Weekend Round Up 7th 8th September
By the meteorological calendar, the first day of autumn is always 1 September. However you wouldn’t think we were in autumn judging by the continued pace of our weekly training sessions and race calendar with yet more podium’s to report on – read on:-
SOUTHWATER RELAYS
The weather forecast had been a cause of concern with thunder, lightning and heavy rain all forecast. Historically Southwater had seen the three team members race in turn starting only when the previous person had finished but the extreme forecast saw a late change. The traditional mass start for the first team member applied, but the second team members were gradually dropped into the water once the first swimmers were all out of the lake. The third athletes followed in similar fashion soon after.
As it transpired the weather did improve beforehand and the headquarters at Southwater Lake escaped the rain, although marshals did report rain out on the bike course at Coolham. The quicker throughput of athletes worked well meaning more cyclists were out before the roads became busier and a large crowd remained for the presentation
Our “‘Tufftastic” teams were as follows:-
“Two Baldies and The Beast” comprising James Togneri, Ollie McDonald & Alex Webb
James, Ollie & Alex finished 4th team in their category agonisingly close to a podium missing out by 19 seconds which over a finish time of 2 hours 57 was very close. Our next team was a mixed team. Entering a mixed team requires at least one ‘Open’ & one ‘Female’ being the format to score points for the BTF South East Region Senior Series of which Tuff Fitty are participants. 70% of the teams racing this year were mixed teams and our first mixed team also returned a finish time under three hours securing 6th position in the Vet mixed team race finishing just 1minute behind our men’s team; they were.-
‘Tuff old Gits’ comprising Mark Walford, Niki Treacy & Simon Thistlethwaite.
Nathan Cooper was in a team with his cricket club and he was one of the quickest Tuffs with a split of just 57:25. more good finishes followed:-
‘Just a Liddell Double Dom‘ were Dom Amey, Dominique Noiret & Graham Liddell
Dom explains; ‘I first did Southwater relays roughly 20 years ago and I’ve done it a good few times since then. It’s always great fun, the relay format means that the event centre is generally buzzing with triathletes who are waiting to race or have just come back. The compressed relay format of this year (people racing legs 2 and 3 didn’t have to wait for a teammate to tag them, they just had a rolling start) didn’t change that as much as I had expected and we were lucky that the pessimistic forecast of rain didn’t come to much so people did hang around’.
‘Another new feature this year, they installed an underwater hedge for us to swim through. That wasn’t quite such a good update to be honest’.
‘But as a fast and furious end of season blast with plenty of Tuffs on hand to provide a superb atmosphere, it didn’t disappoint. Would thoroughly recommend for new and old triathletes alike’.
Dom
‘Top Tuffs‘ comprised Barry Davids, Dan Lawrence and Kate Cooper
Our Head Coach Barry Davids certainly delivers as he was one of our five to return a split time of under the hour joining James Togneri, Ollie MDonald, Nathan Cooper and Mark Walford beating the 60 minute barrier. Mark was our quickest Tuff in 53:35 positioning himself in the top ten individual splits. Next team :-
‘And then there were three‘ formed of Sheila Bailey, Simon Grundy & Mark Walford.
Readers may wonder if there has been a typo as Mark Walford’s name appears twice. This was not a mistake as due to some last minute team changes they were a member short; he gamely agreed to race twice. However this plan looked to be in jeopardy when the start times were compressed but Mark dealt with it in style. Mark reports- ‘Was so nice taking the second one at a calmer pace, lake by myself was beautiful. I was relaxed on the bike at the start but when someone overtook, that was it, I went racing again. Our next teams finishing within 1m 15 of each other were:-
The Generation Gap – Andy Tester, Darcie Lacey & Les Pearce.
Try Tuffs – Spencer Scott, Emma Hinton & Adrian Oliver
One and a half minutes later a strong men’s team and a further 1m 2 sec were another of our mixed teams:-
‘Go Jonny Go’, comprising Adam Stringer, Jon Halom & Karl Halom.
‘Your Pace or Mine’ were Lucy Goldsmith, Phil Scales and Leah Simms.
Leah has written about her team’s adventure:- ‘Unfortunately, my two team mates Karly and Paul Martin had to withdraw from our relay team and I had 48 hrs to try and find two more tuffs to complete our team’.
‘I was in two minds to pull out too as I haven’t trained at all since May due to moving house and some health issues but thankfully Lucy Goldsmith and Phil Scales answered my SOS call on Spond therefore I couldn’t back out now’.
‘In view of the ever changing weather, we were due heavy rain and thunderstorms so the format was slightly changed for our safety. Rather than ‘tagging’ your team mate 2 and 3 after the run, we were all set off in waves to try and finish before the weather changed’.
‘The swim! This needs a whole paragraph in itself. We were told there were some ‘weeds’ and this year they’re worse than they have been for years and ‘you’ll certainly feel them as you swim over it’. Well…. That was an understatement indeed, they were hideous. It was like swimming in a bog of ‘triffids’, they wrapped around your feet, hands and face and some swimmers either swam head out of water breaststroke or freestyle or holding onto paddle boards just to get some breath. Others I hear were lucky. The worst of it was on the swim out, it was a lot easier on the way back. I’ve been educated thanks to Emma Hinton that they were Coontail Pondweed, I’ll still call them triffids’.
‘The rest of the race went relatively well, traffic wasn’t bad on the bike and i never prepare myself for that incline on the run twice!’
‘All in all always a good event, the positives in that we beat the weather and it’s always fun racing as a team. The tuff support is great. The negatives, due to the weather and the format changing we didn’t see our teammates sadly. And, the pond weed …. Enough said’
Leah
Ross Court was also racing taking part with his open water swim buddies with his team 27 seconds behind Your pace or Mine.
‘Homer, Marge & Bart‘ which as the name implies included Colin & Sue Simpson with Ro Harrington
Colin Simpson has written in with his thoughts on the morning :- After 23 years avoiding what used to be our annual end of season blast….Sue and I decided to return to Southwater…needing a third we managed to persuade my brother in law Roland to come out of retirement and become Bart Simpson for the day…. i volunteered for the opening leg but due to lack of swimming stayed out of the washing machine start…then I hit the spiky weed..something hooked my leg and as Sue will testify I am a big baby in open water so thought a pike or giant snake had me….think it was just someone grabbing my ankle.All went well with the weeds wrapped round my face till the exit…i ‘decided’ to keep right and missed the pontoon.trying to climb up the slippery side was impossible and the outstretched helping hand didn’t reach me (fear of being dragged in?).
‘Transition slow…Bike uneventful but slow…Run slow due to recent breathing problems. However i really enjoyed the buzz again and despite sub 55mins a thing of the past will return. Sue was delighted to be the fastest swimmer of us 3 had a good bike but hated the run. Roland after 6 years retired had our fastest split…we are still working on getting him signed up…He also took up my statto role and informed us that officially (no 114yr olds!) Sue was 3rd oldest lady in the event and i was the oldest overall!! so Tuff’s did win something . Personally i like the old format but appreciate this may have to be a thing of the past with traffic as it is….perhaps have three staggered mass starts to give everyone the taste?
Colin
The strong club turnout meant a procession of teams completing the 400m swim 18km cycle, and the 3.8km run. Overall there were some strong split times despite the conditions and great to see several completing their first ever Southwater Relays.
. ‘Tri Harder‘ featuring this year’s Outlaw racers of Ness Green, Mark Sole & Elaine Rousseau
‘Give it a go‘ with Alistair Evans, Debbie Birch & Chris Evans.
This completes the roll call of our illustrious 37 racers. Super work from everyone having to deal with the weed and whilst the weather was better than predicted there were slippery conditions to contend with. In addition, on the Raw Energy organising team there were. Debbie Boxall, Jane Custance, Clive Harvey, Trevor Harvey, Grant Smalley & Andy Ward. Thanks also go to Vicki Hedger and Debbie Gatland who came up to cheer. Click on the photo gallery below – thanks to the picture album compiled by Adam & Clive
James and Clare on Bournemouth beach
BOURNEMOUTH INTERNATIONAL TRIATHLON
One of the oldest Triathlons on the Southcoast, the start for each of sprint, standard and aquathlons was on the sandy beach adjacent to Bournemouth Pier. We had a Tuff duo in the form of James Mapley and Clare Worgan, both of whom submitted their thoughts.
James is continuing his build up to the European Sprint Championships in Vichy later this month and advised about this weekend’s race:-
I had a good swim, and the bike was good save as for the traffic lights. and my run was OK. I came out of T2 with the other two chaps, but their running was epic. 3rd Overall and 2mins quicker than two years ago when I last competed here’
James
‘After going long last year I decided to have a change this season, inspired by Mr Walford I booked a place at the standard distance qualifier in Bournemouth, because why not!’
‘I loved the swim. Calm, warm, clear sea, with a nice obvious course, which kept me heading in the right direction. I left the water with a 1500m pb and very proud of myself’.
‘A quick wave to fellow Tuff, James, (on his way to smash the sprint distance) as I ran up the “zig zag mountain” to transition, and I was off onto the bike’
‘Then the heavens opened!! I’ve had two falls recently, one was in the rain and one was on a roundabout, so when I saw the two together, fear struck! I pulled up my bravery pants, gave myself a pep talk and hoped for the best. The roads were like rivers at points, fortunately the route is mostly long, straight and flat, which suited me nicely. I was extremely relieved to get off the bike and happily surprised with a 30km pb. A lovely little confidence booster for the future’.
‘The driving rain on the run reminded me of the Frosty but I always enjoy the Frosty so no excuses there. I gave the run all I had, crossing the line one happy triathlete. Nowhere near qualifying but a good day out. It’s totally inspiring to see the age groupers do their thing and huge respect to James at the top of his podium’.
Clare
Janet on the podium
HOKEY COKEY SWIMRUN GRIBBIN
Janet Shepherd has just returned from from a long weekend in Cornwall with friend Tiffany and their other other halves. Janet has kindly reported in from a very successful event. We have a great podium shot but also a copy of the route below illustrating what a tough course they faced:-
‘My training partner Tiffany and myself completed our first SwimRun last May and decided we had to do another one this year – if only to get value from our SwimRun suits’.
We were so impressed with Mad Hatter Events when we did their Charlestown Hokey Cokey (in and out of the water) events last time. This year we elected for their Gribben Hokey Cokey, Fowey, Cornwall. It comprised 13 stages; 6 swims totalling 4.7km and 7 runs totalling 17.9 km – all in the same kit.
Having arrived in pouring rain on Thursday we did a dry weather walk recce on Friday. Checking out the rocky swims from the south west coast path above as there are no buoys to guide you in the water; just small yellow entry and exit flags.
On the Saturday of the event we were blessed with perfect light winds and dry but cloudy weather. We just aimed to complete and enjoy; and envisaged taking about 5 hours. However it was rather disturbing to have the run sweepers right behind us on the first leg down to the coast! The swims were lovely and clear with no jellyfish encounters – albeit one involved wading through undergrowth and having to lower ourselves down on a rope to rocks to get in and then pull ourselves up on ropes to get out! The undulations of the coast path were less pleasurable.
But just over five hours later, with an against current final swim and uphill run to the finish we finished as last of the long course teams. Albeit we’d heard along the way that other team pairs had split and others had reverted to the short course. So imagine our suprise at being invited at the finish to get up onto the podium to revive our prize for second place long course female team!
Another fantastic, well organised but incredibly friendly SwimRun around a stunning bit of coastline. I can certainly recommend it.
Janet
DAVENTRY TRIATHLON
Starting from Daventry leisure centre, Fraser Kidd selected this sprint triathlon. Whilst Fraser reports below stating it wasn’t his best race, he modestly neglects to say in his competitive age group secured the fastest swim split and pulled himself up the results on the run.:-
‘The day didn’t start to well as the Travelodge (we were staying at in Northampton) fire alarm went off at 1am. We don’t know why but what we do know is they struggled to reset and it went on for sometime. Not ideal. Regardless, I chose this Sprint Triathlon (150 miles from Rustington), hosted by Rugby Triathlon Club, as I grew up in Daventry, Northamptonshire for the first 19 years of my life. I also swam for Daventry Dolphins and worked at the leisure centre from ages 16-19, starting off in the cafe, before moving onto lifeguarding and management!’
‘The sprint triathlon is made up of a 400m pool swim, 20km bike around the Northamptonshire and Warwickshire countryside, and 5km run around Daventry Country Park. The whole event certainly made me feel nostalgic. I swam well, but struggled on the bike to get a rhythm. Though it wasn’t a tough course, I just didn’t have it in me to push hard. For the run, I got through it, but felt ugly. Disappointed overall, it was tough, lacking energy throughout’.
Fraser
TUFF FITTY’S TRACK 10K
“I wonder what time I could get for the 10k if the route is flat” was a question Tuff Fitty answered by holding our inaugural 10k held on Worthing Running Track. Our master of ceremony this time was Adrian Oliver controlling the splits and time for the runners, ably assisted by Les Pearce. As well as bringing along the Tuff gazebo, flag and hydration station, Adrian has submitted his report of the evening:-
STRun2024 Race #5 @ Worthing Track
’18 competitors eagerly awaited the start of the 10km STRun race at Worthing Track – 25 laps of the 400m track, with Les Pearce and Adrian Oliver pretending to act as timers, lap counters and cheerleaders, and Alex Webb keeping everyone on their toes by running his own 12 x 400m sprints!
Due to the REP Dawn on the Downs cancellation, the 5th STRun race was rescheduled to replace our Wednesday evening track session, allowing everyone to attempt their 10km PB in ideal conditions – flat, fast and minimal wind.
Before this race, the STRun leaderboard was topped by Mark Walford with an Age Grade total of 213.9, Colin Simpson with 205.5, and Marc Flinders with 203.9. However, Nikki T, Bob Rogers, Steve Fryer, Rhian S, and Mark Sole had only completed two events, while the leaders had already completed three. How much upset could this latter group cause to the leaderboard if they raced their 3rd and final race?!
After warming up, setting up drinks on the drinks table, and eyeing the refuelling Haribo Double Troubles, the eager 18 competitors were off on their 25 laps on a cool, still, dry evening. Immediately, Marc Flinders set a vigorous pace, in hot pursuit by Phil Scales, Steve Fryer and Stuart Harvey.
Each competitor surely and steadily ticked off each of their 25 laps to complete the full 10km – the only DNF was Barry, who had decided to stop after 5km.
With STRun events based on Age Grade (http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmaroad15.html), had Marc, Phil, Steve or Stuart done enough?! Marc completed the 10km in 40:54, just missing sub-40 minutes, Phil in 41:34, Steve in 42:33, and Stuart in 43:39. Then came Sam Mahe in 47:43, Mark Sole in 47:59, Nikki Treacy in 48:48 as 1st lady, Ed Lay in 49:44, Clive Harvey in 53:51, Kate Cooper in 54:11, Rhian S in 54:20, Adam Stringer in 55:06, Susan Douglas in 1:04:27, Al Evans in 1:04:54 and Janet Shepherd in 1:09:01
Once the Age Grade results were calculated, the results were completely turned on their head, with Nikki Treacy being launched into 1st place with an AG of 78.62%, with Steve Fryer and Phil Scales beating the younger Marc Flinders, who had a rapid Clive Harvey hot on this tail!
So the new STRun 2024 Leader board has Nikki T scoring 256.98 (that’s averaging an age-grade of 85%!), Mark Walford in 2nd with 213.9, and Steve Fryer in 3rd with 212.51.
The final table for 2024 can be found on the STRun website which is HERE
When you analyse everyone’s performance in the context of their Age Group result, you realise what a fantastic group of athletes Tuff Fitty has, with most of you who competed in this years STRun having best Age Group results of 60% or above (that would be equivalent to running a 5km ParkRun in 21:38 if you were 21 years old!) – you are all amazing!
Great STRun racing everyone and looking forward to STRun 2025!
Adrian
Claire, Steve & Sue
WEST SUSSEX FUN RUN LEAGUE – TILGATE
From the K2 centre at Crawley the latest Fun run league event was a five miler in Tilgate forest. There were four Tuffs in attendance; Steve Fryer as our first runner, then Steve Feest and Sue Pinky. Clare Moyle was there to support Arunners and two of her family who were racing. Sue Pinky has reported in:-
‘Saints and sinners Tilgate 5ish was an absolute mudfest! I have no idea how I managed to stay upright, very enjoyable run and perhaps my favourite of all the league runs.
Lovely to see Claire and Stephen at the start.
Stunning route and thankfully the rain held off until everyone had finished’
Sue
Kate
FINDON VALLEY 5K
A new 5k run supported by Findon Valley residents association raising money for Prostate Cancer support, with a route through the streets of Findon Valley, up into Cissbury Fields, and then downhill for the final stretch. Kate Evans took part with members of her running club helping to raise money for this good cause.
PARKRUN ROUND UP
Starting at Littlehampton parkrun, there was a high turnout, in part due to Bognor parkrun not being held. Steve Fryer had a great run crossing the line in just 20:00 finishing in the morning’s top ten age grading, before racing the next day. Adrian Oliver ran ahead of his participation in the Southwater Relays Amy & Fraser Kidd ran. Fraser was on pacing duty with his triathlon the next morning and it is great to report that Amy achieved a new PB shaving 51 seconds off her previous best at this location. Claire Moyle ran having just returned from her impressive stint out in Paris for the Paralympics acting as a games maker volunteer. How about Chris Evans. Whilst you might have expected him to take things easy with Southwater the next day, Chris punched out a new PB for the third consecutive week, improving by a further 9 seconds. Alistair Evans was another one on Littlehampton seafront when he was also attending Southwater the next day. Debbie Birch and Hope Newcomer were on the volunteer team for a strong Tuff nine.
Worthing parkrun saw Dave March as our first runner home in just 21:17. Paul Fielder finished with a strong age grade. Edward Lay was our third runner completing his 180th parkrun. Elaine Rousseau was another one racing Southwater the next day. Sue PInky completed her 137th run to see five Tuffs finish in Bach House Park.
Another seafront course is Southsea parkrun where Trevor and Clive Harvey ran with Trev completing his 125th parkrun
The furthest parkrun tourism this week was up at Hereford parkrun where Katie Young ran two laps around the race course. This was Katie’s fourth run at Hereford chieving a new PB by a margin of12 seconds. Katie submitted the above photo stating ‘It was very misty, muggy, & a wet Hereford, but still loved it’.
Well done to all seventeen
TUFF FITTY’S MONDAY EVENING RUN
The above photo was taken on Monday 9th September as part of Tuff Fitty’s regular Monday evening runs at 6:30pm. Some strong mileage has been accumulated over the past few months as well as taking in the great scenery of the Angmering Park Estate and lower reaches of the South Downs. However the darker evenings are now drawing in, and more likely, softer muddier terrain. The regular runners have concluded that it is now time to switch to a winter route from Monday 16th September.
Monday 16th September at 6:30pm will see the weekly run commencing from the car park alongside the Prom at Sea lane in Goring, next to the cafe. Whether you have attended the summer sessions or fancy a Worthing seafront run, everyone will be most welcome. As a promenade out and back route the runners will be heading Eastwards towards Lancing for a duration of circa 1 hour. if sufficient numbers we can have different groups who can turn and collect other runners as they head back. As the evenings continue to draw in, do please use this uncoached session as a motivation to head out. There will be a mix of abilities with several using the run as a recovery run following races at the weekend, so do come and try a session for yourself.
RESPECT POWER HOUR
Tuff Fitty’s Respect Power Hour is rapidly approaching. So called as Wednesday 18th September is ‘Respect Day’ Our Captains will organise participants into teams of three trying to get a similar mix of abilities with runners adopting a continuous relay format of 400m. The Power Hour means that runners keep going to see which teams can amass the most number of laps in the 60 minutes. To be in a team YOU MUST register on Spond before 7pm on Sunday 15th September. Going to be fun – will you be one of our new champions?
