Bath Amphibians Triathlon Club

Word up Thursday night speedsters, following a vote at last nights AGM, as of this Thusday - 11/03/10 - the run sessions will start at 6.45pm.  The old time of 6.30pm meant a few people keen to run couldn’t do so as it was cutting it too fine to get from work in time and many of those already taking advantage of the sets wanted a shorter gap between the end of the run and the start of the swim.

So, 6.45pm it is, meet at the reception area ready for that start time and we look forward to seeing a few more faces thanks to this new ‘work friendly’ start time.

Click here to enter:

http://www.entrycentral.com/index.php

Postal entry sheet availbale soon!

The mega manic midweek duathlon series is unique, affordable, and traffic free race situated at Castle Combe Race Circuit comprising a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike on smooth tarmac, and finishes with a 2 mile run. The MONSTER has the same distances but offers that bit extra comprising run/bike/run/bike/run! There are four races in the Duathlon series spread across the summer and one MONSTER DUATHLON; always the first Wednesday of the month. 2010 - 5th May, 2nd June, 7th July, 4th Aug, and 1st Sept.
Series prizes will be given out at the end of the September race and to qualify you must have races 3 of the 4 standard races. The monster is a stand alone event. Prizes will be top three male and female, top three male and female vet, top one male and super vet, top male and female junior (15-17yrs)

The Monster is the SW Duathlon championships and is the July event.

Each duathlon is £14 (for BTA members) or £17 (for non BTA members) with a discount to £12 (for BTA members) and £15 (for non BTA members) if competitors pre-enter. Special rate for standard races only for juniors age 15-17: BTA £8, non BTA £10 whether pre-entering or on the night.

The one longer duathlon, the Monster, in the series in July is uniquely £20 (for BTA members) or £25 (for non BTA members) with a discount to £18 or £22 if pre-entered. Relay teams are permitted for this race but not actively encouraged for the standard races. Should you wish to enter as a relay for the standard race please enter as an individual would but start your Surname with RELAY - then name (you only do this once for each team)

Half of the money taken from the entries of the monster will be donated to charity - details of this charity can be found on our website.

ENTRIES TAKEN ON THE NIGHT UP TO 6:45pm

There is a discount for entering all the races at the same time. Enter all five for the price of four (one standard race free), BTA £54, Non BTA £67 (entry must be received before the May race). Junior: BTA £42, non BTA £52.
You can enter via post details of which can be found at www.bathamphibians.co.uk.

Closing date for online entries is the Sunday before each race at 12pm. No race packs are sent out you simply pick up a number on the night of the race.
All races will be chip timed (hence why there has been a small increase in the entry for the first time in around 5 years - its still a bargin, esp if you pre-enter!)

Please note this will be the last year that we will be taking pr-entries via cheque.
Good luck and enjoy
Please refer to the BTA rules and regulations details of which can be found on our orthe BTA website.

Log into the club forum for details about the club AGM for 2010.  It will be chaired by Dan who will be in fancy dress…as if you needed anymore enticement.

The weekend before last I raced in the Wanaka Challenge here in the land of milk and honey. I will not bore you with a long-winded tale, so in brief I had a great swim (1hr), great bike (5.40), and then the wheels on this finely tuned machine fell off big time in the run and after 13km I was pulled from the course by the medics.I had been suffering from a cold all week leading up to the race and drugged myself up to a state where I felt fine. However, in reality the body was not in good shape at all. At the first two aid stations on the run I had to stop with diarrhoea and from then on I was massively dehydrated and exhausted, and could hardly walk let alone run. As my boss said to me afterwards some days you are the dog, other days you are the fire hydrant.

I will be back to race Wanaka next year and have already entered. I now expect you gentlemen to do the same (he means Mike and Dan - jog on)! There is a half ironman option too if you want to be soft J

Anyhow I wore the Bath Amphibians colours with pride though as you will see from the attached pictures the mesh panels in the back of my tri suit have left me with some rather unfortunate sunburn marks on my back! I guess sunburn is not an issue in Bath!!!!!!

So, back in action at the weekend and this time it was the 4th Helly Hansen Adventure Race of the winter season that had fallen victim to the wrath of the ‘Phibs.  Two teams: the Boys and the Girls.  And if anyone involved is completely honest, they were each other’s main rivals.  Forget the other 300-odd teams.   

Just to give you a flavour of how different it was from the last time the Phibs chicks strolled away victorious - the format had to be changed by bolting the two mountain bike loops together, to give them more time to crack the ice on the canal and as we stood around chatting instead of listening to the race brief, it started to snow!

The Girls

The Amphibs Girls had tipped themselves as favourites for the female win, having won the previous race in October (by a small margin) and also having taken out their main competitors by poaching top Adventure racer, Charlotte Maurissen. Everything was going smoothly with Char, Streety and Kez making it to the start line on time and all bikes intact.

The race started with a 4ish-km run, which was frantic from the outset and riddled with forestry obstacles.  The girls were going strong and looked to come into transition ahead of the other girls’ teams.  More importantly, they appeared to get out of transition before the Amphibs Boys!

Kez was first out onto the one and only mountain-bike leg of the race, knowing it would be a matter of minutes before Char and Streety would catch up.  With the 3-strong team re-united, the 2-lap course went frightfully smoothly.  It must’ve been those two recent muddy-as-hell Sunday training rides that made the Pirbright route feel like a couple of laps at Castle Combe.  That said, lap 2 got a bit hairy when the speed-demons caught up with the 1st-time lappers and a few sudden-stops on uphill sections of those in front certainly didn’t concur with health and safety regs. Nevertheless, the girls came into T2 together and in one piece and it was Streety 1st out this time, setting the run pace.

Char and Kez soon caught up and that’s when the good news came in.  There were the Boys on their bikes.  Still.  Ha! The Girls, boosted by this, ran strongly to the canal where the kayak section kicked in.  Again a good bit of team-work had Char and Streety powering away up the front and Kez chilling in the back seat steering the vessel.  Safely round the frozen loop and back onto the run, then came the cheers from the awesome support crew of SJ, Georgina and Ads’ Mum - the home stretch seemed all the more doable.  With Kez setting the pace and Char bringing up the rear (though far from being a hindrance to the team!), the finish line was soon in view - just a few obstacles to conquer first.

With the Geneva Airport check-in-queue-style plank walking fiasco over, then came the cargo net - probably not the most elegant exhibition of the day.  But the heavily greased near-vertical wall was a piece of cake.  In true Amphibs style, Streety threw her two team-mates up before throwing herself over.  Head first down the other side and over the finish line.  First female team - sweet result.  Beating the Boys, even sweeter?!

The Boys

The Amphibs boys had not tipped themselves as favourites, not even their mums would have entertained such a ridiculous idea and to be fair, Mike was even pretty convinced before the start that the ladies would have the measure of them - defeatist or just realist? Check out the result to help you with that one.  However, Mike and Adam had also poached a team member and also one whose very name would strike fear into the hearts of most triathletes, former pro and all round - been there, done that and used the t-shirt to de-grease his bike - Duncan McKerracher.  Of course Duncan was relying on pedigree combined with about 3 hrs worth of training in the last 6 to 12 months to be sufficient to hand it to the girls…

The lads had a pretty good start, having agreed to take it as cheekily as was required to stay in the lead pack and get to T1 before the masses of irritating London media types rocked up and spoiled everything by riding around like they had their diary produce in their shopping basket.  Anyway, back to the run.  Cheeky it was and Dunc was already hoping that this whole thing was a about an hour and a half of effort as he put himself into a painful little room and locked the door.

The boys came into T1 at pretty much the same time as the girls - so far not so good.  We might not have had a plan as such, but any we had was ‘beat the girls’ so this wasn’t going according to plan.  The boys were eventually away after a pretty amateurish transition and started to over take as many muppets as they could, whenever the track was wide enough to do so.  About 4 minutes into the ride, Adam got a flat and despite the super slick team effort in getting the new tube in and wheel back on (record timing to be fair) the boys still had to watch a parade of numpties come past them, some of whom chipped in with helpful comments such as ‘oooh, puncture’ and that sort of thing.  Having cooled down enough to start to feel stiff, it was back in the saddle and off to claw our way back through the pack like a wild beast was chasing us.  Dunc climbed like a demon, Ads kept pulling and pulling, Mike swore, tutted and gave everyone filthy looks but the damage was done, we just had too many idiots to get passed.

The second technical came in the form of Mike’s front wheel all but coming off. A degree of sabotage the night before from Streety is suspected but at least highlights how much it meant to the girls.  Flushed from this near death experience, the lads cracked on as only Amphibs know how and tried (in vain as it turned out) to claw their way back through the pack of total idiots (again).  The third technical - Adam’s crank coming loose, put the boys team so far behind the girls and so embedded in the 1st lap of the Fat Dad Wave and still behind many second lappers in the Irritating London Media Types Wave, that way before they came into transition, the girlies cruised past in the other direction on foot, looking the exact opposite of them - strong, dominant and having a good time.  It’s not possible to list how many examples of stupidity and lack of nuts we witnessed, but trust me - it was epic.

All three boys were happy to be off the bike (and amazed to have finished without stabbing someone with a multi tool) and almost looking forward to the run to the Kayak section, but cramp, general and all over body pain and quite probably a desire to kill Mike and Adam, meant that Dunc had left his best running in the first 4k (if you don’t include when he used to do this for a living and destroy everyone on fairly minimal training). As we left T2, we realised to our absolute horror, that we were in the ‘well done, you can do it group’.  I’ve nothing against people ‘taking part’ but I never again want to be in that group.  The boys were now so far behind the girls that in a perverse twist, the race started to become enjoyable again,  just because it was actually quite funny.  Fortunately Dunc was managing to keep his humour too and took the kayak section as an opportunity to stretch his legs out at the front to alleviate the cramp.  This was all fine and well but despite a way better than average paddling action from the men, we were all sat so far back that Adam got a wet arse from the icy canal every time we put the left paddle in.  In fact it’s fair to say that we were basically sinking.  This focused the mind and we rammed people out the way to get home and dry(ish) and crack on with the last bit of the run.

Cheering us into the finish was a showered, lunched, massaged and thoroughly well rested girls team, who at least got to see that the boys knew a thing or two about stupid plank walking and wriggling their way under cargo nets.  Mike and Ads launched the Cracker up the wall before launching themselves up it and down the other side to the finish. Placing unknown and I think we’d like to keep it that way.  Thanks to the girls for being such gracious winners and well done for smashing it up even more emphatically than the VO2 boys do in the mens race.  10 mins on their nearest rivals makes them peerless.  Sweet work.

Despite the discernible hollow and general weakening of the squad, left by an absent Niall in the men’s half-marathon event, the Bath Amphibians pulled together to put on an impressive display at January’s EnduranceLife Coastal Race Series event in Portland, Dorset, on Saturday 23rd.  The cheers from the Amphibs’ corner during the prize-giving were over-whelming!

 
First out of the blocks was Coach Dougie.  It was a 9 am start for the marathoners, so as the 10-k-ers were rolling bleary-eyed into the car park at half 10 Doug was almost half-way there.  Neck-and-neck with rival and eventual winner, Doug looked relaxed and chatty as he battled with the endless miles of Chesil Beach, although on lap two he did confess to wanting to use one of the stones to kill himself.  Doug had an awesome race as you’d expect but despite breaking the old course record, he had to watch the eventual winner canter off at about the 20 mile mark and settle for second.

 
Next off were Georgia, Ross and Jacqui at 10:30 in the half-marathon.  With only guys around her to lead the way, it’s no wonder Georgia was led astray and ended up covering loads more ground than was required of her.  But back on track she started picking off her rivals (again) and after a long and gruelling slog up the Chesil Beach, she cruised in as first female - in her first official trail run.  Imagine how much damage she’ll do without the diversion - awesome! Meanwhile Ross and Jacqui did the loop together and kept each other sane with mutual support, which seemed to work judging by the smiles on their faces when they’d finished.

 
Then came the speed demons - nothing sluggish about the slick 10-k-ers.  With 6 in total there was great team camaraderie (as well as good odds on prizes!).  Kezza went off like silt off a shovel and, consistent with the pre-race plan, Mikey B sat in as the tasty race pace was set.  Just behind was a second Amphibs tag-team, with Sue and Streety working off each other.  Annie had her eye on all four of her team-mates as they climbed the mountain that (according to Coach Dougie) gave 400-odd feet of ascent in the first km. Just behind Annie, taking good care of his team-mates as usual by sweeping up from the rear, was Michael Sidey.  A solid performance from Michael, made ever more impressive by the additional few k run in order to avoid the vertiginous heights (with exceptionally steep drop-offs to the left) towards the end of the course.

The 10-k race stretched out after the first climb.  Mikey B showed his strength and pulled away from Kezza, staying in touch with the lead pack of guys throughout the entire race, but just not managing to find an effective technique on the beach as everyone became a distant dot - a great first Endurance Life CRS performance that led to an overall result of 5th place.  After setting a blistering pace at the start, Kezza was caught by a female rival at around 4 k and from there it looked to be all over - until the final Chesil Beach stretch, that is, where some deeply hidden strength came through and with a last-ditch effort that may have even resembled a ‘sprint finish’ - she handed it straight back to her rival and came in first female overall.  Just.  The odds have shortened considerably on Kez winning the series, not that you’d have betted against her at the start.

Sue and Streety were battling it out and despite breaking rule number one by following people in front instead of looking for the course signs, leading to a full two minute diversion/standing around wondering where to go, Sue looked to have the better of Streety, until the down-hill section when the Strasse showed scant regard for her ankles by launching herself ahead and letting gravity do some of the work on the steep descents down to the beach.  Streety pulled away and stayed strong on the long stretch of yielding, energy sapping pebbles, fighting off cramping calves to the finish line with a unique running action that made her want to explain to people why she was running in that way. An impressive race that ended in 3rd placed female, even if she was denied her trademark power finish.  Sue was hot on her heels though and came in 4th and first female vet. 

It wasn’t long before Annie was also over the line, with a massive grin on her face, having set off at a steady pace and slowly picking off rival after rival throughout the course -working her way through the field and smashing her pre-race target of finishing in under 1 h 30 min with a 1 h 25 min finish time.  It wasn’t about the time for Michael though and hopefully that extra off-route section with added river crossing, complemented his marathon training.  For some people, 12.5-k of brutal off-road running just isn’t enough.

Thanks must go to the sun - for coming out on an otherwise chilly day, to Clif Bar for supplying a second breakfast and their magical Shot Bloks, to Endurance Life for a sweet event and definitely to all Amphibs present for the legendary volume, banter and support.  Bring on South Devon, 27th Feb. Tag Us In.