Archive for the ‘Triathlon’ Category

Hi this is the times for the swim on Friday 7th August 2009
onelife-adults-swim-7-08-09

Charlie’s first outing in Hyde Park with the best of the British youths was a great experience on Sunday morning. After spending the weekend watching the Elite Men & Women put on a great show it was time for Charlie to give it a go.
Early nerves setting up in transition sharp disappeared once he was in the water & the claxon sounded. A few elbows & a punch in the face in a field of 35 boys Charlie emerged out of the water in 11th place going into T1.
The fast cycle section sorted the men (big boys) out from boys & Charlie struggled to keep up the pace entered T2 in 33rd place.
Once out on the run he pulled a couple of places back & eventually finished in 29th place.
Overall it has been a fantastic experience to compete in such a prestigious event & would not have missed it for the world.
Thanks for all your support.

One life was represented by 2 One Lifers on Sunday Charlie & Poppy Harris-Pratt who didn’t disappoint.
Poppy went first & was out of the swim in the lead but came out of T1 in 3rd place. She stayed 3rd but only started to do an extra bike lap before realising her mistake. Poppy made up an extra place on the run with a sprint finish to come 3rd in her wave but a well deserved 4th overall.
Charlie was up against some stiff opposition & was second out of the pool to Fraser Ronan Minnican from Barrow & came out of T1 3rd behind Luke Parkin.Fraser pulled ahead with a strong bike section to stay in first place going into T2 & Charlie still in 3rd place after going around the wrong section into transition. A strong run again from Charlie picked up a place up to 2nd but Fraser had too much of a lead on a short run course to catch up. Overall Charlie came 2nd to a boy who broke the course record & we later found out has been picked for the GB swimming squad. This will be the type of competition Charlie will facing in Hyde Park on Saturday & the IRCs next month. Bring it on…….

On Saturday 1st August 33 One Life Triathletes took part in the Tyne and Wear Fire Service Children’s Triathlon at Hebburn. All children put in tip-top performances with two One Lifers coming away with gold medals.

One of the big highlights of Hebburn is the Have-A-Tri section (under 8’s), with Angus Thompson, Bethan Nitsch and Madeleine Duffy all participating in their first ever triathlon. Angus brought it home strongly on the run, burning his dad Julian off in style! All 3 had great fun and thoroughly enjoyed their first triathlon experience.

In the Tristar age group Rhianna Nitsch finished 2nd with Isobel Maxwell-Gray one place behind in 3rd.In the boys race Aidan Pinkney did very well to finish 2nd.

The Tristar 1 age group was where One Life had their biggest success with 1-2’s in both the girls and boys. Rhianna Stoves, who has been improving all season, collected her first gold medal of the campaign with 3 strong disciplines. Jill Dickinson with excellent swim and run sections finished in 2nd. Sophie Speed was 4th with sister Phoebe in 6th, Abigail Thompson 8th, Ellie Barr 10th and Rosie Mitchell 11th. In the boys Jake Duffy continued to show strength in all 3 disciplines as he put in an impressive performance to take gold. Henry Sanderson followed his friend home in 2nd place after having a ding-dong battle with Rhianna on the run! Thomas Copland is improving all the time and excelled on the bike section to finish in 6th overall. James  Mitchell was 8th and George Cook 9th.

In the Tristar 2 girls Hannah Pinkney finished 4th with a very gutsy display. Many of the One Life boys have been evenly matched all season. This time it was the turn of  Toby Routledge to emerge victorious amongst the One Lifers with 3rd place overall. Closely followed by Finlay Robertson in 4th. Adam Todhunter finished 6th with Joe Cook 9th, James Bland 11th and Nathan Copland 12th.

In the Tristar 3 girls Katie Pegg came in 7th. In the boys Mark Todhunter was 3rd just ahead of James Dickinson in 4th, with Toby Harris in 9th, Jack Howieson 11th and brother Angus 12th.

In the Youth’s section Katie Smith finished 2nd in the girls with Rob Howieson showing guts and determination to finish 10th in the boys.

This was the last Triathlon of the Children’s series for this year with all One Life triathletes showing great improvements throughout the season and many in the bottom of their age groups.

The future looks bright – better wear those shades (Timbuk 3 – do you follow me!)

Team Speed and Team Copland set off on Saturday 25th July for a weekend in Scotland with a bit of Triathlon thrown in.

The weather was glorious on Saturday and we all ended up with sunburn in the glorious surroundings of Strathclyde Country Park near Glasgow. The Copland boys opted to spend the afternoon in the theme park while the Speeds opted for the more sensible option of exploring the park and the venue for the race on Sunday.

After a nice carvery meal and much merriment provided by the kids fuelled by something called ‘chocolate brownie ice cream sensation’ !? we retired to our rooms and settled in for a good rest before the National Ranking event the next day.

The Sunday brought bleary eyes (thanks to our friends from accross the pond playing the ‘hotel corridor shouting and door hammering relay game’ and some more traditional Scottish weather, it was absolutely persisting it down and it looked like that was the plan the weather had in store for us all day long………..

We were joined by Rob West and Richard Parker (eventually and dressed in his sister in law’s kit – don’t ask…) at the race venue which is a good one, very reminiscent of the watersports centre at Nottingham with the two lap swim taking place in the watersports lake, the cycle on closed roads around the lake and the scenic run on footpaths around the lakeside.

Rob and Richard were away in the first wave which looked pretty brutal at the start as everyone made for the bottleneck under the bridge 150m into the swim, both had decent swims in the unusually mild (16 degrees) Scottish loch, on to the bike which was pretty smooth for Rob but Richard nearly managed to wipe out against a barrier whilst looking down trying to get his feet clipped in. Off the bike both were in good shape to do well considering their strong running abilities, Rob actually recorded the fastest run split of the day in 34:12 and Richard the 4th fastest split overall in 35:08.

Rob crossed the finish line in first place in the first wave taking the vet 40 category title in 1:58:17, a full 4min 58sec ahead of the next vet, a performance that also secured him 8th place overall, a fantastic achievement in a National ranking event. Richard picked up 5th place in his age group in 2:13:24 and (by my calculation) has also secured his place at the European championships in Ireland next year – well done Richard !!

The second wave set off just over an hour after the first and luckily the rain had eased a little, Nick and I lined up ready with our tactics in mind after watching the first wave melee, I managed to get amongst the leaders with and eyeballs out first 200m ans settled into a rhythm quickly, Nick also managed to find clear(ish) water and get stuck in to the two lap course.

Nick recorded the second fastest swim in his category and I exited the water 6th overall, a good T1 for us both and we were away on the 6 lap cycle. I had taken it a little too easy in the water and decided that I was probably not in contention for the main prizes so I settled in for a steady bike ride with the intention of putting in a good run split for once while Nick set off like a rocket and recorded the second fastest bike split in his category.

Surprisingly, I came off the bike in first place so the pressure was on somewhat. Nick committed a schoolboy error and lost his racking position in T2 losing around 30 seconds in the process.

The run got underway and my plans for a fast split were under pressure as I felt a twinge in my right calf after about 2k, 500m later and I was walking, big pain in the calf on the uphill section. 2-300m or so later I managed to break into a jog and then a run as the pain subsided a little and at the 5k turnaround I still had a small advantage so back to plan A and a good 2nd lap might just see me through. Nick was having a good run and was delighted to be running ‘pain free’ for once.

I did hold on to my advantage and crossed the line first overall in 1:54:57, a 31 second winning margin, a very satisfying achievement considering that the swim and cycle were performed well within my capability and the slight hiccup on the run. Nick then crossed the line in second place in his age group only 16 seconds behind serial Super Vet winner, Jez Smedley.

All in all it was another great day for the One Life machine, and a special thank you has to go out to Team Copland and Team Speed for their fantastic support and enthusiasm and for giving me a chance to recover slightly as they took the mike before my post race interview !!

We now have an unprecedented SIX qualifiers for the European championships next year. Barry, Nick, Richard, Rob, Tim and I will all be ready to take to the start line in Athalone next summer !!

As we enter the holiday season I thought I might start a challenge to see how far afield a One Life  T-shirt or hoodie can travel

Here is Jem Cook in Portugal in 2008 at the start of the coastal bike ride along the Algarve coast. (Note the key missing equipment; bike, helmet, shoes etc)

Here is the same T-shirt in Crete this year about to go on a boat trip where it doubled

as a sun hat and then sick bag! Nice!

Make sure you take your T-shirt or Hoodie with you and take a photo for this blog!