AYRODYNAMIC
Katherine Self and Whirly Marshall took part in the Middle Distance Great North SwimRun at Lake Windermere.
Windy and extremely wet overnight conditions caused the first swim to be cancelled, leaving Katherine and Whirly starting with a run to their dismay but pretty much everyone else’s delight.
The wind eased thankfully with rain on and off throughout and water temperatures about 13/ 14 degrees.
They finished 12th out of 43 teams in just over three hours on their first effort.
Also at Windermere were Chris Paterson, Katrina Livingstone and Fiona O’Dowd who took part in the Great North Swim on the Sunday.
Conditions had improved and it was dry on the day but there was a breeze which made the water choppy. Chris and Fiona both did the 5K event with Chris finishing in an impressive 1hr 29 mins for his first ever open water swim event.
He was shortly followed by Fiona in 1hr 31 mins.
Katrina, who was coming back from injury and illness, was delighted to complete the one mile distance in 48 mins.
Grant Young is still in France competing this time in the French Cross Tri Sprint championships, in the beautiful coastal town of Buzigues, near Sete, on the Étang de Thau.
Grant had asked a steward earlier if it was going to be a wet suit swim and he said, ‘ no,’ the water was boiling.
He lied, and wet suits were de rigour, so Grant had to run before the Triathlon even started to fetch his suit from the car.
The swim was out into a head wind, and a steady drift made it very hard to hold the line.
Letting a lot of folk go and get on with knocking 10 bells out of each other Grant took a much wider line, but it paid off, as he suddenly had clear water.
The 600m swim was completed in a very satisfying 10 minutes, and out and onto the bike– pausing only to fall off as Grant hit a patch of very deep sand leaving transition.
The bike route was 16 km of mostly single track up into the hills above the town.
Off the bike and out onto the run it was basically a couple of steep Kms up and then back down to finish along the side of the Etang.
Grant finished second in his category, beaten by only a minute and was 72 out of 150 overall.
Back in Scotland several members of Ayrodynamic competed at Lochore Meadows.
A cold and overcast start to the morning meant when they hit the water on the swim it was a chilly 14oC.
The bike was a tough rolling route with one challenging hill climb before looping back toward Lochgelly before a run out and back within the grounds of the country park.
In the Standard Distance Tommy Turner finished in 2.36.44.
In the Sprint Distance there were superb results of Mark McNulty 1.10.16, Davie Auchie 1.10.23, Charlie 1.17.07, Keith Johnston 1.22.06, Gordon Fraser 1.29.09, Tracey Middleton 1.29.28, Tom Reid 1.34.07, Fiona Connelly 2.01.30.
At the Leeds Triathlon three ladies were racing the British Standard Championships and two ladies were doing the Sprint open race.
It was a huge event with a complex swim
course which was slightly confusing, a bike course that was hectic but there was great city centre support for the run.
The results were Standard Champs – Lorna Todd 2hr 26min 9th 40- 44 AG, Lyndsey Blair 2hr 40min 10th 35- 39 AG, Emma Lunan 2hr 54min 24th 40- 44 AG. Sprint open – Alice Vernon 1hr 40min 2nd 35- 39 Jen Murray 2hr 3min 17th 40- 44 AG.
At the ‘ Roon the Toon’ 10k in Kilmarnock, Darren Nicol managed to go round in 40m 40secs. Also competing was Emma Von Hof, who managed 45.30 and Derek Cambers finishing in 47.28.