East Grinstead

Perhaps inspired by the unexpected appearance of a weird, glowing orange object resembling a beach ball in the sky, Ant Grey led home a strong contingent of 18 MSTC athletes at the East Grinstead Triathlon, narrowly pipping Phil Couch to the line by just one second.

It was an outstanding win for Ant, making up for being forced by poor weather into competing in a hastily rearranged duathlon at the Marshman the previous weekend.  Ant finished 15^th overall at East Grinstead in 1.17.04, with Phil in 16^th place in 1.17.05.

Special mention should also go to Rob Cox, finishing his first-ever triathlon, after a winter of dedicated training, in 127^th position overall (out of 381 finishers) and with a very decent time of 1.30.34.

Perhaps the day's other outstanding performance came at the far end of the MSTC field, with Angela Murray crediting her lovely new blue Scott road bike for shaving six minutes off her time at last year's East Grinstead tri, her first ever sprint race.  Actually, her improved performance was also anchored by a very strong run time of 25.33.

In third place among the MSTC athletes (and 26^th overall) was mystery man Dave Lashbrook, who does no training that any other member knows of, and then turns up and puts in a storming time of 1.19.00 to take 26^th position overall.  Dave was given no split times, having somehow contrived to miss the lengthy queue at poolside for the distribution of timing chips, but was seen scattering hapless beginners from his lane in the pool because he wanted an early start in order to "get home for the birth of Lynn's sister's baby."

Then came a gang of three separated by only a few places: Steve Crocker, Pete Harris and Mike Jaffe, in 34^th, 36^th and 43^rd positions overall, providing the backbone of the MSTC effort on the day, with Pete putting in a particularly strong performance, considering his recent injury problems.

Behind them were Martin Shoesmith in 61^st position and Paul Wills in 70^th, with Paul showing a massive improvement in all disciplines since last year.  Ah, the benefits of winter training in Australia!

Fiona Bussell was first MSTC woman home in 1.28.11, her usual strong run and an improved bike split just squeezing her into the top 100 in 99^th place, followed by Callum Murray in his now customary position three minutes behind Fiona.

Just two minutes behind came David Ricketts, with Callum now firmly in his sights, followed by Peter Court in 1.36.33.

Nancy Gilbert put in her usual live-wire performance to finish second MSTC woman in 1.37.35, including a best-ever sprint triathlon run split of 23.45.

Then came Jean Fish, blonde hair flying and loving every minute of the race, despite her recent marathon exertions, in 1.44.43, followed by Claire Creswell, who said she hates sprint triathlons because they're far too short, but still scored a highly respectable 1.47.38.

Mandie Cawthra, competing in her first triathlon for many years, was delighted to finish in under two hours by a nicely-judged 10 seconds!

The race had expanded this year, but remains the well-organised but friendly club-run model to which we must aspire with our own triathlon.

Innovations this year included numbers that also bore the name of the participant, meaning that marshals and others could call their support for the athletes by name.  Steve Alden, who had loyally turned up to support the MSTC athletes along with Rose Ryan, was heard to mutter: "Suppose this means we've got to have names on the numbers at our race now."  Certainly one to ponder.

The support of Steve, Rose and the athletes who had already finished was, as usual, much appreciated - although I, personally, was in no state to give a detailed and considered answer when the always enthusiastic Steve tried to strike up a conversation as I left transition and set off on the first of the two agonising run laps.

Receiving no reply to his conversational gambit, "How's it going, Callum?," beyond a grimace, Steve was left to provide his own answer: "Hard!"