By admin on 12/11/2005

Normally for me waking up at 5am on Saturday morning means that you are in for a bit if a treat - an early flight to somewhere sunny, Christmas presents, and, er, other stuff. Last Saturday (12th November) though was a different kind of treat. I was generally looking forward to the Ballbuster, despite a nominal 'taper' week which I used as an excuse to go out drinking virtually every night. However, reading the race information sheet the night before I saw that it said that "in the event of bad weather the event will become a 16 mile running race around Box Hill". Sounded a bit tough that.

On the day though the weather was good, almost perfect, no wind, sunny, cool. After a bit of do I/ don't I on the tights front (didn’t), me and a number of other resplendent Ful-On'ers, (with Yannick sporting what appeared to be a pair of ski gloves!), lined up at the start. After a bit of ribbing with some friends of mine over their 'interesting' clothing solutions (my favourite here was a tri suit, with nothing underneath,...

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By admin on 30/10/2005

The Marseille to Cassis half marathon takes you from sea level and the Marseille Velodrome, through spectacular and rugged limestone scenery, up to 327m and the Col de la Gineste and then back down again to sea level in the town of Cassis. It is quite a big race on the French calendar with 12,000 runners taking part. Knowing it would be quite tough, I did my best to seek out hills for training in London, mainly Richmond Park, Crystal Palace and Streatham. None quite matched what was ahead but it was the best I could do! We drove the course on the Saturday, to see the climb for ourselves - needless to say that did nothing to allay my fears. My race strategy was start gently (nothing new there then) and really to pace myself as best as I could all the way to the half way mark. The first few kms were described as "faux plat" (false flat!), there is nothing flat about the 1st half of the race, it starts on a gentle climb and gets progressively steeper as you hit the 7k mark. From 7k to the 10.3k marker is the famous...

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By admin on 29/10/2005

Getting to a race at 7am is never an exciting prospect, let alone at the end of October, but those racing yesterday were greeted with a resplendent Hyde Park bathed in autumn sunshine and an unseasonably warm start to the day. The weather was on our side and after being given a pair of Y-fronts instead of the usual free T-shirt, we also knew it was going to be good fun - especially when given a preview of Christine's Halloween fancy dress outfit. Was she a witch or a fairy? Either way, it was scary. At 8am we lined up; a mix of lycra, witches, skeletons and mummy's, and were given our starting orders.....and then were off for a 7.5k run, or 2 laps around the Serpentine lake. The pace started off fast, almost too fast to enjoy the beautiful surrounding lake, park and slightly mad pigeon woman who seemed to do her best to block our way by feeding the fat little things. A gazelle from Tri London was leading the pack, but Ful-on were holding on close behind.

With the heart rates racing, we shot into T1 and...

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By admin on 22/10/2005

I'm sure I was never this competitive before I started doing triathlon. What started with a quiet social drink turned into a 7 hour drink off which left me with the mother of all hangovers at work and a vague recollection of a squash competition being arranged. Whilst arranging this competition it transpired that two of the original drinking group (myself and Dave Vaughan) were unavailable to play as we'd entered HellRunner, Jo Perriam and Tony Green the other two drinking partners agreed to enter and thus began a new bet who could most accurately predict their finish time. HellRunner is billed as an adventure race consisting of between 10-12miles of cross country running they don't tell you the exact distance and there are no distance markers. It starts at a sensible and social 11am which was handy given that as it was Tim and Shannon's engagement party the night before it was inevitable that Dave would be having a few drinks, I turned up to collect him at 9am to find him barely dressed, barely conscious and...

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By admin on 01/10/2005

With promises of hills a-plenty and over 3200m of climbing in 140 gruelling kilometres, 13 Club members headed off to Welsh Wales to test our mettle in the Autumn Epic ride and prove that London cyclists aren't soft. The race was new on the UK cyclo sportive circuit, and the event centre was based in the small town of Knighton. A small group of us decided to arrive early to make the most of the Welsh Wales countryside and go for a nice walk along Offas Dyke. The influx of more arrivals proved too exciting for most, so an early "Epic" was started at the pub (I snuck off for a sneaky afternoon kip). Needless to say the drinking wasn't the best prep for the race, but proved a lot of fun. The chat about who was going to be dropping whom on the ride the next day, a strong feature with Tony Green and Alan Hanley. Riders were allowed to start on Sunday morning between 8am and 9am, and because of electronic timing chips on our wrists, our times would be taken as we left, and at the various checkpoints along the way....

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By admin on 03/09/2005

The alarm went off at 4:45 and as Jo and I looked at each other, the nervous giggles started. We went out onto our spectacular balcony which overlooked the harbour to check the weather conditions... nope, no chance of a freak storm forcing them to cancel the race. Breakfast was a sombre event with the main discussion revolving around how we could manage to take on as much fluid as we would need without having to stop for a comfort break every 30 mins. "Dropping the kids off at the pool" and "making space" all new expressions we used as the nerves built up. You gotta love triathlon... all social graces and boundaries go out the window! We thought we'd be the only people in wetsuits but turns out these ironmen aren't as hard as they appear because most had them on. The start consisted of all 1,100 competitors starting on the beach together en masse and charging 300m to the first buoy. There were scuba divers underneath us clapping us on and taking action photos which was an interesting spot for spectators to choose....

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By admin on 03/09/2005

They came, they raced and they looted the prizes! Ful-On Tri picked up seven prizes: Conan Gibney 2nd in age group; Emily Reynolds 4th lady and 3rd in age group; Elizabeth Fernando 5th lady and age group winner; Siobhan Brownlow age group winner; Heidi Page 2nd in age group; Katrina Crosse 2nd in age group - with 15 people in all competing. The weekend started in Dublin on Friday evening, with those of us staying at Trinity College in the centre of town heading to a great little Italian serving up quality food at a fair price (makes the place sound like Waitrose!). After getting all carb'd up we headed back to our rooms and went through the usual ritual of building bikes and preparing for the early start. For some this was the moment of truth, with David realising he'd forgotten his cycle shoes and various others fixing punctures late in the evening! Saturday morning started with a 20 minute cycle to the race venue from the centre of town, where we registered, got body marked and collected the world's most enormous...

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By admin on 27/08/2005

From London to Paris by plane is a hop, by train is an excursion, by car is a trip but to do it in triathlon format, well there now, is an event. More specifically, it is the EnduroChallenge. This event is more traditionally referred to as the (Marble) Arch to Arc (de Triomphe) which involves running 90 miles from Marble Arch to Dover, swimming the 21 miles to Calais and cycling the remaining 180 miles from Calais to Paris. The event has been attempted and completed in various formats but the defining point of all journeys has centred around the swimming of the Channel.

To wetsuit or not to wetsuit? In order for a Cross Channel swim to be recognised by the Channel Swimming & Pilots Federation (CS&PF) the athlete needs to comply with their rules which specifically stipulate that only a swimming costume and swimming cap may be worn by the swimmer. Hundreds of solo and relay crossings have been completed in accordance with these rules. However, they arrive in Dover by car, not on foot! After many attempts...

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By admin on 20/08/2005

So what did happen on the 21st September 2005 in Sherbourne? After a pasta breakfast at 2am, I left at 4am for the 6am race start. However, a 2 hour delay meant the race finally started at 8am when the sun had burned off the fog, and after a false start where canoeists had to chase down the elite athletes and bring them back! Exiting the water in 1hr 13mins, I was ahead of schedule and with the shoulder in place it was on to the bike. The bike course was in no uncertain terms the most testing section as you tried to eat as many energy bars as you could hold down, drink 2 bottles of water every 12 miles, keep the sodium levels up by topping up your drink bottles with powder. After cycling the 180km in 6hrs 5mins, I pulled in for the warm down run... Flat it was not and the lactic levels were rising.

Lathered in suncream and sun cap only the marathon to go. Here I took my time over the first 8 miles trying to avoid my nemesis in the dredged stitch. Then with confidence restored I pushed the heart rate up...

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By admin on 20/08/2005

The word 'Ironman' has resonance at a lot of different levels. It is the ultimate in marketing hype. So much so that despite that awareness, a body screaming for no more, and a course wholly unsuited to me, there really would have been no decision to make had I been offered that coveted slot for Hawaii in 7 weeks time. 'The Big Island' is portrayed as the ultimate Ironman, the best of the best, the stage for the Gods of the sport. It is also the embodiment of all things American. To be an Ironman is to 'talk the talk', to 'walk the walk', to live the dream; pioneering, ambitious, forward-looking. It is about belief. An unquestioning belief that hard work can take you wherever you aspire to go. Failure is not an option! 'Pain is temporary; quitting is permanent'. It is a journey of discovery, of learning, of self-awareness, and of honesty. It is not just a race. Why, why, why, why, why? For just that, the unknown! That little taste of Everest. In a world controlled by man, to throw yourself outside that comfort...

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