APRIL: Roger qualifies for his 7th Hawaii IM. Jonathan and Nathan in Elite Du Champs. Paul V wins Anglian Water Duathlon. Sean in ETU Duathlon.

Roger Canham competed in the Ironman African Championships, fromNelson Mandela Bay in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on Sunday.

Distances were the usual Ironman distances of:

swim 2.4 miles.
bike 112 miles.
run 26.2 miles.

The temperature reached 31oC.

The organisers had to clear the water during the practice
swim on Thursday as there were Tiger Sharks by the pier!

This was an Ironman World Championship qualifying race for the World
Championships which are held in Kona, Hawaii, every October. Roger has
competed there 6 times already and on Sunday, he again qualified to
make this October his 7th Hawaii World Ironman Championships. Not an
easy feat, as the competition for places is very competitive and
worldwide.

74th Roger Canham Swim 01:05:28 - T1 04:50 - Bike 05:36:38 - T2 03:54
- Run 03:14:41 Total Time 10:05:31 Age Group 1st.
African Age Group Champion 50-54, 74th Overall.

------------

Steve Coombes competed at Hole Park in Cranbrook, Kent at the weekend
in the English National Cross Duathlon Championships.

This was a Mountain Bike Duathlon over the distances of:

run 6.25 miles

bike 16.25 miles

run 3 miles

Result:

19. Steve Coombes 47:37 79:39 28:54 = 2:36:10

---------------------

Meanwhile, the Elite Duathlon Championships were held at a
rather windy Rockingham Motor Racing Circuit at Corby. PACTRAC had 3
competitors over the various races.

Jonathan Oakey competed in the Youth race and gave a good account of
himself finishing just 3:56 minutes behind the winner.

36. Jonathan Oakey 8:57 19:50 4:52 = 33:39

Nathan Tweedie competed in the Junior race finishing 22nd overall and
just 6:52 minutes behind the winner, in a race that was split up in the
windy conditions. A few incidents and crashes on the bike meant that
the ensuing Elite Men's and Women's races were both reduced to just a
6.25 mile (10km) running race, with no biking, as the wind picked up
significantly.

Neil Tandy's Elite race was, therefore, just a run and he pulled out
after half-way, not wanting to aggravate a recurring injury.

Both Jonathan and Nathan received points towards the British Youth and
junior Super Series.

22. Nathan Tweedie 16:48 39:32 10:06 = 66:26

----------------

The triathlon season has started and the PACTRAC Juniors
have started very well;

11 of our Juniors competed in the Duathlon at
Scampton.

"What a day, very windy and tough conditions - true
determination shown by everybody today!! You had to really earn those
medals. We had a really good turn out from the Juniors with 11 racing."

Tri star 1 – Hugo Brill in his 1st ever event came 8th. Olivia Corner
rounded off a fantastic performance coming 3rd despite having technical
difficulties on the bike/

Tristar 2 – Katie Tasker and Flo Brill came
3rd and 4th respectively. Flo had a great run and Katie posting the
fastest cycle time.

Tristar 3 – Sam Garner competing in his 1st event
had a really good run

295 finishers - TSS 16. TS1 69. TS2 106. TS3 76. Y 28.

Results:
Senior Race: run 3-miles, bike 12.5 miles, run 1.5 miles.

21. Andy Corner 20:13 45:58 10:50 = 77:01
31. Tim Brill 21:49 49:12 13:12 = 84:13

TS1.

8. Hugo Brill 4:50 10:04 1:31 = 16:25
12. Olivia Corner 4:57 10:22 1:34 = 16:53
29. Safford Hewitt-White 5:16 11:35 1:53 = 18:44

TS2.

10. Katie Tasker 6:29 15:59 2:37 = 25:05
11. Flo Brill 6:01 17:01 2:22 = 25:24
31. Samuel Oakley 6:07 18:53 2:20 = 27:20
38. Joe Garner 6:07 19:25 2:31 = 28:03
68. Louis Dawson 6:57 20:54 2:50 = 30:41
76. Archie Stewart 8:10 20:28 3:09 = 31:47
82. Toby Cooke 7:29 22:09 2:57 = 32:35

TS3.

51. Sam Garner 8:05 23:22 3:31 = 34:58

----------------

Christina Cork raced in the NCRA road race from
Southwick and was very pleased to come home 2nd lady.

---------------

Nigel French competed with 600 other like-minded athletes in the
Insane Terrain Adventure Race at Grange Farm, Wansford. Nigel said "I
was in wave 13 so some of the course was quite slippy. Up to my neck
wading through water and climbing obstacles again."

The course boasted
some significant water runs, on the 4x4 course, with more obstacles
added from last year.
The course is set out in a 3-mile loop, and
athletes have a choice of completing 1 or 2 laps, covering either 3-
miles or 6 miles.

6 miles;
38th Nigel French 66:29

---------------

Joanne Annis competed in one of the first triathlon's of the season in
the Desford Sprint Triathlon.

Swim 400 metres
Bike 11.25 miles
Run 3 miles

78. 9:35 47:35 17:27 = 74:37 Age Group 3rd.

-----------------

Tony Moran competed in the Skipton triathlon over;
swim 400 meters, bike 12.5 miles, run 3 miles. Tony said "wind swept,
knackered but still smiling ... need to focus more on running quickly."

121. Tony Moran 7:19 58:42 27:54 01:33:55

-------------
PACTRAC had 15 members racing at the Duston Triathlon:

"A brilliant days racing at Duston – all the training over the winter really has started to pay off!

Olivia Corner won the Tristar 1 Girls event despite having a thorn in her foot!

Katie Tasker won the Tristar2 event outright, male and female, with a
bike ride that was breath taking and demolished the field.

There were PB’s for a number of racers with Louis Dawson, Toby Cooke &
Lottie Tasker, all putting in improved performances"

Olivia had to leave to attend a swimming Gala on Saturday afternoon. Having won the
Tristar 1 girls event at Duston, she finished 5th girl in her age group for the
mini meet swimming series of races that ran over the winter. 2 Trophies in one day.

Distances for the seniors were; swim 400 metres, bike 12.5 miles, run 3 miles.

23. Mark Weathersby 7:04 35:12 18:51 = 61:07 AG 4.
26. Antony Brown 6:32 34:13 20:45 = 61:30 AG 1st
60. Craig Mills 6:41 40:05 21:17 = 68:03
148. Pedro Polson 6:45 41:01 27:58 = 75:44 AG 4.
191. Nick Park 8:27 45:00 25:40 = 79:07
206. Kevin Fletcher 8:06 49:13 23:08 = 80:27
260. Nicholas Partridge 8:12 47:07 29:02 = 84:21
267. Sue Davys 9:33 48:36 26:53 = 85:02 AG 2.

Juniors:

TS1
6. Olivia Corner 2:13 7:18 4:02 = 13:33
34. Lottie Tasker 2:48 8:11 4:56 = 15:55

TS2
1. Katie Tasker 2:38 7:46 5:58 = 16:22
56. Louis Dawson 3:30 10:54 6:15 = 20:39
63. Archie Stewart 3:31 10:24 7:27 = 21:22
70. Toby Cooke 4:59 10:26 6:44 = 22:09

TS3
15. Matthew Wouldham 2:57 10:07 8:42 = 21:46

------------------

Paul Vernon won the Anglian Water Duathlon at Grafham Water. This
race attracted some of the best Duathletes
from around the country and Paul was pleased with his overall win.

Distances were: run 3 miles, bike 12.5 miles, run 1.5 miles.

Paul was 2nd after the first run, just a few seconds down, He then had
the fastest bike of the day and left T2 with a lead of just 6 seconds.
However, this lead had increased to 16 seconds by the end of the race.

1st Paul Vernon

1. Paul Vernon 16:32 31:00 17:30 = 65:02 AG 1st.
157. Martyn Witton 24:08 37:29 25:47 = 87:24 AG 23.

-------------
Some Virgin London Marathon local times:

1242. Tracy McCartney 2:55:39 -46th lady overall.
1861. Daniel Fitzjohn 2:59:48
2595. Abi Schofield 3:07:05
14734 Carry Murphy 4:02:56

All are PACTRAC but the 3 girls are NVHs as First Claim.

Carry Murphy: "Just seen tv coverage of me running past Paula. In the
opposite direction of course! Thank you everyone for your support &
messages. It was so good to see many of the running fraternity out
there today as well. I achieved something I didn't think I would ever
do again".

Tracy McCartney " there was nothing comfortable about yesterday "

---------------

Sean Beard competed in the 2015 European Duathlon Championships at
Alcobendas, just north of Madrid in central Spain, over the distances
of:

Run 6.25 miles, Bike 25 miles, Run 3-miles.

Sean finished 10th in his Age Group.

"What a race that was. Driving rain and very windy. But happy just to
finish, as there were quite a few crashes on the bike, and a few
dropped out. It was so cold out there."

Sean finished 10th overall and was the 5th Brit home. He had been 2nd
on the 1st run with a superfast time of 34.11 for the 6.25 mile run.
The bike section was hilly, wet and windy, with quite a few crashes on
the wet surface. At least 6 athletes withdrew with hyperthermia, and
some didn't even make it past the start line. The Relay Triathlon
afterwards was cancelled due to the cold and wet, as it was considered
to be too dangerous.

Sean dropped down to 10th place with a 1:15:15 for the bike and then
hung on, on the final 3-mile run with a 20:00 time for the 3-miles.

Sean said that these were the worst conditions that he's ever raced in,
on a testing technical course. He is happy with his result: "Just to
finish the race was an achievement in itself, considering the
conditions".

10. Sean Beard 34:11 78:35 20:00 = 2:12:46

There is a photo of Sean on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=838592279529329&set=a.267648969956999.74473.100001356931058&type=1

--------------

Dave Wagstaff competed in the Robinson Pool Triathlon at Bedford.

The distances were: swim 400 metres, bike 15 miles, run 3 miles.

22. Dave Wagstaff 7:07 47:16 20:36 = 74:59 AG 4th.

---------------

The PACTRAC Peterborough Duathlon took place from Castor on Sunday
over the distances of:

Run 4-miles with 5 hills to negotiate including Loves Hill just out of
Castor.

Bike 18-miles on an undulating out and back course, with a 7.25 mile
loop around Helpston, Bainton and Ufford.

Run 2.5 miles - just the 2 hills this time, but going up Loves Hill for
the 3rd time in the race.

This was PACTRAC's first open event since 1987 when Laurie Miles
organised the Triathlon from the Regional Pool. We do organise nearly
20 races for our members each year, but this was a step up to an open
race for all-comers, and 63 competitors took up the challenge.

More details are on http://pactrac.co.uk/events/3083/ and http://pactrac.co.uk/page/279/
including the full results.

Over 400 photo's have been downloaded to the website.

The top 3 were:

1 Nicolas Kernick PACTRAC 23.16 48.22 14.49 01:26:27 AG 1
2 Nathan Tweedie PACTRAC 23.17 49.29 14.08 01:26:54 AG 1
3 Mark Weathersby PACTRAC 24.57 49.10 15.50 01:29:57 AG 1

1 Susie Freeman 33.11 62.28 19.59 01:55:38 AG 1
2 Amy Young PACTRAC 31.52 63.5 20.4 01:56:22 AG 2
3 Zipporah Lloyd 31.39 68.08 19.38 01:59:25 AG 1

--------------