Wow ..... & Ow!
21 May 2010
Yesterday was an incredible day.
The Mountain Triathlon was a great success, all 40 athletes completed the event and we had no injuries. There was an excited nervousness as the teams gathered at 07.15 at the start. Each of the teams sizing up their opposition.
For the first half mile there was plenty of banter with no one team wanting to really strike out in front. At the mile mark there seemed to be two distint groups a leading pack consisting of FIA, SFG, Hel Risers, Famous 5 & 007 Heaven, although all 10 teams passed through the first check point within 12 minutes of each other.
The scamble up Swirral edge was daunting in the swirling cloud but by the summit FIA had pulled out a 5 minute lead over 007 Heaven. The drop down off the ridge had to be made with extreme care in the difficult conditions but all the teams navigated safely down below the cloud line again. Once visibility was restored all the teams could see where they were in relation to the others and the racing stepped up a gear. 007 Heaven closed down on FIA and nearly caught them at the end of the mountain section coming in only 2 minutes behind. A further 6 minutes later the Famous 5 team completed.
With only two teams having actually trained together for the paddling this section on Ullswater was always going to be a question of how quickly the teams could adapt and find their rhythm. The stars of the water were Trouble & Strife. They were last off the mountain but then they instigated their joker. With the wind picking up a little most of the teams were battling increasingly difficult conditions. Kim & Kirsty in the front of the Trouble & Strife boat were however delighted as they opened their golfing umbrellas and literally sailed passed other teams. Up at the front though FIA put in a very strong performance with the paddles and extended their lead over the chasing pack by a further 9 minutes.
The cycling section posed not only a physical challenge but also decision making on routes and navigation. At this stage of the day the bodies were beginning to complain with cramp becoming increasingly common, the brains were also starting to go in some cases and 007 Heaven made an error that cost them at least 10 minutes. FIA were way out infront at this stage so the error did not effect their assault on the lead. It did however make the battle for 2nd & 3rd very interesting. Alun from Famous 5 was driving his team on the bikes using all his cycling experience to help his team mates. However, they could not quite close the gap and finished 8 minutes behind the second place 007 Heaven. The Inept 4 put in a great ride to pull themselves up the rankings after a tricky time on the lake but the champagne moment of the cycling section was delivered by SOBER. Bruce was apparently moving smoothly up a fairly severe climb when Caroline appeared on his right moving far faster, he was not too demoralised as Caroline has a very strong cycling pedigree. What did make him hang his head was the fact that Trevor appeared immediately after Caroline hanging onto a tow rope – yes she was pulling him up the hill and still moving faster than Bruce.
All the teams finished with huge smiles on their faces and extraordinarily tired limbs. It was a remarkable day in an inspiring setting inspired by an amazing lady’s memory.
The fund raising has accelerated in the last 2 weeks and it is hoped that funds will continue to flow in for the athletes in the next few days. The pain felt today will be a small price to pay for the gift that the money will allow the charities to give to cancer sufferers.
A huge thank you to all the helpers and of course the athletes who have done so much to make this event a success in raising imprtant funds for Sophie’s charities