Alnwick triathletes produce some good results

Two club members Simon Tibbitts and Tony Jackson ventured south to Nottingham on Sunday in an attempt to become Ironmen for the first time. They took part in an Outlaw competition which consists of a 2.4 mile swim.112 mile bike ride followed by a 26 2 mile run.

Gale force winds were forecast and by Saturday afternoon it was still looking like 40mph winds and the organisers took the decision to make the swim three laps with an Aussie Exit between each lap.

A very early start on Sunday morning and bikes would have to be ‘racked’ at 5am for the 6am swim start.

The first hour or so on the bike was actually dry, but the south-westerly wind made life a little tricky. Wind speed seemed to keep increasing and the rain came down in torrents at times so all-in-all it was a pretty tricky bike ride.

Tony came home 49th (from 121 finishers) in his age group in a time of 12:48:04 and Simon was 108th (from 162) in a time of 13:37:13. A massive well done and congratulations to both lads.

Nearer to home five members of the club travelled to Redcar for the ITU World Championship qualifier event, a sprint distance triathlon.

Again the heatwave was definitely over and gusts of wind made it doubtful whether the swim would happen and for a while it looked like the race would be a Duathlon.

The Alnwick team were all relieved when the decision was made for the swim to go ahead.

A flat multi lap cycle along the beach front followed the swim and a flat multi lap run ended the race, flat may sound easy but both were hindered by gusts of wind.

Francis Wilde finished 17th in her age group with a time of 1:22:26.

Tania finished 14th in her age group with a time of 1:31:56. Tania is moving up an age group in 2019 and will have to wait to see if her time is good enough to qualify.

Steve Carragher finished in a time of 1:08:07 and came first in his age category. Andrew Wilde finished in 1:13:55 and in the top half of his age group.

Still sporting sore legs from Tartu, (previous weekend’s Standard Distance Age Group Championships in Estonia ) Ian Atherton had a decent swim with the vintage guys, taking advice from his physio he took the bike and run easy (if an average of 18.7 mph on the bike can be called ‘easy’ ) Ian finished in 1:29:16 placing him 15th in the 60-64 age group.,