Ful-On Tri - Race Reports (Blogs)

Author:	admin	Created:	21/11/2006
The dialogue articles from the old Ful-On Tri web-site

World Ironman 70.3 Champs, Clearwater, Florida

By admin on 11/11/2006

Eight Ful-On Tri members and seven supporters, headed to the Florida sunshine for the inaugural World Ironman 70.3 Championships, having pre-qualified for the event. The location was Clearwater - a flat sand spit close to Tampa on the Gulf of Mexico. The event organisation lived up to expectations of a world class event, and there were enough pro athletes on show to satisfy. On race day, the swim start was full of pomp and ceremony and the first time we've witnessed a man in a rubber suit with a blue swim cap singing the US national anthem! After a fast and ferocious swim out and back from Pier 60 (and in amongst the dolphins), huge bunches of athletes exited the water together which was only going to cause the draft busters problems on the bike course. A predominantly flat one-lap bike course with the odd high-rise bridge thrown in did little to split up the packs, and was a real headache for all athletes leading to a number of crashes on the bike course. Thankfully, all our FOT guys escaped incident and first...

Ful-On Golf

By admin on 26/10/2006

The inaugural Ful-On Golf day took place on Saturday 21st October at Hampton Court Golf Club. 16 players, attired in a number of creative ways, took to the fairways to determine who could take the “chapeau” as top Ful-On golfer. Interest was such that Greg Keers’ new trading website saw a flurry of late activity, “buying” and “selling” our respective performances – once everyone had finally understood the rules. Weather was varied – ranging from bright blue sky to North Sea squalls – and so were the performances. There were a number of talented players out there, although few seemed to be with our party. However a sense a humour prevailed throughout, despite some questionable (although by no means ill intentioned) etiquette, and the day was a success, hopefully ensuring sanctioning for next year. Paul Griffiths showed what he’d been doing since last spring by winning the individual competition with 41 points, followed closely by David Gibney and Phil Roker. David picked up the Best Pairing prize with Tim Phillis;...

Autumn Epic, Knighton Wales

By admin on 07/10/2006

For the mobile technology dependent, latte supping contingent that ventured to Welsh Wales the initial shock was neither of those are available readily in the vicinity of Knighton/Knucklas. Cue a scared looking Karen standing on a bridge desperately willing some mobile reception so she could get her e-mails and Caelim enquiring where the nearest Starbucks was. James had barely been across the border for 5 mins when he managed to upset a local - they stopped to check a map in Knighton and some kind soul offered to show them where Knucklas was but not wanting his Saffer male sense of direction questioned , James hot footed it back in the car and managed to find the B&B unaided. 30mins later the kind samaritan comes banging on the door of the B&B demanding to know if they'd got there safely - he'd been driving around looking for cars with bikes on it. The hospitality is amazing we were greeted with cupcakes, scones and tea at the B&B and our night in the pub was great value as for the second year in a row, all you...

National Sprint Relay Championships

By admin on 04/08/2006

The club relay championship was another great weekend of fun and racing. We sent 14 teams north and were well represented in both the morning and afternoon's racing. The weather held up well and the winds were very low with no need to worry about strong head winds on the bike. The morning racing was reserved for the mixed and female teams. All teams managed to get their swims completed but a medical incident meant the race had to be stopped. The race was restarted after 45mins with each team number 1 cyclist starting on 10sec intervals and the number of laps reduced from 3 to 2. This meant that everyone absolutely busted themselves on what turned out to be 15-20min time trial with most competitors being grateful that it was only 2 laps! Our female A team of Emily, Sarah, Jess and Bethan did fantastic coming in second in the all female category improving on bronze from last year, so no pressure on next years' team to collect gold! The mixed teams all had a great laugh racing as well with many of the lads also racing...

Granfondo Pinarello, Treviso, Italy

By admin on 16/07/2006

I like to see each race/event as a learning experience and this year my learning curve has been immense. Doing longer distance/endurance events are in my opinion more about strategy than ability and the satisfaction from completing them is amazing. The Granfondo Pinarello is a well established cycle race in the Italian Dolomites and this year was 209k long and thus my longest race to date and without a doubt the hardest mentally. Firstly I'd thoroughly recommend to anyone to do these races - not only are they exceptionally well organised but for 30 euros you get a cycling top, socks and the chance to cycle in the beautiful Italian Montello region surrounded by hundreds of Italian men - albeit their penchant for white lycra leaves a lot to be desired - there's just certain things a ladies eyes shouldn't have to witness and I've added this to my list.

The girls line up in the same pen with the elites and the atmosphere is electric - the inspirational music starts playing - we were treated to "Fanfare for...

Ironman Austria

By admin on 15/07/2006

For those that don't know, Ironman is actually a brand, and a very successful one at that. And you can see why when you enter one of their events. No matter what standard of athlete you are, be it pro or have-a-go hero, you are treated like a star and your every need is attended to. Myself and the six other guys from Ful-On Tri went to register for the race at "Ironman City" on Friday. There was a great buzz of excitement in the air, and lots of REALLY fit looking people wandering around the expo. We were all slightly apprehensive about the heat building up during the day, and the general lack of any breeze - it was obviously going to be a hot one. Still we continued to tick over with easy swims in the lake in the mornings, bit of light pedalling down to the race area, and finally dropped off our bikes in the transition area on Saturday afternoon. I found myself most nervous while hanging around the Ironman City, so was glad we didn't stick around too long, and instead opted to go back to our hotel, relax and watch the tour de france guys doing their stuff. Having four experienced Ironmen in our group was really great - they gave me lots of advice on feeding strategies, organising my kit and managed to keep me amazingly calm and relaxed....

Ironman France

By admin on 24/06/2006

The ambition of almost every triathlete is to complete the ULTIMATE: The IRONMAN. After 3 years in the Club, a lot of people have accomplished this very, very, very long distance and talked about it with passion... At the end of the 2005 season, I registered for the event in my country of origin, Ironman France in Nice (and it is nice in Nice... too easy). As usual for every event, I gathered a huge amount of information to discover this other world where people endure pain and glory... But, I just wonder: Why do I want to do the ultimate endurance event? What I am looking for? Am I crazy or does something else push me to do it? First thing: the training. In the book they were talking about 15 to 20 hours of training a week. Ooops, no way I could do it. However - I was motivated to do it for 7 months. Second thing to consider: My swim is pretty poor and I don't know if I can do the distance...2 or 3 times in the lake will do ???!!!! Very optimistic... Third thing: I have never run a marathon. But I am very, very,...

European Championships Autun, France

By admin on 24/06/2006

Five Ful-Ons joined the GB team in Autun (the really hot bit in the middle of France) for the European Championships. In typically French fashion the event organisation and location were "magnifique," with the swim and run based at the lake on the edge of town, and the bike course heading into the forest behind. The bike course recce left everyone a little nervous over their choice of bike/wheels/brakes (not helped by "Danger" signs and bales of hay round some of the corners of a very tricky descent), although the promised 6k climb out of town was steady rather than overly steep. However once again though nobody seemed to have explained to the organisers that Olympic distance is 40 rather than 45k, and that we'd have been quite OK with a 10k run rather than 11. Another case of "more" not actually being "more"? Team formalities having been dealt with early on Sunday morning, together with photos (devilishly handsome group, don't you think?) we all set off in the same wave (Men: 20-40) at 3pm. The swim was designated...

UK Ironman 70.3 - Exmoor

By admin on 17/06/2006

Ideal preparation for a race usually involves trying nothing new on race day, arriving in adequate time to ensure meticulous set-up, doing thorough research of the course layout and then eating well and getting a good nights sleep. Given Jo Knight's and my combined efforts at the weekend I've got the following advice: Don't arrive at the venue 3 hours after the compulsory race briefing and just before transition closes

Don't choose getting an ice-cream ahead of finding the stressed Head Coach to give him his race wheels to put onto his bike

Don't choose a hotel next to a historic bell tower which chimes every hour on the hour thus ensuring little to no sleep

Don't use a bike you've never used before and have just picked up brand new

Don't use tri-bars for the first time ever (and especially not on descents)

Don't use a wetsuit you've never used before that is a size too small

Don't run with a sore knee

Try not to cut your foot open at the start...

Ironman Lanzarote: 'The Toughest Ironman in the World'

By admin on 19/05/2006

"Your Ironman charisma is not complete without doing this race" - Paula Newby-Fraser after the 1997 race. With a billing such as this, you clearly would not be of sound mind to enter such an event, therefore it probably came as no surprise that Dan Mertens and myself (Tongy) entered this event without hesitation at the end of the 2005 season. After putting our name on the start list we received many and varied comments ranging from pro-triathletes questioning why would you want to do that race, to comments from amateurs such as Hanley, just having a big smirk on his face and probably laughing very deeply at us. Race week arrives and out we ventured to Lanzarote. Just being on the island and experiencing the wind, hills, heat (and did I mention wind?) was enough to convince us that this is clearly not a well thought out plan!

On Saturday our day started as we approached transition in the wee hours just after 5am. We crossed paths with the revellers as their day was ending and they staggered from the bars...