Frankfurt IM. Rob and Susie win the Club Championships.

2 PACTRACers competed in Ironman Frankfurt over the distances of:

swim 2.4 milesbike 112 miles
run 26.2 miles

Paul Lunn used it as a trial for the Ironman World Championships in
Hawaii later in October. He finished 3rd in his Age Group in just a few
minutes over 9-hours. He had a storming bike split of 4:33:38. This is
really up there with the top Elites - 5:36hours for 112 miles is an
average of 20mph and Paul beat this by over an hour. It was a hot day
and he was never going to sustain that for the full marathon run as
well. He has beaten the 9-hour barrier twice before, and again came
close, with another Podium finish.

Steve Skelhon competed in his 11th Ironman distance triathlon. Steve
had a good swim followed by a 20mph bike leg, before recording a solid
run in the heat of the day. The organisers had warned the athletes to
expect temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees
Fahrenheit) in Frankfurt and it didn't disappoint.

58. Paul Lunn 1:00:16 4:38:56 3:28:19 = 9:07:31 AG 3rd.
1558. Steve Skelhon 1:05:55 5:48:56 5:27:04 = 12:21:55 AG 195.(as usual, the transition times are included with the bike time)

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

3 PACTRACers competed in the various open water swims at Grafham Water
on Saturday. Graeme Abrahams came 4th overall in the 1500m swim in a
time of 23:47 minutes; just 6 seconds behind 3rd place. He was 2nd in
his Age Group, whilst Sue Drake won her Age Group in 35:06 minutes.

Phil Jones completed the 5250 metre swim in 1:47:19 for 6th in his Age
Group.

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

Amy Hayes has prepared well for her attempt at the Channel Swim next
week. She has been doing lots of long swims of up to 6-hours and her 2-
year adventure should, hopefully, come to fruition next week. Amy has
prepared well and will be off sometime next week - potentially a week
from today (Monday 17th July, depending on the window, and whether
other swimmers ahead of Amy in the queue get to go, or if the weather
forces them to delay.

Amy said: "The doubt is definitely trying to creep in again. This is
not anywhere close to a given. It's a gamble.
No amount of positive thought and motivational swimming affirmations
can make this something other than a gamble."

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

PACTRAC Mini-Series 7.

Wayne Stainsby won his 3rd Mini-Series of the year, from 3 races. On a
warm day, 17 competitors lined up for the penultimate race in the
series.

Jonathan Arnold again led the swimmers out, whilst behind him, Robin
Laukaitis was 39-seconds down, but improved his swim time to gain 7-
seconds on a pursuing Tony Daniels. Gaps appeared between the next
swimmers, as first Susie Freeman and then Wayne Stainsby emerged,
before Steve Hope led the rest out.

Tony had the fastest bike split and came in 41 seconds ahead of Wayne,
with Chris coming past Steve towards the end and having a quicker
transition to set off in pursuit first. Tony is still coming back from
injury and was caught early on the run by Wayne; but both Chris and
Steve had to wait until they were on their way back before moving into
2nd and 3rd spots.

Results are on http://pactrac.co.uk/events/4204/

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

PACTRAC then held their Standard Distance club triathlon at Oundle on
Sunday, as part of the Club Championships. With just one more race to
go - the final Mini-Series triathlon at Oundle on Wednesday, all of the
Club Championship Trophies have now been decided.

Sunday's distances were:
swim 1800 yards - 36 lengths of Oundle Pool.
bike 30 miles - 3 laps of the Mini-Series course around Glapthorn and
the Benefields.
run 6.25 miles - around Glapthorn and Cotterstock, including some off-
road paths, and finishing on the Athletics Track.

Simon Hoppe competed in his first club race of 2017 and won the race by
over 7 1/2 minutes. Jonathan Arnold was first out of the water in a
superfast 21:37 before Robin Laukaitis led Simon out, over 3 1/2
minutes later. Rob was nearly 2-minutes down at this point. Simon had
the fastest bike split and increased his lead coming into T2 to 5 1/2
minutes over Rob. Chris Pike moved into 3rd spot on the 3rd of the bike
laps and pulled away with the fastest run of the day, to consolidate
that position.

Paul Vernon keeps the Course Record from last year, but whereas Simon
took 2nd place last year beating Rob by nearly 13 minutes, this time
the gap was narrowed to 7 1/2 minutes on Rob.

The results are here http://pactrac.co.uk/events/4196/

The Club Championships have now been decided:

1. Rob Hammond
2. Chris Pike
3. Steve Hope

Ladies:
1. Susie Freeman
2. Mariska Niemeijer
3. Hannah Bassett

Juniors:
Jonathan Arnold

Vet:
Rob Hammond

SuperVet:
Chris Pike

Ladies vet:
Mariska Niemeijer

Ladies Supervet:
Georgina Jennings