Face cream please...

Steve has made a return to his specialist territory of sprint distance triathlons and over the past two weekends and has competed in a couple of events at Richmond and Coventry. Though ostensibly the same discipline, the events were run over very different terrain, the main distinguishing feature being hills… big steep ones.

The Richmond event organisers pride themselves on producing a ‘challenging’ bike course and their efforts are not disappointing. On a couple of sections at least, cliff-face rather than hill would be a perfectly reasonable description. On these sections, Steve found the bottom gear of 34 x 25 on his very lightweight race bike only just enough to grind out upward progress - and that was out of the saddle. Even the smaller hills were brutal and Steve’s race-face pic (taken at the top of one of them) belies the efforts involved.

The Coventry Sprint Tri, though still throwing up a few hills and technical challenges, was a far more even-paced affair leading to far less facial wear-and-tear.

Steve showed well in both events, comfortably taking 55-59 age group wins and 10/126 and 5/198 overall placings respectively.

Recent round-up

Parkruns

There's been lots of parkrun action up and down the country this past few weeks (plus a couple of runs in France) with the colours being proudly worn far and wide. Mark M, Emma S, Steve W, Steve C, Jon Z, Rosie W, and Mick W have all featured. Most prolifice runner in recent weeks has been Mark M, consistently turning out at Exmouth, but also dropping in on the Cannock Chase event whilst out and about.

It's great to see and worth bearing in mind that parkruns are perhaps one of the best venues at our disposal to sow the seeds of getting people to think about a veggie diet. If you aren't registered in the GV name on the parkrun database and you fancy representin', simply follow these instructions.

Steve C

Steve ordinarily only really knows full-on-race-face efforts but has been troubled by some historic niggles of late meaning a tentative return to running in the Yarrow Bluebell Trail 10K on 5^th May. Given his necessarily-managed effort, Steve reports participating more as a ‘tourist’ than racer (pic) and - in no small part because of this - thoroughly enjoying the enforced slower-than-usual pace; as well as the bluebells, wild garlic and general ambience of the venue and event. For the first time in, well, forever, he also reports having enough in reserve to be able to chat to a few fellow competitors. As well as the banter and in spite of the canter, he still managed to finish with more than a hundred runners behind him. Steve’s currently deliberating whether to commit to the fearsome long-distance Gower Swimrun in July - we wish him a speedy return to full fitness…

Jon Z

Jon is also planning on making a return to longer-distance events and is heading for the start line in the Nottingham Outlaw Half  (half-ironman-distance) event this coming Sunday, where - all being well - his current good form will hold. As per recent blog entries, in 2019 Jon has seen a very welcome improvement to recent years’ performances and this trend held true in the Kirkbymoorside 10K on 5^th May. Jon reports his time of 53:20 was only 16 seconds slower than his post-heart surgery PB set at the same event in 2015; and this 53:20 was achieved in cold and windy conditions to boot. Wind is - of course - always a PB-thwarter, but the cold also exacerbates Jon’s exercise induced asthma, too. Notwithstanding having to take a couple of reluctant shots on the inhaler, overall he was 232/439 and 4/13 in the male 65-69 category.

Gravel grinding and the indomitable Jon Z

Steve W

Dirty Sixty Fiver Gravel Grinder

Gravel-bike racing is a relatively new race discipline in the UK, but one which is taking off in a big way. Essentially, these mass-start events are run over mixed terrain that take in anything and everything from country lanes to technical single track. They tend to be point-to-point or large-loop affairs and rarely (if ever) follow a multi-lap format. For those familiar with more traditional cycle-competition, they lie somewhere between road-based sportives and MTB endurance events.

Now, Steve is a long-time and experienced cycle racer but because of a well-documented aversion to getting his bikes dirty has generally steered clear of off-road competition. Indeed, the last time he was ‘persuaded’ to race off road (five or so years ago in the English national championship duathlon) the results were mentally scarring; as per the pic.

However, inspired by his (dirt-loving) brother to try something a little different, on 13^th April Steve dipped his toe in the gravel-grinding water and took on the shortest version of the Kielder-forest based Dirty Reiver series of races. Organisers had put on a choice of 200, 130 or 65 kilometre variants of the race but if there’s one thing Steve hates more than getting filthy, it’s a suffer-fest… so the shorty it was always going to be.

Approximately 1,500 racers mass-started the various variants and in spite of most of the race being run over reasonably straightforward loose-gravel forest trails, competitors were subject to constant, incessant, will-this-ever-end type of leg-sapping inclines, invariably followed by sometimes truly hair-raising will-I-actually-get-out-of-this-without-crashing type of descents. Indeed, over the full 65 kilometres that Steve encountered, he reports the flat bits ran to more or less zero metres.

Cutting a (65K) long story short, Steve stayed upright, paced the race well and finished in 2:23:44 both exhausted, and truly full of admiration and incomprehension at the endurance-capabilities of those continuing in the 130 and 200K versions. In terms of position, no one - he reports - was more surprised to find that his was the quickest time of the day in the 65K event resulting in an event-winning 1/135 finish overall.

Jon Z

Helmsley multi-terrain 10K

Jon continues to bewilder his medical consultants and recently competed for his 8^th time at the annual Helmsley multi-terrain 10K - an event where dodging the worst of the usually-muddy (and sometimes cow-pat infested) underfoot conditions can mean the difference between good progress and an ‘entertaining’ energy-sapper of a race. Luckily, the 2019 iteration was run off in warm and dry conditions that went some way to offsetting the difficulty of the nagging up-and-down nature of the course. Jon is now well into the 65-69 age group but he seems to forget he should be slowing down and his finish time of 56.24 was his best since way back in 2013. The time was also good enough for a 176/358 position overall and - by a margin of only 48 seconds - a 2/7 in age.

Ormesby Hall 10K

Last Saturday Jon continued his good form setting his course-best time of 25:55 at the Tees Barrage parkrun where he was also fastest in age.

Where most people would - after a hard 5K race - conventionally rest; lest we forget that Jon is the most prolific full iron man distance triathlete amongst us, the following day he ran for his 6^th time at this month's free 10k trail race at Ormesby Hall - another challenging 10K trail-based affair that requires a good bit more mental effort and technical ability than your average road-based event. In spite of most of the ground being firm there were still significant sections of mud and Jon himself describes the course as ‘tough’ - we’ll therefore take it as read that it’s a proper zinger. In spite of the muddy bits - and perhaps more significantly, the parkrun course best of the previous day - Jon racked up yet another top-form performance finishing in 55:14, only a few seconds short of his previous course best of 55:08 set last August.

It more tan bears repeating that Jon’s resilience in the face of his numerous medical issues is inspirational and his performances beggar belief.