PACTRAC held the 2nd of 9 Mini-Series Triathlons at Oundle pool last Wednesday.
Distances as usual were:
swim 400 yards.
bike 10 miles.
run 3.5 miles.
In spite of the weather 33 competitor's turned
out. Most of the heavy rain came down 1 to 2 hours before the start.
There was still a bit of rain around during the event; and some
competitors got a bit wetter than others, depending on their
whereabouts around the course whilst competing. There were many puddles
of water to avoid on the tricky bike section, and the twisty, turny
mile section of road on the decent between Upper and Lower Benefield,
had to be taken with care.
In spite of the weather, 10 competitor's
recorded Personal Best times, plus 4 others ventured out for their very
first Triathlon. However, only Giles Cooper of the top 10 recorded a
PB, and that was more due to a good winter's training.
Kimberley Bell in her first ever Triathlon was first out of the water in a superfast
time of 4:20. Neil Tandy then came out 1/4 minute later, with another
1/4 minute to Jon Ratcliffe, and another 1/4 to Simon Hoppe. Tony
Daniels and Rob Hammond were close behind Simon, with another 22
seconds to Jaap Flikweert, and yet another 22 seconds before Dave
Wagstaff led the main bunch of swimmers out.
Neil Tandy, with a fast transition, soon took the lead on the bike, but he was caught half way
round by Simon, with Neil managing to come into T2 just 5 seconds
adrift. Kimberley meanwhile, had punctured, and will have to come back
to try again another night. There was a 46 second gap to Tony, who held
off both Jaap and Rob. Tony himself was not to finish, not wanting to
aggravate a running injury, leaving the other 4 to fight it out for the
top four spots.
The gaps then increased, as Simon moved further ahead
of Jaap, who moved further ahead of Rob, leaving Neil to hang onto 4th
spot just ahead of a fast approaching Sean Beard, who had the fastest
run of the night.
Another Mini-Series win for Simon. Although it
wasn't a night for heroics or PBs, he managed to win by 1 3/4 minutes
in the end, and made it look easier than it was. The first lady home
was Roz Giles, making it 2 out of 2 for both her and Simon.