Ardingly Triathlon Race Report - 5 June 2011
The reincarnated Ardingly Triathlon, revived by Paul Hedger's Hedgehog Tri after a one-year break, was not on the BAR list this year, but with 12 MSTC athletes competing surely deserves a race report.
Five MSTC athletes - James Dear, Ant Grey, Andy Heath, David Ricketts and Callum Murray - were enticed to compete by the offer of a free place in the race in exchange for counting lengths in the pool, an experience that generated a new respect for those that do the tricky job of counting the lengths of four swimmers simultaneously, while remembering to stick the '2 lengths to go' paddle in the water at the right time for each swimmer.
Two others, Angela Murray and Rachel Baker, counted lengths but didn't compete, contributing to the good relations we are building up with Paul, who will play an important role at the Go Tri! Juniors event we are running on July 30 and 31. Many thanks to them.
For those doing both, as James Dear said, it was a case of getting your counting head on first, followed by your race head, and not mixing up the two. James, needless to say, had no such problems, coming second in the race overall in 1.08.50, with a magnificent bike split of 40.36, considering that the long drag up to Turners Hill - hard going at the best of times - was into the teeth of a strong headwind.
Performance of the day probably has to go to Ant Grey, though, who was 13th in 1.16.31, with strong showings in all three disciplines. With a five lap run course up and down the hill on the college playing fields, I got plenty of chances to see him gradually closing the gap between us as he came round each time.
Also proving himself to be a strong all-rounder was Martin Sanwell in 32nd position, while Andy Heath's strong swim split of 08.19 drove him into 46th position.
Other notable performances came from: Trevor Moore, who was competing the day after completing the Arun River Swim; Stuart Anderson, with a welcome reappearance in club colours after concentrating more on cycling recently; Paul Wills, who's definitely getting the hang of this triathlon game; David Ricketts who continued his long-awaited triathlon comeback; Tim Cresswell who was reduced to a walk at one stage on the tough run course but still gamely finished in a decent time; Jean Fish, who threw her leaky goggles away in disgust as she emerged from the pool (don't worry Jean, I rescued them, and will return them when I next see you), but vented her fury on the bike course with a storming split; and Rose Ryan, whose delight at getting another triathlon under her belt warmed the heart.
As at East Grinstead, it felt like MSTC 'owned' the finish line, as our athletes gathered to cheer home each of our finishers. Great shouting guys!
Oh, and perhaps I could just mention that I scored an Ardingly Triathlon PB and have been on a high ever since.
MSTC athletes' results below. There were 149 finishers in the race in total. For the full results, follow this link: http://www.hedgehogtri.co.uk/ardinglytri/docs/results/Ardingly_20110605_Tri_Summary_v0.pdf
Ardingly Triathlon 5 June 2011. MSTC athletes'
results
Position Name Time
2 James Dear 1.08.50
13 Ant Grey 1.16.31
32 Martin Sanwell 1.22.41
46 Andy Heath 1.25.00
51 Callum Murray 1.25.34
55 Trevor Moore 1.26.42
61 Stuart Anderson 1.27.38
65 Paul Wills 1.28.03
83 David Ricketts 1.32.44
111 Tim Cresswell 1.40.24
120 Jean Fish 1.42.58
128 Rose Ryan 1.46.54
Author: Callum Murray