Weekend Round Up 20th 21st August
Phew, the Tuff action continues apace, despite being in the middle of the summer holidays. Tuff specials included our own Swimmers Revenge and London Olympic day, both justifying their own articles, and we have a fantastic achievement from Verity-Jane Lacey about to be published as she completed her first Ironman, in some style, at Ironman Kalmer. All this and that still left time for many more impressive Tuff achievements as follows.
BOSPHORUS CROSS_CONTINENTAL SWIMMING RACE
The Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race won the Best Open Water Swimming Race in the world in 2016. With fierce competition for places, applications within Turkey face qualifiers for the 2000 available places, whilst the separate overseas allocation was snapped up within 12 hours. Such a great location is this week’s banner photo. Janet Shepherd received an entry; what a great event to do, so thanks to Janet for reporting in:-
“As I’ve been a bit evasive lately when asked by various people about any events I have coming up I thought I should let you know that I completed the 6.5 km Bosphorous Cross Continental Swim in Istanbul yesterday morning – swimming from Asia to Europe in a time of 1 hour 15 minutes – 13th out of 25 women in my age group – if only it had been next year when I’d be in the 65 – 69 year old category and would have come in a third podium position”.
“The swim is from Kanlica Pier in Asia to Kuruçeşme Cemil Topuzlu Park in Europe. I was reluctant to mention to any Tuffs that I’d entered to do this over two years ago as I’m not entirely sure I thought I could do it myself, particularly within the two hour time limit, and thought others were likely to think the same. Fortunately, two Covid deferments gave me time to benefit from Tuff coaching in the pool and experience in different sea conditions.”
“It was an amazing atmospheric event, organised by the Turkish Olympic Committee, with nearly 2,500 swimmers from around the world aged from 14 to over 80 taking part. The Hove based swim holiday company, Swim Trek, are allocated all the UK places and, because demand for places is high, you have to go into a ballot to get one – and that’s after after filling out application forms, getting swim coach sign off and paying for a private medical. The usual very busy Bosphorous Strait is closed to shipping for the duration of the race (hence the two hour cut off). No wetsuits are allowed and no jewelry, watches of any kind nor long nails (they were even cutting off long nails before they allowed those with them them to board the ferries to the start)!”
“We were taken on a boat on Saturday morning to recce the route and given land reference points to aim for in order to get the best route and to pick up the positive rather than negative currents – mainly down the very centre of the Strait; so somewhat daunting to be a long way from land with no route buoys to follow and no guiding kayaks. Unfortunately, the positive current wasn’t particularly strong this year. Negotiating the correct path into the finish across currents was the toughest, trickiest part and some people overshot and either had to struggle to back or ended up as a DNF. The water wasn’t too salty and almost too clear for my liking as it gave a good view of some of the large jellyfish deep down below (only a few smaller ones on the surface near the finish and I came out unscathed). I certainly appreciated the Tribourne pier jump experience when having to jump off the lower start platform into the water as it was pretty much a free for all in terms of timing. One of the other Brits injured her ankle in a collision with a swimmer coming up from the jump under the water below her”.
“I’m afraid I don’t have any event pictures as we were advised not to take mobiles to the event. A shame as I would really have loved to have had a video of the 2,500 competitors waiting on board the three ferries for the start platform to be put together alongside us. The chatter noise was deafening, lots of international camaraderie and interesting people watching with pre-race exercising/posing! by people of all ages, shapes and sizes in an array of swimming costumes. However, you can see a few pictures of the event on the official website here that give a flavour of the course etc https://bogazici.olimpiyatkomitesi.org.tr/en/notices# “
“The only photos I have are those attached of my Horsham Amphibian friend Tiffany and I registering the day before in the event village and having a celebratory beer afterwards wearing our medals. We actually had to buy our finishers medals as only those with podium places get given these. But we were given specially printed finishers towels, t-shirts and swim hats”.
Janet
ACTION MEDICAL RESEARCH – GARMIN RIDE OUT 2022
Starting from Moyle Court School north of Ringwood which many Tuffs know from Triathlons in the area, the Garmin Ride out packed in a lot with breakfast, lunch, goodies, plus Garmin sponsored pro teams & other pro’s such a triathlete Beth Potter and cyclists Jon Mould & Matt Rowe on hand. Included amongst this illustrious crowd was Sheila Bailey who has reported in from her time in the saddle:-
“What a fantastic event!
I saw this advertised on Instagram, contacted them to make sure it was a road event as they have both on road and off road, it was indeed a 52mile on road ride.
I checked out the route on their site and it looked hilly but I was sure it was going to be ok. I spoke to a couple of other Tuff’s but no one wanted to come with me, even though the goodie haul looked great, so I went for it on my own.
Registration was any time between 7:30 and 9:30 so I took the opportunity to arrive at 8:30 and chillout. Got my riders pack that included my Garmin ride out jersey, then wandered around the area and grabbed myself some free SIS products, Iced coffee’s my breakfast of a bacon bap and coffee. Got my bike ready and racked it in prep for the off at 11am. There was a Q&A session prior to the start which I listened to with interest.
I noticed at 10.30 people were heading to the start line so with my nervous getting worse the longer I was hanging around I headed off to join the next wave of riders. Everyone seemed very happy and friendly. We had a quick ride briefing which reminder us that we would be riding past wild animals, including horses and cows! I had thought about this previously but had blocked it out, I mean who really loves riding near horses and cows.
The ride was indeed hilly, hillier than I had thought, I really must learn more about elevation on a route. There was beautiful scenery, horses, cows, pigs and donkeys that didn’t attack me, I even enjoyed the hills although my quads were not happy when I made them go up the last two extremely steep hills in the last 8k but I made it in a not to shabby time of 4 hours.
On arriving back at the finish area, there was a medal, buff, helmet reflector, more freebies from SIS. Lunch of pizza, pulled pork bap and chips, alcohol free beer and a most wonderful yoga session”.
I cannot wait to go back next year, after I have done a bit more hill training 😊
Sheila
LIDO LONG SWIM
With a bumper crop of Tuff events (Swimmers Revenge & London Trips in separate reports) Friday night became Lido night with a difference. Uncoached, no sets put out and swimmers able to have a gentle swim as the sun dipped behind the Castle or use the two hour session to pound out the lengths. There were a couple of very impressive swim tallies accumulated, most notable of these was Liz Francis Gordon, who powered through the 5k mark and beyond as a good confidence boost towards her River Dart 10k swim little more than a week away. Thanks to everyone who attended, the session received great reviews.
PENINSULA SEA SPRINT TRIATHLON
The Ards Peninsula was the location for a further Triathlon for our Northern Irish based Tuff, Matthew Whittaker. His return to form continues with another great results at Peninsula Sea Sprint Triathlon. A 750m swim in Dee harbour was followed by a 27km bike along the coast to Bangor before a 5k run out to the lighthouse Another great finish as a 5k run of just 18:47 took Matt to 14th overall.
PARKRUN ROUND UP
Some great parkrun milestones reached this week
Littlehampton parkrun saw Steve Fryer as first Tuff home in 20:33, a run that achieved his 50th parkrun, no doubt his T-shirt will be on its way shortly. Richard Budd was next home in 22:13. Good to see Steve Bridgeman back on the parkrun scene after two years working abroad. Jenny Oliver also ran with Steve submitting the above photo of Jenny in action. Nick Hartfield was on the organising team
Maidenhead parkrun saw another recipient achieve his 50th parkrun as Trevor Harvey continued his recovery from an operation
St Albans parkrun saw Alistair Evans fit in his weekly parkrun fix as he completed his 97th PR 3 times around a lake in Verulaamium Park . (see above photo)
Sue & Colin Simpson are great parkrun tourists with this week seeing them both run up in Northolt, London at the Northala Fields parkrun. That’s an incredible 61 different parkrun locations for Colin with Sue completing over 50 venues
Worthing parkrun had less Tuffs on parade but strong running from Phil Turner on his 83rd PR & Elaine Rousseau completed her 136th
Tamar Lakes parkrun was the venue chosen by Catharine Western this weekend, a notable course as the route takes in both Devon and Cornwall.
Hove prom parkrun saw Kate Evans in action as she met up with a group from her running club.
Emily Vaz also ran somewhere different this weekend, completing the course at Reigate Priory parkrun. . A further great result crossing the line as 1st female overall in 20:40
There hasn’t been a Lancing parkrun for a few weeks but they are back on the 27th August for their fourth anniversary celebration .
That’s 8 different parkrun locations – well done to all 13 runners.
