Category: Race Reports

The 113 is the highlight of the middle distance calendar in the Cotswolds and this year there was extra pride as Kingswood Tri club decided to use it as its second club event of the year.

With so many of the KIT Angels competing elsewhere and in other events, it took a comment from one of their number to sum the event up…as a sausage fest. Nice one Alex! Although there could hardly be complaints as the full complement of the Kingswood tribe posed for the group photo before the race. At the end of the day, there was enough time for them to fool around.

In the showdown that we’ve come to expect from most of our club events, we had the Battle of the Chairmans! In one corner, former Chairman Mao, Lee Francis, with the cheeky young pretender Chairman Kim, being played by Eric the Eel.

Chairman Eric was certainly up for the battle as he managed to even bring his rollers along for an early morning warm-up. Little did he know that the mist descending over the lake, like a scene from the movie Camelot, would cause havoc in his warm-up routine. Well despite the event start being postponed by a full hour and a half, he took off like he was truly looking for the Lady of the Lake.

Not everyone took the 90 minute delay in their stride, it must’ve been an even bigger challenge than it already was. But spare a thought for Mike Parsons, giving up his valuable time to marshall the course, and caught a lift with Eric, at 3:30am…that was a looooong wait for a ride home. In other news, the rest of the KiT support crew had some extra sleep to enjoy. Anyway, back to the race.

Eric came out of the lake in front completing a great swim of 1900m in sub28 minutes. The other guys soon followed. Results and splits shown below.

It’s a nice flat course on the bike but if it’s 56 miles, it’s 56 miles! It wasn’t blazing heat out there, but the traffic was starting to build. And then the sun came out to make the half marathon run just that little bit harder. Credit must go to some particularly painful faces on that run, though not from Danny Houghton, who was the epitome of cool out there in his Ray-Bans. Legend!

So well done to Lee for storming to victory with an exceptional 1hr42 half marathon at the end of the event to finish in at 4h38mins, 33^rd in his category. Full results below. The full list of attendees are Lee, Eric, Steven Baker, Rich Darby, Rhys Davies, Jason Galpin, Matt Dale, Neil Parker (ahem, Stu Brazington), Danny and Darren Buist, in honestly no specific order.

Credit also to Darren for being kind enough to bring up the rear, and especially for keeping the smile going throughout the pain.

There is another middle distance event at the same venue in August, they’ll definitely be a club contingent going along so keep an eye out for that one.

Just one bit of final credit to give Jessica Elliot, who attended her second 113 despite not being born on the previous occasion. But she was responsible for father Tom’s fastest bike split whilst being on call last time out.

Next up: KiT does the Cardiff Triathlon on 24th June

As alarm clocks rang at ungodly hours on bank holiday Monday morning, there were more than just one quizzical thought. But this was the first KiT club targeted event of the season and if it’s anything to go on, they’ll be plenty more.

By now you will have already have seen the assorted photos from the big event, or witnessed Kelly being thanked as organiser for the umpteenth time, but what’s the story behind the legend, I hear you ask?

The Big T triathlon in Trowbridge has 2 Tri distances; a Sprint distance and an Enduro. The first is a 400m pool swim, a 24K bike and a 5K run. The Enduro is a 600m swim, 40K bike and a 10K run.

There were gripes during last year’s event as 3 KiT members made wrong turnings. The event was much improved this year as 2 of those members didn’t compete…the other almost made up for it by twice taking the wrong exit from transition. No gripes though, this was KiT’s day.

All KiT members set off at the same time. The sprint swimmers had only 1 aim – to beat Eric the Eel out of the pool. It was close. Credit to Ben O’Brien too for achieving this with breast stroke!

There were KiT race-offs in both the sprint and the Enduro races…the qualification hopefuls Gary Stretton and Jake Hallett in the sprint, and the Daddy (ok, Granddaddy) of all battles between Eric “the eel” Downey and Neil “the man cave” Parker in the Enduro. We’ll come back to the more-seasoned gentlemen and concentrate on the sprint first.

Gary can thank his year-off for 2 things; not fitting in his Tri-suit, and having the power and fuel to bring home the 6^th place position, 2 places above Jake. Out of a field of 140, this is even more impressive.

 

Full KiT sprint results are here…special mention to Simon Attwood in 28^th place, bringing some old school KiT to the table. Also well done to Jack Bradley for his first ever Tri, and to Ben for his second. Kudos!

Whilst everyone was trying to be polite and not stare at Ben (either one) with his top off, others were still competing in the hot weather. The Enduro! So-called because it’s um …longer.

Eric and Neil took trash talk and bravado to a new level before the event, but as Eric monstered his way to the win (10^th overall, 93), there was admirable and grudging respect between the two. Cute!

 

Notable results for Kelly Smith who continues her strong Ironman prep with a 7^th place female finish. Also to Scott “race face” Stacey and Chris Barnes for completing their first standard distances on their way to Barcelona IM.

Full KiT results for the Enduro below:

Full results at this link

The picnic was free-flowing at the end, and there was plenty of sun-stroke to appreciate for race afters. Till next year Trowbridge. You were great, and so were we!

The Facebook pulse:

• If anyone’s worried about their week going too slowly, pop along to our facebook group where you can witness the dullest conversation on bike saddles currently underway. Time will fly.
  
• More interesting is Mark Watts post regarding his epic year of events to raise money to combat Alzheimer’s. Congratulations for your 106k run around Isle of Wight. Impressive!