Tuff Fitty Lido Race 3 August 18

This year’s third Club event at Arundel Lido saw a return to warm sunny weather and despite being in the holiday season, over 30 club members were in attendance.

The evening commenced by pairing people up to get combined times that would prove comparable over the swim and run.

There was a mass start with the first team member embarking on their 400m swim. As soon as they completed the 16 laps they had to ‘hi-five’ their teammate. This enabled that person to start on their swim whilst the first person pulled on their trainers for a run along the riverbank. Team tactics were used here as in general the ‘not so quick’  member would swim first and would start their run to be chased down by the second member to try and get both of them home first.

In the swim, Tuffs could see how Drew Gowland dealt with the opposition during last weeks GB duties as he stormed through the 400m in just 4:53, with some more speedy times from Coach Kev Pearson, practising what he preaches, Joe Pascoe & Anthony Towers. Five of our ladies all tagged their teammate at exactly the same time illustrating how close the racing was.  The run time included transition and one stile which had to be overcome. This was because a riverbank run route was chosen as the traditional Mill Road route was busy with the Festival street bar.  There were some strong run splits despite the riverbank terrain, with Joe Pascoe obtaining the fastest run split. Joe was reeling in Drew for the outright win but he had been hoping for a slightly longer run as Drew managed to hold him off by 20 seconds for first place overall. Kev took 3rd place just 23 seconds behind. Former Tuff Henry Teague-Smith has taken time off with his business, so it was great to see him come along with Juliette as Henry took fourth place. Tiff Orton was first female with a tie between Francesca Mordell & Juliette Reader for second in exactly the same time. The times listed below do not contain a typo, Francesca and Juliette really did both get exactly the same swim and run times. They did not cross the line together as one was the first time member to go and the other second which made the parity impressive.

Plenty of other club members were officiating, cooking or came just for the social and food. Once again Jon & Glenn slaved over a hot barbecue and Catharine Western provided her tasty salads which were well received again.  Trev Harvey, Tom Gray & Clive Harvey ensured the photographic and timing evidence were recorded, which are listed below, as the racers each received the customary piece of bling for crossing the line.

As the Lido closed a third of the attendees wandered over the Town Bridge to the Street bar set up in Jubilee Gardens where real ale and a very enlightening Burlesque show was being staged!   – see snap below! This rounded off another successful Tuff Summer Lido series.

(Footnote: The mystery of the unclaimed men’s trisuit, for two months was finally resolved when it’s rightful owner frantically realised as he was leaving for Arundel that his was missing. Chairman (aka lost property magnet) was relieved to finally offload, only to undertake a final sweep of the Lido to find……….. a left behind men’s trisuit!!. Oh no, back to square one again!)

	Swim	T1 + Run	Total
Drew Gowland	04:53	09:07	14:00
Joe Pascoe	06:03	08:17	14:20
Kev Pearson	05:50	08:53	14:43
Henry Teague-Smith	07:10	08:35	15:45
Matt Whittaker	07:05	08:51	15:56
Anthony Towers	06:19	09:52	16:11
Pete Littleboy	07:24	09:10	16:34
Olly Sampson	07:05	10:21	17:26
Ben Abbott	07:08	10:21	17:29
Tiff Orton	07:26	10:29	17:55
Francesca Mordell	07:26	11:09	18:35
Juliette Reader	07:26	11:09	18:35
Sharon Tidmarsh	09:14	10:27	19:41
Antony Oliver	08:51	11:07	19:58
Susan Douglas	07:26	13:33	20:59
Cathy Oliver	09:21	12:27	21:48
Chris Evans	08:10	14:20	22:30
Claire Moyle	10:05	15:19	25:24:00
Nancy Liddell	07:26	0
Graham Liddell	08:07	0

Click on the photo to page through the gallery.

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