Pembrokeshire Triathlon – Standard Distance
1 July 2007
Report by Dave Astins
What a race. What more can you say?? The swim was long – about 1750m I’d guess with a 200m run in between the two laps. The bike was long – ideally this distance should include a 40k bike, but it was advertised as 45k yet we knew it was close to 47k. Add to that the hills, strong winds and torrential downpours and it makes for a testing bike leg! Finally the run – under 10k granted, but running back down the exposed breakwater into a strong wind, then climbing those steps, then the triple climb to the highest point and it was anything but fast!!!
All this combined to put the winning time at 2hrs 18mins, an amazing time given the course and conditons, but consider that many standard distance courses see the winners dip in under 2 hours and you get the picture. Pembrokeshire Tri was very well represented with the 14 athletes whose times appear below, although our shot at the Welsh Club Championships was blown by only two females taking part. By my calculations Celtic Tri will win that accolade – had a third lady from the club completed the course in under 3:25 then that would have been ours I believe! There’s always next year!
As well as a chorus of “that was ******* horrendous” it is also a tale of “what if’s”…for example, based on the draft results I believe that if Rhiannon had been a British Triathlon member she would have been 2nd in the Welsh Championships…and if Terry had been a BT member and registered for the 2007 World Championships, he would have qualified….
From a personal perspective I found the swim tough, mainly from being smacked about the head a lot up to the first two boys as a result of a narrow start on the slip with 180+ others. The bike was REALLY tough, with a few scary moments that saw me mount the pavement to avoid crashing into a swerving athlete trying to put his feet in his bike shoes, an “oh sh*t” moment as three bikes, a lorry, a draftbuster and a punctured athlete converged at the same point in the middle of the heaviest downpour, and an “oh sh***t” moment as I got the wobbles coming down the bypass at 68km/h in heavy rain and side winds. Nice.
In a nutshell: character building.
* If Terry and Rhiannon had been members of the BTA and registered to qualify for the World Championships, they would indeed have qualified from their performances in this race. Patrick, who had already qualified in the Sprint distance, has now also qualified in the Standard distance.
Full results can be seen at: http://www.the-multisport.org/results.html
|
Pos |
Name |
Swim |
Bike |
Run |
Total |
12 |
Oliver Simon |
23:46 |
1:24:45 |
38:11 |
2:26:43 |
33 |
Patrick Martin |
29:37 |
1:23:44 |
40:32 |
2:33:54 |
41 |
David Astins |
28:55 |
1:27:52 |
39:01 |
2:35:48 |
48 |
Mervyn Williams |
27:41 |
1:28:33 |
41:16 |
2:37:31 |
68 |
Kevin Hill |
29:09 |
1:31:32 |
43:55 |
2:44:38 |
71 |
Darren Evans |
28:50 |
1:31:45 |
44:50 |
2:45:26 |
95 |
Ian Vickery |
33:33 |
1:34:32 |
46:03 |
2:54:09 |
98 |
Rhiannon Ace |
39:35 |
1:35:35 |
40:05 |
2:55:16 |
107 |
Jim Buck |
37:10 |
1:36:45 |
43:46 |
2:57:42 |
108 |
Alex Ilyat |
35:23 |
1:37:32 |
44:57 |
2:57:52 |
116 |
Darrell Harrison |
35:45 |
1:38:20 |
46:27 |
3:00:32 |
117 |
Lee Wells |
35:46 |
1:36:37 |
48:25 |
3:00:50 |
140 |
Julia Hill |
36:14 |
1:36:43 |
55:18 |
3:08:16 |
165 |
Terry Gover |
40:31 |
1:50:22 |
57:03 |
3:27:56 |
Pembokreshire Trialthon - Sprint distance
Report by Val Brown
Those of us not brave enough to do the standard distance registered for the sprint race. Watching the swim begin, I think its fair to say that we all really relieved that we made that decision!
The swim was cold and choppy – there’s no way it was only 750m! The bike was as wet and windy as for the full distance, and the run was one lap of the same course. I think its fair to say that speaking to fellow club members at the end, our main shared emotion was thank **** we only had to go round that once!
Results for us showed that Karen did very well coming 3rd female overall – although MSPro were more than a bit tight on actually giving prizes this year.
My main emotion after the race was to get home to get clean, dry and warm – although I did feel a bit guilty not hanging around to support club mates brave enough to do the long course – I am really sorry guys! Well done to you all!
Results for the sprint distance:
|
Pos |
Name |
Swim |
Bike |
Run |
Total |
16 |
Ian Cooper |
15.12 |
53.21 |
22.52 |
1.31.26 |
18 |
Peter Munn |
18.33 |
50.07 |
23.22 |
1.32.03 |
34 |
Karen Corcoran |
18.31 |
53.42 |
24.27 |
1.36.42 |
47 |
Huw Lewis |
20.16 |
58.14 |
24.30 |
1.43.01 |
53 |
Val Brown |
26.39 |
52.56 |
25.44 |
1.45.19 |
65 |
Terri Harrison |
22.56 |
1.01.28 |
27.43 |
1.52.08 |
66 |
Nia Owen Williams |
20.49 |
1.04.19 |
30.43 |
1.55.53 |
68 |
Jo-Anne Astins |
19.50 |
1.08.27 |
34.59 |
2.03.18 |