Weekend Round Up 12th 13th February
SUSSEX CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE – FIXTURE 4 BEXHILL
Thank you to everyone who supported Tuffs team effort for the 2021/22 league. Special thanks to team Manager Adrian Oliver who reports in below:-
“February can only mean one thing: final race of the Sussex Cross Country League: Bexhill!”
“Two years ago we all toddled over to Bexhill for Race #4 of the 2019/2020 league season – one month later we were in full lockdown #1. Jenny and myself had just come out of 2 weeks quarantine following returning from Thailand in January – as Alex Webb said at the time: “Quarantine?! What’s THAT?!” Now we are all too familiar with that word…”
“Although the 2020 Bexhill race was also a beautiful sunny and dry day, the months of rain had turned the route into a mud-skating rink. So we approached the 2022 Bexhill race with much trepidation…how muddy will this be? Perhaps snow crampons might be a good idea after all?”
“Kate Cooper and Alex Webb had arrived earlier in the day and sent out their intrepid scouts to evaluate the course (disguised as their junior racers). Their reports indicated that it was pretty much dry – although Alex’s daughter repeatedly reprimanded her dad for failing to mention the second hill! She was bought-off with chocolate – LOTS of chocolates!”
“Being further travelling distance for most, attendance in this Bexhill event was much lower that previous races – which played in our favour!”
“Once the Tuff Fitty flag was suitably erected near the finish, time to watch the competitors of earlier youth races come in…introducing us to new racing terms:- AOSOTL (All Out Sprint Over The Line), COTL (Collapse Over The Line), CANMOTL (Collapse And Need Medic Over The Line) and VOTL (Vomit Over The Line). For us triathletes, isn’t the run normally the bike warm-down?”
After a proper warmup, Juliette Reader and Kate Cooper were off on their 3miles/5km ladies race – 1 shorter loop, 2 longer loops. Both performed brilliantly fending off competitors to complete their races without needing any of those “new terms”, with Juliette finishing in 35th in 25:18, and Kate in 53rd in 27:53 (winner finished in 19:56 with CANMOTL). The Tuff Fitty ladies team finish 14th for this race despite only having 2 out of 4 runners.”
“As usual, the boys spent much of their warmup time selecting which chocolates were to be eaten as part of their post-race recovery nutrition, as well as cheering the ladies, before Mark Walford, Alex Webb, Simon Thistlethwaite and Adrian Oliver were off for their 5miles/8km race of 4 laps. I unfortunately failed in my race plan which was not to be lapped – at least only the first 5 racers lapped me despite running a good 7 minutes faster than my previous 2020 race... Mark finished 39th in 32:24 (down from 89th in the previous race!), Alex in 48th in 33:50, Simon in 52nd in 34:22, and Adrian in 75th in 38:24 (winner finished in 27:08). The Tuff Fitty men’s team finished 4th in Division 2, and 7th in the Men’s Vet. In both cases, we beat Brighton Tri club (7th in Division 2 and 11th in Vet)!”
“The overall league results are yet to be pushed. However we suspect that Niki Treacy will maintain her 3rd overall place in her ladies age group – a truly amazing achievement considering the quality of the field! So that completes our very successful 2021/2022 Sussex Cross Country League Session – we fielded great teams for each of the 4 events, declaring that we are not only the South East Triathlon Club of 2021, but also the fastest in Sussex! Looking forward to the 2022/2023 season!
Editors postscript; The only person who could have deprived Niki of 3rd in her age group didn’t run; so it’s looking excellent when the final results and league tables do finally come out.
Click on the picture below to open the album:-
RUNNING GRAND PRIX – GOODWOOD CIRCUIT
Another of GP Running’s races at Goodwood Motor Circuit where often there are Tuff in amongst the 5k/10k/ Half/20m or marathon distance results. However this time there was just one Tuff present this time as Tiff Orton takes up the story:-.
“Date: Sunday 13th Feb
Location: Goodwood Motor Circuit
Distance: 10k (distances available 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon)
Goodie bag: great medal, beer, water, homemade flapjack, cereal bar and popcorn.
After last week’s epic ultra, this week’s 10k was a great way to check the legs still worked. I ran with my friend Lucy who was hoping for her first sub 1hr 10k and asked me to pace her. Well, the legs worked and our chip time was sub 59 minutes so mission accomplished!
A great event (very spectator friendly) and with the variety of distances and staggered starts, meant there were always plenty of people on the track. We were very lucky with the weather only having to contend with the wind (and not mine for a change!) and no rain”.
Tiffers
RUN YOUR HEART OUT 8k
A Fun Run league fixture, Tony Pearce ran this one under his running club banner. Starting on the running track at The K2 Crawley, the route covered a mixture of trail and pavement paths around Tilgate lakes, with some hills – good work Tony
PARKRUN
At Littlehampton parkrun Emma Hinton was first Tuff home in 22:45 crossing the line as 3rd female overall. Richard Budd was next across the line in 23:46. Linda Wright scored her 33rd parkrun. Alistair Evans took his tally to 72 parkruns. Helen White on her 4th parkrun improved her PB by 2 minutes & Nick Hartfield was on the organising team.
Bognor parkrun saw Vicky Cooper in action as she completed her 32nd parkrun.
Chichester parkrun saw another great result from Emily Moore as she racked up her 116th parkrun. Emily was just 3 seconds off second, but 3rd overall and 1st female is another fantastic achievement.
Across at Worthing parkrun the first Tuff home was Danny Cunnett in 21:50 for his 41st parkrun. Tony Pearce was next in 23:37, Dave March was next to finish for his 31st parkrun, Mark Sole was next to accrue his 20th run; & Nina Tully completed her 14th
Well done to all 13 who ran.
