Jamie L
Jamie can crunch big bike miles and regularly racks up the
longest bike runs amongst Go
Veggies on Strava. On Sunday, 2 June 2019 he put some solid recent training
to his latest test by taking on the notoriously tough and hilly ‘Epic’ version
of the Malvern
Mad Hatter cyclosportive event.
For a whole myriad of litigious reasons, sportives are
technically not races… but try telling that to most that compete in them
(sorry) complete them! Because the events aren’t races, organisers can’t
declare ‘winners’ as such; but what they can
do is rank finishers to a standard according to perceived performance based on
a number of factors including variables such as terrain, condition, time taken
to complete the course etc. These standards are known as gold, silver and
bronze. Suffice to say that a very non-racing Jamie conquered the 100 miles of
gruelling terrain much quicker than most others to finish in 06:16:13 - and achieved
the much-coveted gold standard.
Steve C
Still unsure about being able to commit to the upcoming
Gower SwimRun race, Steve - together with race-partner Britta W - has continued
to take on organised cold / tough open water swims in order that the Gower
event won’t be a complete shock to the system in the happy circumstance he’s
able to compete. In preparation, Steve’s recently completed both Great
Manchester Swim and the 2 kilometre version of the Colwyn Bay Ocean Swim. He reports
both as tough but the ocean swim in particular was very cold and - as is the
case with open sea swims - took a fair bit more effort than your average pool
session with tides, currents, swells and the wind all conspiring to make a hard
sport even harder.
It’s often the case with such swims that you can grind away
for what seems like ages and seemingly get absolutely no nearer to buoys /
landmarks / your eventual destination. This is mostly about conditions and
open-space perception but Steve tells an amusing tale of an incident that
happened whilst he and Britta were waiting to start their own effort and
watching the 3km version of the event. One of the turn buoys came loose and was
stealthily, almost imperceptibly, yet inexorably, drifting away from the
approaching competitors. Indisputably, when in the water and grinding away it
would have been almost impossible to fathom this cruel twist and bewildered
competitors would have just kept on slogging, cursing and wondering why they
ever took up swimming in the first place. It was only thanks to a race official
in a power boat that meant no-one in the 3K race is - even now - still going…
Here’s hoping that Steve’s health and niggles allow him and
Britta to have a fair crack at the formidable Gower event.
Steve W
Continuing his good early season form Steve acquitted
himself well at the Wetherby Sprint triathlon last bank holiday Monday. A cold
and turbid 750m river swim saw him in a more-than-a-little flustered mid-pack
position but a very windy and rolling 20K bike leg saw him make the most of his
cycling strength to overhaul most of the field and enter T2 in third position
overall. In spite of a comparatively weaker run and a pretty testing run leg he
(just) managed to hold this placing to the finish. Not that it can be taken for
granted these days, but the third overall was also good enough for an age group
win.
Jon Z
Jon Z
In completing the Nottingham Outlaw Half (70.3 mile) event
last weekend, Jon ticked off a milestone in as much as it was the 25th
half-distance event he had competed in. Distances for 70.3 events break down as
a 1900m swim, a 56 mile bike and a half marathon (13.1 mile) run to finish. The
‘cold theme’ endured by other Go Veggies held true for the event with the swim
especially resulting in an inevitable tightening of joints and muscles and a
commensurate hard start to the bike leg. Jon reports settling in, though and -
once warmed up - had an almost enjoyable run leg in what turned out to be temperature-perfect
conditions.
On the run-in to T1, Jon was cheered on by one of the event marshals
who’d seen the 2016 TV program in which Jon’s remarkable achievements in full
distance races - notwithstanding his various heart operations, artificial
valves, pacemaker and ongoing complications - were explored and reported. The marshal
was at pains to communicate that he’d sought out and watched the program just
for inspiration.
As reported on numerous occasions, Jon is genuinely inspirational and it’s great to know that his attitude
and achievements are increasingly widely recognised.
Emma S
Emma continues to mix run races and multisports doing both
the Askern 10K Road Race and Darley Moor Duathlon (run 5K / bike 20K / run
2.5K). The Askern 10K resulted in a time of 53:05 and a category position of
12/34 while the Darley Moor Duathlon resulted in an overall time of 1:14:21 and
a 9/14 in category. Emma was disappointed with this result but did beat her
previous best time at the same event by two minutes in spite of very cold, wet
and windy conditions (pic). Added to the mix was the fact that this event was a
qualifying event for the upcoming ETU duathlon European championships, so
competition was as tough as it gets in the UK.
