PACTRAC held the 2nd Biathlon of the winter today at Oundle. Both
events were over the distance's of a
900 yard swim, being 18 lengths of the pool
5 mile run, being out, a lap around Glapthorn and
Cottestock, and back.
The first Biathlon held 3 weeks ago, determined the handicap for this
race. Athletes set off at various times, to see who had improved the
most in the 3 weeks. If everybody did the same time as before, then
everybody would cross the line together!
This was, therefore, 2 races in 1, with the winner on the day, not
necessarily being the winner overall. Indeed Will Pearson won this race
by crossing the line, over a minute ahead of Roz Giles. However, Will
had not competed in the first event, and so was slotted in, without
being able to win the overall Trophy. Roz won the Trophy by virtue of
the biggest improvement - 3:17 minutes, with husband Steve closing in
fast with an improvement of 2:58 minutes.
Roz won this Trophy last year as well, so is getting quite adept at
improving at this early time of the year. Steve Giles has already won
the first PACTRAC Trophy of the year, the Off-Road Run,Bike,Run Trophy
which he won at Wadenhoe for the 5th consecutive year. So far the
Trophies have all remained in the Giles Household!
14 athletes competed in the first Biathlon. 9 of them returned to fight
it out for the Trophy, with another 3 competing as a one-off. Will
Pearson was the fastest of the 12 competitor's in the swim, which put
him in 3rd place on the road, sandwiched between Tony Moran and Roz
Giles. Martin Taylor managed to stay away at the start of the run, but
was caught by Will on the way out of Oundle. From there on, Will was
out on his own and never looked likely to be caught in time, coming
home 1:29 minutes ahead of Roz. All athletes came home within the space
of 5:20 minutes, the last 9 being just over 2 minutes apart. The winner
3 weeks ago, John Murray, recorded a Personal Best time by 18 seconds,
yet could only manage 8th on the road, after another fine run to
outsprint Jaap Flikweert. John set off on the run in 11th place, and in
spite of the fastest run of the day, ran out of time, as 7 competitors
made improvements over the 3 weeks.
Results are on http://www.pactrac.co.uk under "races" "race results" "2012
Biathlon 2" and "filter".
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The
next PACTRAC race will be the Annual Ride and Tie at Woodnewton on
Sunday 18th March. This has again been opened out to a few local
running clubs; and consists of teams of 2 running and cycling over 3
laps of a 6-mile circuit.
Remaining PACTRAC races in 2012.
18/3 Ride and Tie. Woodnewton 3 x 6-mile circuits on bike and foot.
6/5 Middle Distance - Oundle. swim 900 yards, bike 20 miles, run 5
miles.
23/5 Mini series 1 - Oundle. 400 yard swim, 10 mile bike, 3.5 mile
run.
30/5 Novice Only Mini-Series Triathlon. For those new to the sport or
who have been competing for < 1 year.
3/6 Off Road Triathlon - Harringworth. lake swim 750 metres, mountain
bike 8 miles, run 4 miles.
6/6 Mini series 2
13/6 Mini series 3
20/6 Mini series 4
23rd or 24th June. Oundle Carnival 5km run.
27/6 Mini series 5 and NOVICE 2
4/7 Mini series 6
11/7 Mini series 7
18/7 Mini series 8
22/7 Long Distance Triathlon - Oundle. swim 1800 yards, bike 40 miles,
run 10 miles.
25/7 Mini series 9
28/10 Duathlon 2012 - Woodnewton. Run 2 miles, bike 12 miles, run 2
miles. In conjunction with the AGM.
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We are pleased to welcome top athletes, Matt Gunby, Josh Daniels and
Simon Hoppe as members again for 2012.
The swim coaching at Oundle on Monday, Wednesday and Friday night's is
going really well, and is attracting an average of 30 per night.
Tuesday night's Track Sessions, headed by coach Sean Beard, are
continuing to be well attended, and the Thursday Spinning Classes at
Stanground are near to capacity. Head Coach, Dave Patmore-Hill has
again got a full junior programme set up at Stanground with 4 Junior
Triathlons, as well as a Duathlon on 14th July that is part of the East
Midlands Junior series.