Newsletter – July 2003

Hi folks

Welcome to the fourth Newsletter of the year –

We are now well into the season with events happening every week it seems! Our own members have been achieving fantastic results in the STA circuit. See “race results” section of this newsletter.

I have also produced an interim club championship position – please check this and if I've missed anyone out – sorry! Just let me know & I shall rectify this immediately. Likewise with the race results – I've checked through the results of each event for any Borders Triathletes but could easily have missed someone. If so – my apologies!

Training

We returned to Glentress Forest for a mountain bike day / social get together breakfast on 8 June. Great fun on the red run and a magic bacon & egg roll at the hub after. Unfortunately Charlie got the times wrong and missed the start – but Roger arrived in perfect time for breakfast after cycling over from Midlem!

Our usual open water swim training evenings took place at Gattonside in the lead up to Bruce Tri and were well attended / appreciated by those who were there. Our training evening at Gullane was also well attended & enjoyed by all – especially the pizza's following our skinny dip!

Race Results

First up this time was the Napier Uni Tri on 27 April at Penicuik– when Iain managed 2 nd vet in a time of 56.37. Well done Iain. Jayson Shaw also took part in this event finishing in 1.07.11. Well done to you Jayson.

Next was our second club counting event of the year – our club Duathlon in Kelso. We had six competitors who finished in the following times:

Kenny Short– 1-18-53

Neil Tait – 1-20-36

Charles Roberts – 1-28-32

Ronnie Notman – 1-30-24

Graham Easson – 1-31-25

Tricia Wilson – 1-36-16

Thanks to Iain for doing the timekeeping.

On 18 May we had a practice Duathlon at Tweedbank – again with six participants. Times as follows:

Iain Arnott – 1-09-14

Kenny Short – 1-09-27

Charles Roberts – 1-14-00

Rob McCririck– 1-14-10

Ronnie Notman – 1-21-45

John Douglas– 1-25-02

This was a great practice day which developed into three separate races – with Ronnie just managing to hold off our club vintage champion on the last run!

Thanks to Bruce Kidd for doing the timekeeping – unfortunately his system crashed but the manual results are fine!

Midlothian Tri next – with an extended cycle due to road works on the normal route!

Club finishers as follows:

Kenny Short– 1-19-28

Iain Arnott – 1-20-47

Neil Tait – results lost!! – but I believe around 1-20-55

Charles Roberts – 1-23-12 (first Super Vet – Well done Charlie!)

Graham Easson– 1-29-09

Ronnie Notman– 1-29-11

Suzanne Gilchrist– 1-32-29

Tricia Wilson– 1-34-48

Tom McGovern– 1-43-58

Nice to see such a big turn out from the club!

One week later it was Stirling Tri – and another good turn out!

Kenny Short – 1-09-26

Neil Tait – 1-10-23

Iain Arnott – 1-11-37

Charles Roberts– 1-12-11 (second Super Vet!)

Graham Easson– 1-16-39

Suzanne Gilchrist– 1-21-03

Tricia Wilson – 1-21-08 (6 th Female Vet!)

Galashiels Aquathon took place on 12 June – with 5 club members taking part. No times I'm afraid but finishing order as follows:

Iain (What! In an aquathon!!)

Charlie

Graham

Suzanne

Ronnie

Well done folks!

Next up – Edinburgh Triathlon

Neil Tait – 1-11-56

Iain Arnott – 1-12-20 (4 th male vet – well done Iain)

Charlie Roberts – 1-15-35 (1 st Super Vet again! Superb stuff Charlie!)

Graham Easson– 1-19-19

Tom McGovern – 1-31-30

Well done to Abigail Tait (Neil & Cindy's daughter) who competed in the Scottish Schools Tri for 9-10 yrs at Edinburgh on 21 June – Abigail is only 8! A star of the future perhaps??

Well done also to Rory Muthven who won the 15 –16 yrs age group at this event.

The Grand Prix series was opened on 29 June with the Bruce Open Water Triathlon. Another good turnout from the club with finishing times as follows:

Neil Tait – 1-15-25 (18 th Senior – well done Neil!)

Kenny Short – 1-17-25

Iain Arnott – 1-17-46

Charles Roberts – 1-19-35

Graham Eason – 1-24-14

Clive Millar – 1-24-42

Tricia Wilson – 1-28-52

George Anderson – 1-33-23

Tom McGovern – 1-38-44

Off the beaten track!

My own annual pilgrimage to the Glencoe 70 Wild Miles went ahead on 14 June – where I did pretty well to finish in 9 th place. Conditions were excellent – if a little on the warm side for the run! Times were as follows:

47 miles cycle – 2-00-59

10 miles kayak – 1-51-38

13 miles run – 1-31-58 Total time – 5.24.35

My main reason for taking part in this event is to raise money and awareness for Cancer Research. My total this year will be at least £1000. Many thanks to the club members who supported me in this.

Ronnie also has an annual pilgrimage to Whitby for the Cleveland Long Course Triathlon – and had his best result to date by some 15 minutes – well done Ronnie!

Here is his brief report of the day:

Yes it went very well. I reckon I've bettered my time by approx 10-15mins, not had official times yet. Swim was great, not too cold and with Charlie's wetsuit I seemed to be with middle pack, Bike good for 25 miles [that was with walking up that Blue Bank] but then seemed to be getting passed by a few, I was definitely tiring but struggled onto run and caught one or two so got a kind of lift from that and managed to keep going to the finish. Weather was perfect for event not to hot or windy. Weekend was really enjoyable nice for Sarah and the kids too.

Kelso Triathlon

Arrangements are progressing well for our club triathlon at Kelso on 17 August. There is a huge amount of work and organization involved for this – and all – triathlon events. We should all remember this whilst competing and show the appropriate courtesy to all involved.

All we are asking of our club members is to come along on the day & bring a helper (wife, husband, child – the more the better!) to assist with marshalling. So please keep Sunday 17 August free.

We need to know that we will have enough helpers so I would appreciate a note / e-mail to confirm who is prepared to help.

Likewise - anyone who is NOT able to help on the day please let me know as soon as possible so that we can arrange alternative helpers.

This is very important as last year we did not have enough marshals and some club members were rather stressed out!

Club Championship 2003

Provisional standings for this years championship are attached to this Newsletter. Anyone who doesn't understand how the points work GET AN OLD NEWSLETTER OUT !! I'm not going to bore you with another explanation. However, there have been some mutterings about a new system for next year – suggestions welcome!

I have not been able to get a copy of the results from Monikie – but I believe that Allister picked up his first counter of the season (1 pt) – so with 4 counting events remaining it looks like being a tight finish to this years Championship in the Senior Men!

Calendar

Friday 18 th July – open water swim / run training – Gullane Bents –7.00pm

Friday 15 August – Practice Duathlon –Tweedbank 6-30 start SHARP then a Club Social evening after (pub meal in Melrose). We will have use of the showers etc at Tweedbank. All welcome!

Saturday 23 Aug - Gullane Tri

Saturday 6 Sept – Annan Duathlon

Sunday 7 Sept – Haddington Tri

Sunday 21 Sept – Eyemouth Tri

The last four races of the season are all club counters / STA ranking events.