Congratulation to all members who braved the cold and windy weather at the weekend to take in a variety of different triathlons across the mainland. Well done, guys. 👍👍

Birmingham Triathlon
On Saturday, new member Lucy Newnham headed to Alderford Lake, Whitchurch to take on the Birmingham Triathlon, and her first ever Standard Distance. It was advertised as a no current swim, fast flat bike course and flat grass run, so was a good one for the newbie triathlete.
However, Lucy was not expecting the weather to be as cold and windy with the lake being very cold as well. She had a great debut to finish her first standard distance triathlon in 3:02:00 with splits of 34:38/1:31:42/53:39, 21st female from 49 and 3rd in the vet 40-44 age category

Votwo Eton Dorney Triathlon
Also on Saturday, Andy Wheeler took on the Votwo Eton Dorney Standard Distance Triathlon and was using this to achieve a qualification standard for the Isle of Wight Triathlon Team for Guernsey Island Games in 2021.
With a very strong cold wind blowing onto the lake, it made the swim very tough, with Andy exiting T1 in 29:34, way down on his usual swim. An 8 lap 40km cycle around the lake, followed by a 2 lap out and back run, again affected by the strong winds. Andy struggled on the bike with the cold and couldn’t feel his feet to run, but powered through it to finish in 2:19:17, to finish 12th male overall and 10th in the senior male category. So even with a slower time, he still had a strong performance. He achieved the B standard qualification time for the Island Games team but unfortunately, the announcement from the International Island Games Association game out on Saturday, which has resulted in the Guernsey Island Games not taking place in 2021. However, there will be another games, and we are awaiting the decisions being made on the next date and venue.

Southampton Fast Twitch Triathlon
On Sunday, Jonny Woodhouse and Abigail Sollars took on the Southampton Triathlon, a 400m pool swim, 20km cycle and 5km run. Fortunately, they did not have the problem of a cold swim, but still windy and cold on the bike and run.
This was the first sprint distance triathlon for both Jonny and Abigail, taking place at the Applemore Leisure Centre in Dibden Purlieu.

After waiting in the freezing cold car park prior to their swim, Jonny and Abigail completed the swim in 10:34 and 13:48 respectively. Both were pleased with the swim as they are fairly new to swimming and lost lots of training time during covid19 lockdown.

Jonny had a super bike split of 42:51, riding through the New Forest, even having been often stopped by the ponies on a couple of occasions. A fast run of 22:22 saw him finish with an overall time of 1:18:34 and placing him well within his target of finishing in the top 50 males.
Abigail had a solid bike and run of 55:14 and 32:09 to complete her first sprint triathlon in 1:47:46.
Well done to both of them and we wish them continued success in their triathlon journey.

Outlaw X
Richard Bulmer travelled further north to take on the Outlaw X, a middle distance triathlon, taking place in the grounds of Thoresby Park, Nottinghamshire.

The swim took place in Thoresby lake, but the distance was cut from the 1900m/1.2 mile to 750m due to the lake temperature being very low.
The 56 mile bike course took the cyclists through the north Nottinghamshire countryside with the 13.1 mile run meandering through the grounds of the historic Thoresby Park.

Richard had a super swim of 13:47 and entered T1 in 3rd position in the Vet 55-59 category. However, he dropped a few places on the bike and run courses, posting a solid 3:08:42 for the cold and windy bike course and 1:55:53 for the run, to finish in an overall time of 5:29:24 and 13th from 45 in the 55-59 age group.
This was not his fastest time, but with the weather conditions and having been out of run training for some time due to injury, this was a good result for Richard.

Wight Tri Beach Clean
For those not racing at the weekend, Wight Tri member Janet Fletcher organized a `Beach Clean` at Totland Bay. An amazing amount of rubbish was collected and prevented from going into the sea and removed from the surrounding hedgerows, green spaces and footpaths. Thanks to Trevor McAlister, Dean Pike, Zoli Pike, Dexter Pike, Lucy Doorly, Rob Doorly, Blake Doorly, Max Doorly, Russ Mellor, Kim Purton, Neil Cooper, Alec Cooper, Craig Wilson, Louise Wilson, Kaitlin Wilson, Glyn Jenkins, Steve Dines, Alan Jones, Angela Tapster and Erin Tapster.