By Pete Doubleday on 04/09/2011 15:02

I took part in the adidas TERREX Coast to Coast race over the August Bank holiday weekend. It’s a four day multi-sport stage race across some of the most spectacular mountain country of northern England and a great race for anyone looking for something a bit different. It begins in Whitehaven with a 12km sea kayak to St Bees, the traditional starting point of the walker’s coast to coast route. From here, competitors hurtle on bikes along a disused and paved railway line into the heart of the Lake District where they then kayak the length of lakes Buttermere and Crummock, run 15km over some mountains to the shores of lake Derwent and then swim the 400m across to Keswick. Coming out of the swim the cramp was impressively painful!

Competitors either stay locally or camp in a field. Day two begins with an 8km cycle to lake Thirlmere where another kayak stage awaits. It’s then a steep...

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By Gemma Houghton on 07/06/2011 08:17

 

I’ve been in Australia over a year now, so when I heard they were running a long-course triathlon event in Cairns, I was leaping at the opportunity to enter (although note, I was not leaping anywhere 2 days after the race....more like a hobble).  So here is my race report…..

Not quite brave enough to take on the full ironman (yet), I opted to enter the half ironman course. It was the first year for this event, so I didn’t know what to expect.  There was a map of the ride elevation etc on the website but I never understand these things, so I was going in blind.  A friend of mine had mentioned something about tough headwinds in Cairns but that was about the limit of my knowledge of what the race might be like.  I just knew that the race was near the beach and it would take me away from winter in Sydney for a weekend. 



Arriving in Yorkey’s Knob (yes this really is the name of the town the race starts from), I wasn’t quite prepared for the Cairns wildlife warning signs.  Now not only did I have the nerves associated with doing a half-ironman, but I also faced the possibility of a box jelly-fish, crocodile or shark attack. Great! Well, if that wasn’t going to get me swimming quicker, I don’t know what would. 

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By James Deane on 06/06/2011 09:45

The Comrades Marathon is a 55mile point to point ultra marathon run between Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa with the start and finish alternating each year.  As Durban is based on the coast and Pietermaritzburg is at 600m altitude inland the alternating runs are referred to as the Up and Down run.  2011 was an Up run and 2012 will be a down run.  Opinion varies as to which is the easier/faster/better direction to do as the the downhill sections on the down run over the distances involved conspire to be as damaging as  the up sections.  But there's only one way to really find out, do both yourself. 



The race has a long and legendary history with the 1st edition being run in 1921 in commemoration to the comrades that fell during the 1st World War and has been run every year since excluding the WWII years with 2011 constituting the 86th edition.  This is no backwater run.  2011's entry list ran to 19,000 and race day coverage runs from 5am to 6pm on the national TV station.  The Comrades...

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By James Deane on 16/05/2011 13:40

The 2 Oceans it is not!  The 2 Bays or the 2 Currents but not the 2 Oceans.  Cape Town is surrounded on both sides by the Atlantic Ocean.  The Indian Ocean in fact meets the Atlantic some 250km further south at the tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas. A commonly held misconception, even by the locals as demonstrated in the naming of arguably the most beautiful, interesting and challenging marathons around. 

 

Cape Town, Bon Esperance,  The Cape of Good Hope, The Cape of Storms or the Mother city to the locals and home to the mother of all marathons; The 2 Oceans Ultra Marathon at 56km is more than a marathon. A marathon and a third, exactly, to be precise. But it's even more than that. Founded in 1970 as a training race for the Comrades Ultra Marathon and now with 42 editions firmly under the belt it's older than any of the European big city marathons and the organisation of the event, like it's route, is breath takingly good.  The race is held on the Saturday morning on the Easter weekend each...

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By Nick Altmann on 09/03/2011 11:20

On a very cold morning three Ful-on Tri members took on the not inconsiderable physical and mental challenge of the Ballbuster duathlon.  The race consists of five loops of a circuit round Boxhill that culminates with the climb up Zig-Zag Hill, the first and last loop are on foot, the middle three under pedal power. I hoped to build on my somewhat inauspicious results in the event to that point: DNF (did not finish) and DNS (did not start).  The pre-race build-up consisted of Nick Malynn and me relentlessly talking up the other's chances in an effort to relieve any pressure on ourselves, and Freddie Leatham waking up in a cold sweat at the thought of running up the final hill.  I had made the decision beforehand to play to my running strength and go with the pace on the first lap if it seemed reasonable.  This turned out to be a bit of an error, I got into a pack of about half a dozen going down the hill and the whole group got dragged along by the strongest runner at a pace that was a bit too quick.  My legs...

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By Pete Doubleday on 01/02/2011 20:59

"The Best Triathlon in the World Ever!" - I know that's a bold claim, but if you're looking for a race that provides a proper tough challenge round the most scenic course with absolutely stunning views, great support from the crowd, and above all, a huge sense of achievement, then it's very hard to beat.

I'd wanted to do this race since I first heard about it a few years ago, and when I discovered a small group of Ful-on triathletes were heading to the Alps for this race I wasn't going to miss out. As a bonus, being a mid-week race it seemed only reasonable to turn the trip into a weeks holiday in the mountains, so Nathan Goss, Nick Kensington, Mia Barry, Nick Malynn, Nick Altman & myself loaded the cars with bikes, wetsuits, lycra, running shoes & a ton of sports nutrition products and headed to France to take...

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By euanlees on 09 June 2009 19:15

Not exactly a race report, but as our thoughts turn to Windsor, this was something discussed on a recent bike ride. I thought you might like the picture. Windsor 1998 was my first olympic-distance race and first open-water triathlon. I had, as you can see, only some of the gear and about the same amount of idea. These were the days before aero helmets and aero drinking systems. Tri bars and clipless pedals were quite common but too advanced for me. Oakleys were the height of tri fashion and designed to cover half of your entire head. Most importantly, Speedo were still making tri gear, much of it day-glo, and for a retired swimmer the obvious kit choice was to stick on a vest which matched your skimpy trunks. All I can remember about the race was that I hated the swim, and have never been so happy to stop doing something I was supposed to be good at and start doing something I wasn't....

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By Stuart Anderson on 28/05/2009 17:43

The motto says it all. "Normal limits do not apply." and Its billed as "The toughest Ironman in the World". It's hard to say what makes the Ironman Lanzarote course so tough. There's heat, high winds, and a challenging bike course that winds its way up and down two mountains. A swim is a swim, and the 2-loop ocean swim is a great way to start the long day. The bike course is where things get really tough for roughly 1300 competitors. By the time all is said and done, we will have climbed more than 2,600 meters (that's 9,000 feet!). Oh, lest we forget, there is still the run. The out-and-back run course is relatively flat. What makes it so tough are the winds, and the heat ... and the fact that it's a marathon

I had a great race with everything more or less going to plan. We had typical Lanzarote weather with a head wind from Yaiza all the way to Mirador del Rio; we even had 10 mins of rain!!!

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By Greg Keers on 01/10/2008

I am a bit of a Tour de France fan and so wanted to have cycled all the famous cols to experience it for myself. Not wanting to take years over it I looked into doing all the Alpine cols in as few days as possible. What I found out was that there route called La Route des Grandes Alpes which is promoted by the french tourist board: http://www.grande-traversee-alpes.com/je-voyage/par-la-route/la-route-des-grandes-alpes.html

It is recommended as an 8 day route and misses a couple of TdF classics like the Col de Joux Plane where Lance Armstrong was in all sorts of trouble in 2000. There is a complication in that the climbs of Alpe d'Huez and Col de la Croix de Fer are stuck out on a loop in the West so I decided to save those for another time. The standard route also missed the Col de la Bonette which was on the 2008 tour and as the highest road in Europe really had to be done.

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By caelim on 18/09/2008 18:28

Start/Finish in the village of Pauillac near Bordeaux.

Le Marathon du Medoc is not your average marathon. It’s a test of stamina both on road and through various vineyards. It’s a test of your sartorial elegance and chance to compete against some of the best disguises France has to offer. It’s an endurance event offering you the opportunity to taste 22 different wines, mixed with a little food. And it needs to be done inside 6h30m.

It’s not a race for breaking any PBs.

Team South Africa…James Deane, Karen Triegaardt and, myself along with a few adopted (honorary?) Africans..Christine Chambers and the Phillis’s, Tim and Shannon, left the UK feeling pretty smug. The weather for London that weekend was going to be filthy, and as everyone knows, the sun always shines in France and the wine flows.

Wrong. We landed in the rain.

For the unaware, the Le Marathon starts and finishes in the village of Pauillac, about 50km north of Bordeaux. The heart of the Medoc fine wine producing region....

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