The middle distance Outlaw Half (swim 1.2M / bike 56M / run
13.1M) held at the National Water Sports Centre on Sunday 29th May
drew a full field of 1,450 competitors; amongst them was our very own Jon Z. Jon
is a master of longer endurance events and always has a meticulous plan for
pacing, nutrition and strategy. Even after a less-than-comfortable
mass-of-participants swim start Jon settled into his routine and – through the
course of the event – gradually executed his plan to achieve an utterly
remarkable 3rd in age finish. His peers without the disadvantage of an artificial heart valve and pacemaker
must wonder what they have to do!
In other triathlon news Emma S and Steve W were in
sprint-distance action at the Scissett tri on Sunday 5th June (swim
412m / bike 17.6K / run 4.2K). Though short, this event is incredibly tough
with the ‘highlight’ being a monster 5K bike climb over Emley moor. As Emma’s
pic shows (that’s not a smile), this is no easy affair. Matters weren’t helped
by the very hot and humid conditions – just the thing to really test the
post-Emley-jelly-legs on the hilly and rough surfaces of the final run leg.
Emma did a very good bike split but had had a tough time in
the very sloshy pool so was always playing catch up. Steve too had a good bike
leg (2nd fastest overall) which was enough to see him take an age
group win and a 5th from 143 finishers overall.
