Winter race results and reports.

Their were two distances on offer in the BRJ Laragh Homes AlconburyDuathlon on Sunday and PACTRAC had representatives in both. Andrew
Chapman went round with his wife Jo, who was competing in her first
ever Multi-Discipline race, whilst in the Standard Distance race, Paul
Jephcott came away with first place in his Age Group.

Sprint: Run 3-miles, bike 12.5 miles, run 1.5 miles.
4. Jo Chapman 26:25 50:48 15:14 = 1:32:27 AG 2.
25. Andrew Chapman 26:24 50:51 15:13 = 1:32:28 AG 6.

Standard: Run 6.25 miles, bike 25 miles, run 3 miles.
19. Paul Jephcott 50:43 85:46 26:01 = 2:42:30 AG 1st.

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Dave Thorold competed in the 70.3 Half-Ironman Triathlon in Miami,
Florida.
The distances were; swim 1.2 miles in the sea, bike 56 miles and run
13.1 miles.

It was a great result for Dave in Miami. It's a flat and fast course,
but its a non wetsuit swim, the bike course tends to get windy and the
run is in 30c and 80% humidity. A tough race and a great performance.

105. Dave Thorold 38:34 2:34:50 1:44:16 = 4:57:40 AG 5th
1706 finishers from 1893 entries.

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Wendy Gooding competed in the RTTC National Closed Circuit Cycle Time
Trial Championships on the Thruxton Motor Circuit. Wendy came home in
20th place in a time of 28:23 for the 11.8 miles to average very nearly
25mph.

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Matthew Wouldham has been announced as the winner of the Eastern Region
Youths season long competition, whilst Katie Tasker came 2nd in the
TriStar 3 and Olivia Corner 4th in the TriStar 2.
Youth (aged 15-16 years) Matthew Wouldham 1st. Matthew competed in the
minimum number of 5 competitions, winning 3 of them. He won the Clacton
triathlon, the Framlingham triathlon and the Infinity Aquathlon, whilst
coming home 2nd at the Discovery open water triathlon, and 3rd at
Leighton Buzzard.

TriStar 3 (aged 13-14) Katie Tasker 2nd. Katie competed in 7 events
winning in the Norwich, Walden and Cambridge triathlons and the Bedford
Autodrome Duathlon, whilst coming 2nd to the eventual winner in 3 other
triathlons. She won their head-to-heads 4-3, but lost out on total wins
4-5.

TriStar 2 (aged 11-12) Olivia Corner 4th. Olivia competed in 7 events
winning 3 of them - the Norwich and the West Suffolk Wheelers
triathlons and the Clacton off-road Duathlon.

All 3 had a great season with Katie and Olivia also representing the
Eastern region in the Inter Regional Championships at Mallory Park.

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Two PACTRACers competed in the TCS New York City Marathon at the
weekend, running 26.2 miles around the 5 Boroughs of New York. Giles
Cooper and Roger Canham both finished their season off in grand style,
recording just over 3 hours. They ran together for the first 16-miles
at mainly sub 7-minutes per mile, before Roger dropped off and Giles
continued for another 3-miles before running the remaining 7-miles at 7:
30 to 8:00 minute miling.

Giles commented that it was an “Awesome race” but we didn’t pace it too
well. We missed our wave start, then had a quick first half trying to
catch our wave from wave 2. Paid for it in the last 6 miles!!"

Results:

Giles Cooper 3:08:21 (1:30:12 + 1:38:09) 7:12mpm.
Roger Canham 3:12:47 (1:30:13 + 1:42:34) 7:22mpm.

======================

At the St. Neots half-marathon, Aaron Godden recorded a Personal Best
time of 1:28:34. This took 3-minutes off of his previous best as he
finally cracked the 90-minute barrier. Aaron stuck with the 1:30 pacer,
holding back until mile 10, when he took off.

Aaron said "I had the run of my life and am so happy. Sub 90 minutes
proved to be a tough nut to crack."

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Their's a new sport amongst the open water swimming community. It's the Ice Mile whereby swimmers swim for 1-mile in water below 5 degrees C.

3 Ice miles were completed at the weekend up in Hatfield, Doncaster. PACTRAC's Amy Hayes completed, as did David Coleman and Penny Felton. The water in the lake was 3.9 degrees. All 3 I believe are from Cambridgeshire? and regularly swim around Cambridge, St.Neots, Tansor and Wadenhoe. Amy is an American currently living in Hampton.

Amy: "I didn't let them tell me the temp until I was done! I told myself it was 4.5 the whole way".

One of their training venues is the River Nene at Wadenhoe which, on the same morning, was a balmy 5.8 degrees.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-swimming-blog/2014/jan/07/ice-mile-swimming-test-planet will give an insight into this modern sport.

Amy Hayes "It went well. The water was colder than I was planning on, but I didn't ask the temperature until I was done. It was hard work, but I think I managed a negative split, forcing myself to go faster at the end because I was so ready to be finished. The recovery was harsh, but the most painful part didn't last too long. I'm still cold and really tired, nearly 6 hours later. It took me 35 minutes and 51 seconds in 3.9 degree water (38.8F). The photo's will probably be unflattering, but there is no cute way to finish an ice mile".

Amy is the 50th person to swim the Ice Mile at Hatfield with "Swim your Swim". Swim Your Swim saw their first Ice Mile in March 2013. Currently their are now 231 people worldwide to have officially swam the mile in under 5 degrees.

"Today saw the SwimYourSwim team bring our 48th, 49th and 50th ice mile swimmers home safe and sound in 3.9ºC water (STR)

http://swimyourswim.com/big-50-for-swimyourswim/

First away was the cuddly Kiwi David Coleman, who successfully completed his second Ice Mile with us in 37.28s followed by fellow T.W.A.T.S Penny Felton in 41.21 and our eagerly awaited 50th ice mile from Amy Hayes in 35.51s."

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Their is a photo from the Frostbite at March on Facebook.

One shows 4 previous Frostbite race winners in one shot.
From the left: Paul Halford, Rod Mckee (not a previous winner), Ben Heron, Alan Turnbull, Paul Vernon.

24 Alan Turnbull M Riverside 30:33
25 Ben Heron M Eye 30:33
26 Paul Vernon M PACTRAC 30:33
27 Rod Mckee M Hunts AC 30:35
28 Paul Halford M Werrington 30:39

Paul Vernon had just competed in a 24-hour 8-man relay involving indoor rowing, biking and running over short, sharp distances: and was using this as a recovery run. It's great to see top athletes mucking in, even when they really don't feel like it!

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http://www.fusionracingteam.com/news-16-01-18.html

Claire Steels has joined a women's professional cycle racing team for
2018 and will be seen around the country in various road races,
criteriums and time trials. Claire dipped under the hour in the
National 25-mile Time Trial in 2017 and this will be a big step up in a
single sport discipline. I don't know at the moment how this will fit
in with an Duathlon ambitions.

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The Anglia Water Standard Distance Duathlon at Grafham Water was an
early season qualifier for both:

The 2018 World Championships in Norway in July.
The 2019 European Championships, the venue to be confirmed.

The distances were: run 6.25 miles, bike 25 miles, run 3 miles. The
early start of 8:30am meant for a colder February race with athletes
needing to be well wrapped up. The first run was out and back along the
lake side. The bike was straight out to Hail Weston and back. The
second run was also out and back but only to half-way of the first run.

32. Adam Madge 36:31 67:12 20:53 = 2:04:36 AG 13.
159. Paul Jephcott 48:54 80:46 28:47 = 2:38:27 AG 9.
186. Angela Wallis 53:52 95:12 29:28 = 2:58:32 AG 6th.

Their were 4 places in each Age Group up-for-grabs with all 3
PACTRACers looking to qualify for the European Championships, whilst
Adam was also looking for a World Championship place. All 3 will have
to wait and see if places become available, or try again in the next of
the 3 qualifying races.

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In the Hinchingbrooke Frostbite, Sarah Caskey, running for PACTRAC
came home 58th overall and 3rd lady, being just outsprinted into 3rd
spot, whilst Paul Vernon was 2nd overall. Unfortunately, we didn't have
the strength in depth to fully back them up.