Category: News Archive 2012

The BRAT Sprint and super sprint triathlons were held at the West Midlands water Ski centre, which is approximately 30-40 minutes’ drive from Burton.  It’s located on the A51 between Dosthill and Kingsbury about 1.5 miles south east of Tamworth.

The Water Ski Centre has excellent facilities, ample parking and is an outstanding location to host a triathlon event.  As it was local I registered on the Friday evening, but was disappointed to discover that I would have to queue again on the Saturday morning to collect the timing chip.  It defeated the object of early registration for a relaxed transition set up.  However Saturday queuing wasn’t too bad.

A 7.30 race briefing took place before the first of 4 waves got underway at 7.40.  The swim was in relatively clear water at a balmy 16 degree.  With an “out and back” course and competitors treading water for the start, the swim was almost pleasurable.  750 meters later stewards helped swimmer’s out of the water onto a steep bank which was the beginning of the run to transition.  A mere 80-100 meters away, up the bank, across a tarmac road and along a carpeted stretch.

Transition was well spaced out and properly marshalled by experienced BRAT staff.  With bike in hand a short trot to exit and the mounting line soon found athletes speeding through Kingsbury, Nether Whitacre, Shustoke, Furnace and back into Kingsbury, heading for the Water Ski Centre.  The 21k route is mainly flat and fast with only a couple of testing inclines to get the quads pumped up.

Speeding through T2, and onto the 5k run which is along the side of the lake.  2 laps of uneven hardened track that had a 100 meter steep incline hill at the outmost turn-around point.  This nasty hill was much tougher on the second lap.  Down the ridge and back into the Complex where the run ended in a unique “run past” the finishing line on the far side of the road reach a turn-around point after 100 meters and head back on the near side into the finishing straight. The whole set-up was well marshalled and very spectator friendly, allowing loved ones to cheer you along the approach road, then once again after the U-turn back to the finish.

Interestingly the race commentator announced many finishing times as competitors crossed the line and a nearby big screen quickly provided official finish and split timings.

The only down side was the inclusion of the event T-shirt which is so luminous it could be tracked by a NASA satellite.  Not so good for playing top trump t-shirts.  Otherwise this really was a first class event, well planned and organised, and blessed with good weather.

Mick Fishwick  (enjoying 1st season of Triathlon competition…)

Thanks to Sarah Jemmett for this newsletter:

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Lots of news to share in this edition – starting with the Race Series.

Derby Junior Triathlon. – As some of you may have noticed, this race sold out in 48hrs !! Derby kindly were able to extend their registrations by 50 – they took all those on the waiting list first – so we will have 300 racers on the day.

Please note, this year Derby’s venue has moved to Woodlands School, Allestree, Derby and is not at Etwall – hope to see you there.

Cherwell -This race now too has reached maximum numbers. If you have not signed up – but wanted to – it may be worth adding your name to the waiting list; just in case of any cancellations nearer the race date.

Holme Pierrepoint  race registration is opening very soon. I will mail you when I know.

Many of you may be new to the idea of Open Water racing. It is worth checking out with your club coaches if there are any junior open water training opportunities in your part of the East Midlands. As for wetsuits – you may want to hire them, search the web for some good deals or buy them from an older racer in your club who has outgrown theirs !

Lincoln is now open – a pool swim, tarmac bike and a grass/tarmac run – www.entrycentral.com

Roade Kids Triathlon is open – a pool swim, grass bike and run – www.justracinguk.com

IMPORTANT – YOUTHS ONLY – having just checked out the Roade website – I have seen that a Youth category has now been added for this event, and the race should be included in the Series, as originally intended.

On experimenting to sign-up however, there seems to be a glitch in the system –  I will keep you updated when I know more.

Non-Series races.

For those of you who cant get enough of racing, here is a reminder of some of the other races on our region

30th June           Oakham Triathlon – www.racetime-events.co.uk

4th August         Desford Triathlon – www.racetime-events.co.uk

8th September  Nottingham Childrens Triathlon – www.fourlife.com

East Midlands Regional Academy.

This academy has been set up to develop our 14 -18 year olds – whose running and swimming reach the performance standards outlined. The selection trial invitation is now open. For more information – please go to www.triathlonengland.org/east-midlands – you  will currently find the Selection Trial article as front page news.

For those who want to understand more about the Inter-regional championships and how to be selected for the team – please check out www.triathlonengland.org/east-midlands . Float over ” Junior Series” in the red bar towards the top of the page – and a drop-down menu will appear on the RHS.

Select the 3rd option, the Inter-Club and IRC information – to learn more.

Listed below are sources of triathlon news : –

www.britishtriathlon.org

www.triathlonengland.org and www.triathlonengland.org/east-midlands

Alternatively, perhaps you would like to follow us on Facebook or Twitter

Finally, as we have several new triathletes on our region this season – a reminder to all athletes and parents to be as helpful and encouraging to all racers as possible. The atmosphere at Prestwold was a very positive one and a race that was enjoyed by all. It would be great if we could continue this throughout the season, and gain the reputation for being the most supportive and motivating region.

Happy training & good wishes

Sarah

Grendon Sprint is set in a lovely location with large camping fields next to the lakes.

I’d arrived in the camper on the Saturday and rode the bike course on a motorbike in the evening – it looked like a fast pretty ride.

Although we were enjoying the second day of summer this year there were rumours of water temperature at 12.1C so decided to wear a wetsuit hood to stop my brain being fried.

This was my first open water competition so, while being completely happy to be in open water, I was pretty worried about the melee to come. Met up with Mick Fishwick in transition and discussed everything that might go wrong. We decided that “good luck” was not what was needed but no “bad luck” was a better wish.

The swim turned out to be fine – probably should have gone faster – the “little man” in my head was asking why I was doing this instead of sitting in front of the telly but he shut up at about 400 metres. The melee wasn’t too bad – mostly old geysers like me and some younger women. Possibly the most difficult bit was passing the “sprinters” who had reverted to breaststroke and  took up more than their share of room.

Its a long run, maybe 250 metres, to the very well organised transition area which gives plenty of time to sort out the wetsuit.

The first k of the bike ride is difficult – narrow, twisty and loads of big speed bumps – You couldn’t really race until you hit the main road. The course opens with a short sharpish climb in Grendon village and then out over nice rolling lanes. The first incident appeared on this section – someone was lying on the road but seemed to be in good humour. It wasn’t too long before the “speedsters” in the Oxford vs Cambridge race which had started 6 minutes after us started to steam though making me feel as if I was pedalling a turbo trainer. I did give in to the temptation to draft them just a weeny bit! There was a more serious crash at 10k, just two bikes dicing I think, but they both looked out of the race. My old touring bike (going to have to do something about that) maxed at 50.4kph on one of the long downhill stretches. The same problem applied in the last k – all those speed bumps again made getting out of the shoes interesting. I’d done a fast bike time, I’d been disappointed in Stratford and so decided to push harder here.

The run was therefore a matter of survival – the course was flat but very uneven underfoot – it looped along the lake which was good in that you could keep an eye on other competitors. In the end the run time wasn’t too bad so it probably paid to push the bike hard.

Alex Heron