Weekend Round Up 9th 10th July

BRIGHTON BEACH AQUATHLON – THE SWIMMERS REVENGE

Driving rain; tick. Leaden skies; tick. Strong wind; tick; mountainous seas; tick – hey it must be summer!  The occasion was Brighton Beach Aquathlon also known as the Swimmers Revenge. What starts as an 800m Swim 5k Aquathlon then has a sting in the tail with a further 400m swim; hence the Swimmers Revenge. The organisers had warned everyone it would be “Bumpy but fun”, but that statement hadn’t appeared to inspire as there were some no shows and few, if any entries on the day. Just circa 26 competitors although with a trio of Tuffs, our club represented 11% of the field.  Susan Douglas, Trev Harvey and Clive Harvey.  Susan, as a true open water swimmer, was one of the few to be -non wetsuit.

The start saw competitors run down the beach and into the waters struggling to avoid getting knocked back onto the beach. The four buoys (in a square) were tiny making sighting difficult and with a very strong current conditions were challenging. Clive stroked boldly out to a buoy he had seen before realising his schoolboy error – wrong buoy, but most others were encountering similar difficulties trying to sight. An Australian turn then back into the surf for another lap before embarking on a 5k run. Conditions out at sea were starting to worsen with the few spectators already having taken cover. The quicker runners jumped back in for the third lap of the swim to battle the current and waves which by now virtually all were topped with breakers. Protocol for the final 400m is just grab the goggles and hat (no wetsuit) to save time but at least the water temperature was good. Trev was first Tuff to run up the beach followed by Clive & Susan. Unfortunately some further down the field were prohibited from starting the final swim because of the conditions.  The final results showed that just 17 people finished  which illustrated that this was a challenging Aquathlon.

Good work from Tuff’s in the Ruff

PARK RUN

Simone Scott kept her consistent Park Run record going. At the Worthing Park Run she was 3rd female overall in 21:55. Chris Whinnett opened his Worthing account crossing in 22:10.

What have you been up to?  You have worked hard for your latest result.  Whilst you may have the medal or T-shirt; please find the time to report in with where you have been racing. A picture would also be brilliant.  Please email clive.harvey@tinyworld.co.uk