18.04.11
East Fife Tri 2011
Hope you are all well, what a weekend we had at Cupar for the East Fife Triathlon. The sun shone and so do GRC Triathlon club with FOUR PB's that I know of and a fantastic debut by our club president in the novice event. Certainly competition for all the club awards is going to be fierce this year, however one reigning champ (Bob) has started his defence of his title with a storming performance at Cupar, but more of that later.
First up for the club in the novice event was Tina, who following several duathlons can now officially call herself a Triathlete. To say she was nervous before hand is putting it mildly and despite the rest of us telling her she'd be fine, she looked green. However once she started, as we all told her she would be, she was fine. And what a performance she put in- a debut time of 54.54mins saw her come in 8th overall and 3rd female and more than that she was first female in her age group (of which there were eight)- so way to go Tina.
Next up in heat 5 of the sprint race was that dynamic duo Steve and Heather. Like all good couples they did everything together, setting up next to each other in Transition, sticking together during their preparation until that is the starting gun went, then once again I'm afraid Heather has the bragging rights. A solid swim, excellent bike and run saw her come in in 1:21:32. I don't know if this was a PB for her, perhaps she can let me know but was good enough for her to be 12th female senior. Steve got one of the biggest cheers of the day, unfortunately it was for being last out of the pool, I know mate I've been there in the past, and his time overall was a very respectable 1:32:10.
Heat 6 saw Acky, Rab and me lining up. To say it was tight coming out of the pool is putting it mildly- 3 seconds separating the three of us, Acky did 14:14, Rab 14:15 and I did 14:17. However although I was last into T1, I was first out as Rab forgot to put his number belt on and Acky's fell off. So if you see the photo of me coming out of T1 with a big grin, that’s why. Acky soon went back by me on the bike and I was waiting for the fast improving Rab to catch me as well (more on why he didn't later) and as a result I was going like the clappers and as such I have him to thank for my best ever 20k on a bike cheers mate. Anyway I then followed it up with an equally strong run as did Acky and Rab. The result was that three of us had PB's - Acky did 1:13:05 to come in 21st senior male, I did 1:15:25 for 19th vet male (well chuffed first time I've ever been in the top twenty) and Rab came in 1:25:50 to smash his PB to underline just how much he is improving this year.
The next heat saw the club flying machine lining up and yet again a PB. Andy posted a fantastic set of splits to record a time of 1:08:26. He was looking to get near 1:10 but to go under it, he was well chuffed. If you look at some of the photos you will see just how much effort and how focused he is- well done mate. He also got a top ten coming in 9th vet and I'm sure you'll all agree the male vet category is probably the most competitive of the lot.
Now
to the most important part of the race story- the Hasselhof. Stirling Duathlon
passed by without incident, so I was well chuffed to have plenty to write about
this time and it was our reigning champ who played a stormer. First up, he
arrived without his helmet, luckily there was a guy with a stall selling bike
spares and he had one. However it was not the most flattering of styles
(marginally better than a Peppa Pig one!!!!- see the photo)- so it is now the
club spare helmet and we will paint a D on it to make it the dunces hat for the
next person that forgets their helmet.
Anyway back to T1. Rab was leading out
of T1, but was stopped by a marshal- he'd forgotten to put his number belt on.
So under pressure as he had to go back and Acky and me went by him, he was
perhaps trying to hard to catch up when bang down he went. Luckily it was only
his ego that was badly bruised but that was also why I never seen him again
during the bike part of the race. All this and he still got a PB, well done
mate. I can quote him - ' I was looking to get most improved this year and it
looks like I'm going to end up with that f%&$ing Hasselhof again!'
So our much loved treasurer and coach has stolen an early lead for the Hasselhof, he reckons he won't be there at the end of the year, so who will it be?
Cheers for now,
Colin
