman overall.

Entries for 2011 are open now. A fantastic event, superb organisation and local support.

Last week several members of the club took on this iconic race in the French Alps - 2.2Km swim in a beautiful turquoise mountain lake, 115km bike ride taking in 3 mountain cols and finishing up the famous 21 switchbacks of Alpe D' Huez, followed by a 22Km run at nearly 2000m altitude around the resort of Alpe D' Huez.  A tough course by anyone's standards! 

First home were Pete Doubleday, Nick Malynn and Nick Kensington all within a few minutes of each other to take 4th, 5th & 6th place in their age group (and the top 3 non-pros from the uk!!), followed by Nick Altmann, Nathan Goss, Mia Barry, Dan Parnwell & Olly Meyer. 

A massive congratulations to all for just completing this gruelling course! It was certainly a tough day, but totally eclipsed by the amazing course and stunning views, and I think everyone there would agree one of the best races ever.

Entries for the Surrey Legs of Steel 2010 event on Saturday 25th September are now open through the following link: ENTER ONLINE. Event details, together with the gold/silver/bronze timing standards for 2010 are posted on the LEGS OF STEEL page. Rider instructions will also be posted here prior to the event and all those entered will receive a reminder email the week before.

All profits from the event will go towards the Dave Aitchison SportsAid Fund to assist talented young triathletes in the Triathlon London region. Last year, the event raised £15,500 for the fund. Donations to the fund can be made through the online entry process. There are currently eighteen athletes receiving Dave Aitchison funding and you can track their progress through this link: Dave Aitchison Fund. We hope to see many of them taking part in this year’s Legs of Steel event, either as riders or as part of our event team.

Event merchandise can be purchased for an early bird discount until 31st August through the following link: Legs of Steel Merchandise.

The current update from Kalas is that our much delayed kit order will arrive on the 5th July. Watch the web site for future updates.
Apologies again to those who are racing before the order arrives.

Not to be missed, the Ful-On Tri Summer Party will take place at Parsons Green Sports and Social club on Saturday 7th August. There will be activities through the afternoon and families are welcome. More details to follow in due course.

So four intrepid teams set out on a perfect summers evening for the fast-paced mayhem that is the parkland relays - up against real runners, that run properly it is a tough 5km hilly off road loop and cracking fun.

The girls led the way coming in 6th overall, first tri club home beating Thames Turbo by a clear minute, CJ, Holly and Leisl all taking a relaxed approach to tapering for their half IM distance race at the weekend by giving it some real effort on the run.

The boys leading team of Stu A, Barney, Matt F and Simon K came in 7th, again the first tri club home beating Thames Turbo in a rather exciting finish by 11 seconds! Get in!!!

Rich P, Tris T, Iain Mc and Phil L hammered round to a very respectable 16th place and after some last minute team shenanagans; Mark B, Andy B, Martin S, and Issie A beat a shed load of male only teams and would have nailed it had their been a mixed category - nice work!

Then a couple of pints as the sun set over the commen rounded off a cracking evening. Bring on Nottingham!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but our kit order from Kalas has been delayed and will very annoyingly not be available for those hoping to wear it at some of the forth coming events.

The delivery date is now at the beginning of July. Your kit officer and club committee are looking at future kit options to prevent us being let down like this again in the future.

Zone3 (www.RaceZone3.com) will be coming to our Thursday night swim session on 20th May (this Thursday) to let every body try out their new range of wetsuits and tri-suits. You can be professionally fitted and also take the suits for a swim! They will be in reception from around 7pm so its a great opportunity to try the products in the pool rather than just buying online. Ful On Tri members will also get some free training or racing accessories with any purchase.

A massive congratulations to Parys Edwards on her Gold medal age group win at the ETU Duathlon Championships this weekend in Nancy, France. Parys was 4th female home overall, and scored a PB time of 2:02:37.

Well done to all competitors and volunteers at the Ful-On Duathlon on 18th April. The event saw over 200 athletes competing in the stunning new venue of Kempton Park. A narrow, technical bike course provided challenges for both marshals and competitors, and thankfully proved fairly incident-free. Sadly some race-head navigation from the lead runners in the second wave meant that 34 of our fastest females and vets took a short cut and had to be disqualified, playing havoc with the London League results. That said, overall feedback has been very positive and a much improved bike course could feature next year along with improved signage on the run course.

Ful-On Tri's Tristan Shipsides came home first in a time of 1:02:58. Full race results can be found on the Ful-On Duathlon page.

The event was supported by 40 volunteers from within the club who helped over two days. Without all these volunteers, our events don’t happen – so a huge thank you to all the volunteer team who have rightly earned themselves VIP points. A special thanks to all our event sponsors too, without whom the goody bags and prizes wouldn’t have been possible: Prologue Bikes, Infinit Nutrition, Swim for Tri, Vacherin, Physio4Life, Kalas, Tri Girl, Island Records and Eat Natural.

Photographs from the event can be found here: www.philoconnor.com

We would like to warmly congratulate Fulontri members Tim Briggs and Katrina Macfarlane on their marriage on 9thApril.  Our  former social secretary “Briggsy” - best known for his elite Windsor swim and  catchphrase “get back in your box chocolate” finally got to do the deal with his beautiful bride Katrina.  We wish both Tim and Kat many years of happiness and a wonderful future together.

The race season is now officially upon us and kicked off with the first London league race of the year; the early season benchmark race that is the Thames Turbo Sprint triathlon. With the weather being kind for the time of year. Tim Lewis led the way blasting out the 4th quickest bike of the day to come in 9th overall in 1:01:25, Matt Ford chasing him down in desperation with the 7th quickest run of the day run came in 13th  at 1:01:47 and Uli (roads look too rough for a disc) Kraeling laid down the 7th quickest bike of the day to come in 16th 1:04:05, Andy Brewer 46th, Andy Bloxam 56th and Ed Baker 101st all had a strong start to their race seasons.

Sarah Gailey led the way for the ladies with the 2nd fastest swim of 110 ladies and 4th fastest run, placing her 5th lady overall and winner of her age group in 1:09:44 (Well done!).  Eleanor Resheph followed in 1:14 and Tamsin Booth, despite starting at the back and her complaints of no one to chase, still managed to post the 6th fastest bike and 4th fastest run of her age group, finishing 8th out of the female vets. 

A big thanks to everyone that turned out on a grey morning to enjoy a great race hosted by our favourite rivals Thames Turbo, although we were outnumbered by three running clubs and a couple of the smaller tri clubs!! In a triathlon!! Get those race dates in your diary, there are a few teams that fancy themselves as London League contenders, we need strength in numbers to defeat them!

Lets attack the Dragonslayer next, which is followed swiftly by home turf at the Ful-on Duathlon next – let’s make sure we put on a great race with our usual cheer from our many volunteers and those competing to show no mercy on the race course!

By way of concluding the successful core strength and conditioning series of lectures we have arranged a talk from professional triathlete Rachel Joyce on Monday 12th April at 8:30pm at Parsons Green Club, SW6 3DP

This talk is free and open to all members and will be an interesting insight into the life, tips, highs and lows of a pro racer. Apologies for late notice but she is only back in the country for a few weeks due to an injury.

Rachel was 6th at Kona last year and more details on her are available at www.racheljoyce.org

Hope you can make it.

Congratulations to Parys Edwards who trekked all the way to Stirling for the world duathlon championships qualifier.

“The 10k run involved 4 laps with a nasty hill called 'the beast' which seemed a relatively small animal on the first few laps, but was a monster of gigantic proportion by last lap. The bike was so windy it was all I could do to stay upright on my little aero wheels, and with jelly legs I started the 5k run to face the dreaded beast twice more. A slower time of 2:08:31 for me, but hard earned!“

Still the journey was worthwhile as third place behind Catriona Morrison and Gillian Palmer (former Commonwealth games 5 & 10k runner) has earned Parys a return trip to Scotland for the World Championships in Edinburgh at the beginning of September.

Well, it's come and gone.  The kit window is now closed, so if you missed it then it's looking distinctly like you'll have to wait until the next one comes round (probably September-ish).  Please do not submit any more orders as they won't be included.

For those that have made the cut, please make payments to the club account (Sort code 40-02-35, account number 91424068, with your name as reference), and if you're not sure whether your order has got through, I will email everyone by end of Sunday to let you know.  If you haven't got an email by end of monday (remember to check your spam folders) then it's not on the order.  Will also post a list of all those who've ordered on the kit area in the forum.

Happy racing guys, I'm off to ride my bike!

Club Membership is now at capacity - unfortunately we won't be accepting any new members until further notice. 

• Kerrie Trembling turning up 10minutes late to the first match – she not only took part regardless, but also managed to catch up with the back of the pack!
• Rupert Biggins’ outrageous neon cross country short shorts and Laura Fulton’s Santa hat at the Christmas race
• Wine-tasting at Denbies Vineyard and the superb turnout from the girls and boys regardless of a little wind, rain and sleet
• Tea and cake at Fanny’s Farm shop, and all other cake and post race treats throughout the season: Sarah’s improvised Date and Walnut cake (without dates or walnuts), Vicki’s out of the freezer banana cake and Simon’s jet-boiled mulled wine.

We are pleased to be able to announce the commencement of a new 12 week course covering injury prevention and conditioning for the triathlete running on Monday evenings at 8pm at the Parson's Green Club, Broomhouse Lane, Fulham, SW6 3DP. The first week is Monday 15th Feb. We'll decide nearer the time whether it will run on the bank holidays. Two sessions will also be at different locations.
The course is free and open to all club members. It is a sequential course and so the most benefit will be obtained by attending as many sessions as possible. As places will be limited due to space to about 20 people and there has been a lot of positive respose to the course, we will see after the first session if any prior sign up will be required.

The course is 50% theory and 50% practice (30min/30min) for each session. It is aimed triathletes at all levels wishing to reduce the injury and maximise performance. As a consequence the course has been written from a physiotherapists and strength and conditioning perspective. The presenters are Caroline Jubb MSc BSc (Hons) Senior Physiotherapist and Neil Welsh, an experienced strength and conditioning coach.

Please bring an exercise mat with you if you have one, if not the turbo mats will be available but may need a clean first. Sports kit and towel also required

Please see post under Messages from Committee and Coaches/General Updates for course details.

Congratulations to our esteemed secretary Mark Hayman and wife Jo MacInnes Hayman, who battled the weather and an enforced change of venue with a day's notice to get married in Oxford a week ago. As if that wasn't enough, their honeymoon featured the South African half Ironman yesterday morning. Reports coming in show that the race was hilly, windy and hot but that didn't slow Mark or Jo (competing in her first half Ironman) enough to prevent both of them marking their names on this year's Clearwater qualifiers list. Congratulations!!!

The Turbo session has been cancelled tonight. Please check the forum for updates on a Turbo session Saturday morning.

Penny Commins and Nick Kensington recently conquered Ironman Cozumel - Mexico.

You can read Penny's report, and see some photos here:

http://www.ballofdirt.com/entries/21330/291726.html

Well done guys!

There was a universal groan heard across south London on Saturday 14th November, as the FOT cross-country ladies looked out of their windows and saw the rain and the trees bent over in the wind.  However, team spirit, determination or simple madness got 16 of us to Denbies in Dorking (or maybe it was the thought of the post race wine tasting that did the trick).  Despite a respite in the weather just before the start, the race round the vineyards was conducted in howling wind and driving rain - but everyone said they had fun!  There was delicious cake from Siobhan as we warmed up in the cafe after and 8 of us stayed on to sample some of the vineyard's produce & then cheered on the FOT men - by which time the rain had stopped! 
 
Many thanks to all the cross country legends for turning out on such a day: Ellen Pooley, Kerrie Trembling, Isobel Anderson, Liesl Parker, Penny Comins, Vicky Grimshaw, Jill Walsh, Holly Barker, Joanna Gapper, Gemma Hougton, Julia Howe, Mary Cockburn, Amy Waldron, Siobhan Brownlow and Sarah Watts.
 
Photos of the day are available here: http://www.simonhartphotography.co.uk/gallery_288700.html and results to will be on the XC page shortly.

Congratulations to Parys Edwards for winning British Triathlon Female Age Group Triathlete of the Year 2009. Four Members of Ful-On Tri attended the British Triathlon Federation awards ceremony on Saturday evening held in the East Midlands. Having completed a mucky and windy cross country in the early afternoon Euan, Simon and Conan were whisked away by Parys on a 2.5hr road trip up to Loughborough.

After a quick scrub down/scraping off of mud in the hotel and polishing up with dinner jackets/kilts and fine evening wear, we were ready to go. After dinner and coffees Parys was first up to collect her award and was clearly chuffed to bits and rightly so. We were next up to receive the British Triathlon Club of the Year 2009 award – keep your eyes peeled for a special feature in the March edition of TriNews. The evening ended up with James Cracknell as guest speaker sharing his experiences both as rower and now explorer – some entertaining little stories. We managed to rub shoulders with some of the up and coming stars of the elite triathlon scene and get a few photos (we thought one with James Cracknell would be most appealing for all the women!)

Once again congratulations to Parys for a magnificent achievement. Secondly a big thanks to all members past and present who over the past seven years have helped get the club to where it is today and make it the lovely club that we all enjoy being a part of.
Conan, Ful-On Tri Chairman.

Yes, that's right, Ful-On Tri have fought off the national competition to be crowned with the Leigh Day & Co British Triathlon Club of the Year Award 2009 by the British Triathlon Federation.

A significant achievement, the national title is awarded each year to the triathlon club to have shown a consistent commitment through the year to developing athletes, volunteers, coaches and officials. The award also recognises clubs who show an inclusive participation ethos, reducing barriers and fostering athletes to achieve their best with high quality coaching provided to all. The prize will be formally awarded at the BTF National Awards Evening on 14th November.

Conan Gibney, FOT Committee Chairman said: "A big thanks to everyone in the club - volunteers, coaches, competitors and supporters at races - who frequently give their time, energy and commitment to make the club successful, and to Simon Kenyon for putting together the submission. This is a fantastic achievement which would not have been possible without the club members who over the years have helped us to get where we are today."

Let's celebrate! DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:
November Social - Thursday 5th November.
Christmas Dinner - Saturday 12th December.

Training camp runs from Thursday 4th March - Wednesday 10th March 2010. It's a perfect opportunity to get yourself ready to achieve your 2010 season goals whilst enjoying the fantastic climate of Lanzarote. Club La Santa is a world class sports centre at the north end of the island, away from the hoards of tourists. Structed training is provided by highly experienced coach Richard Hobson. There are a very small number of training camp places left, please contact Sandy immediately to take advantage of this and book yourself a place today.

For further information see the training camp page.

29 Ful-On Tri members gave Thames Turbo a run for their money in the final race of the 2009 London League at the Jekyll and Hyde Park Duathlon on Saturday. Sadly, we narrowly missed out the first place in the League this year, but that didn’t stop us enjoying the race and some sterling performances we put in. Andrew Clare was first in for Ful-on with a time of 1:16:09 (8^th overall) across the 4.2K run, 20.8K cycle and 7.6K run. Others racing were Barney Randle, PJ Thibault, Richard Staite, Joe Turner, Conan Gibey, Phil Roker, Uli Kraeling, James Aldous, Alistair Duvoisin, Mark Hayman, Rich Pigott, David Gibney, Anne Hegvold, Sandy Sehmi, Caroline Jubb, Jo Perriam, Walter Rothon, Anna McNuff, Stephen Boyd, Holly Barker, Mark Curtis, Penny Comins, Jo MacInnes, Karen Triegaardt, Eleanor Doody, Lucy Deakin, Sophia Warner, and Julia Howe. Well done all!

Keep an eye on the London League pages for announcements of the 2010 events. Those looking for more club team races to compete in this winter, check out the cross-country pages.

A sunny Saturday afternoon greeted the first race of the Surrey Cross Country League and our maiden outing in the dizzy heights of division 2 for the boys. After some minor logistical shenanigans; locating race numbers, safety pins, handing the entry sheet in with less than 1 minute before the race started to make sure we had 10 runners to score! (Nice work from Rupert, running straight from the car park straight into the race!) and the cake not being with us.

Tom Robinson blazed the trail for FOT with a blistering run to take 5th place over all with some strong running from the rest of the team that turned out, Jon Barks coming in second of the FOT runners and the remainder of the team enjoying some close competition mid pack. The tight and hilly course definitely got rid of a few hangovers and blew some cobwebs away.

We are currently 6th out of 9 teams and things are pretty close, so a big turn out required for the next race.

Over to a slightly muddy Reigate for the girls who were racing in division 1 in the league on Saturday too. An impressive 14 hardy girls turned out for the challenging course. Not daunted by stiff competition from the 'proper' running clubs, our A team of Anna Francis, Jo Perriam, Penny Comins, Vicki Grimshaw and Ceri Ruzzi powered the girls home to our first step on the division 1 ladder (13th place of 15 clubs).    
 
Special mention to Kerrie Trembling, who despite turning up 10min late, still took part and bolted round the course, to Vicki Grimshaw for the yummy banana cake and to Fanny's Farm shop for some more post-race treats!
 
BOTH male and female teams will be racing at the same venue – Denbies, Dorking (nr Box Hill) - on 14 November, with the girls scheduling in a post-race wine-tour to get their cheering voices ready for the boys who race slightly later in the day. See the Cross Country page for more details when announced.

Congratulations to Nick Kensington for an awesome race at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii on the weekend.

In his 4th Ironman for the year, Nick finished in 10hrs 3mins 29secs in a race that he described as one of the hardest races he has ever done.

Congratulations on a brilliant result Nick!

Ful-on Tri's very own Tristan Shipsides has decided it’s time to go and play with the big boys and girls and enter the world of elite triathlon. In January he leaves the UK to train in South Africa, America and Australia with the likes of Tim Don, Will Clarke and Chrissie Wellington.

To celebrate and to try and raise some funds to support himself over the coming year he's having a massive leaving do on Saturday 28th November at GJ’s Pub in Wandsworth from 7pm until 2am - http://www.gj-s.com

Tickets are available from Tristan for £15 and include entry, a hog roast dinner and dancing until late. It's a fancy dress affair with a theme of "Sporting Heroes", with prizes for the best male and female costume. There's also a raffle with some cool sporting and triathlon-related prizes!

Contact Tristan direct at tristanshipsides@googlemail.com to book your ticket.

The Men's and Women's Surrey League Cross Country kicks off next weekend. The girls are racing in Reigate while the boys are down in Esher. Details are on the Cross Country page - check the Club Team Races section of the discussion forum too.

There's no need to enter in advance, and nothing to pay, so you can just turn up and race - however we need to make sure we have commitment from enough people to field full strength team, so please email Matt Ford or Eleanor Resheph to let them know you're coming. Lifts and rides to and from the venues will be coordinated later in the week.

Get involved!

Around 75 members attended the Club's sixth AGM last night at Parsons Green Sports & Social Club, either lured by the chance to order new club kit, or the promise of free food! The new venue proved a big hit, as did Conan's speech which lasted an impressive 50 minutes. Not to be outdone by the Chairman, our Treasurer Sandy bribed interest in the numbers with a promise of sweeties to the person who spotted 3 lies within his delivery (Euan Lees). A round up of the membership figures was presented by Sarah, and then with just one contested post, the new committee members were duly elected:

Chairman - Conan Gibney; Vice Chairman - Euan Lees; Club Secretary – Mark Hayman; Treasurer - Sandy Sehmi; Head Coach/Welfare Officer - Alan Hanley; Membership Secretary – Sarah Watts; Social Secretary – David Gibney; Fixtures Secretary – Dominic Guinness; Communications Officer – James Aldous; Webmaster - Nathan Goss; Club Kit Officer – Antony Brailsford; Team Captain: Matt Ford; and, Event Director: Siobhan Brownlow.

The evening was rounded off with drinks and sandwiches in the bar. The Chairman's report on the year's activities has now been posted on the website. Many thanks to all who attended.

Congratulations to all those that took part in Saturday's third running of the Surrey Legs of Steel event at Box Hill. The beautiful sunshine made for near perfect conditions, with around 460 riders tackling this challenging circuit of the Surrey Hills. The event is held to commemorate the life of Dave Aitchison and raise money for the Dave Aitchison SportsAid Fund set up in Dave's name to assist talented young triathletes in the Triathlon London and South East regions.

There are currently eight athletes receiving Dave Aitchison funding, and it was great to see four of them involved at the event: 13-year old Lewis Hawkins; 14-year old Armanni Antoine-Chagar; 17-year old Matt Myers; and 18-year old Lucy Chittenden. Early indications show that this year's ride has raised over £12,000 for the fund, with an additional £3,000 in donations!

Provisional results for the Surrey Legs of Steel: Dave Aitchison Challenge Ride 2009 are now available by clicking the following links. Please email event@fulontri.com if you spot any errors:

Results (short route)

Results (long route)

Many thanks to all the marshals and volunteers from the Club and Dave's family for making this such a successful event. We'd also like to thank our event sponsors: Prologue Bikes, Infinit Nutrition and Incrediprint.com for their generous support of our event.

Photographs from the event can be downloaded through this link: Legs of Steel photos, and you can buy your Legs of Steel merchandising on display at the event - t-shirts, technical tees, and mugs - through Incrediprint.com to raise even more money for the fund. Plus check out our press coverage on Tri247.com and the Triathlon London website.

Clear skies and beautiful sunshine greeted six of us racing last Sunday. Gold Coast? No, a last gasp of British summer at Bala in North Wales. With money attracting the junior pros and European qualifying slots for the age-group athletes it was a very strong field, bundled into large waves of 200-300. After the predictable bunfight in the water, we headed onto an undulating bike course set picturesquely beside the lake. Here Parys was able to put her LEJOG training to great use, posting a 1:02:35 bike split that must have been the envy of many of the guys. A flatter-than-the-old-Bala run course allowed us to finish off a hard day without too much more pain; Nik and Euan chased each other to the finish, ending up only 15 seconds apart.

Parys picked up 4th overall and a bit of a pay-day; Parys, Nik and Euan all qualified for the Euros in Ireland. We also met a man who can talk to insects. Thanks to Patrick and Paul for the banter and Ceri for organising and playing Mum!