Helvellyn 2010

Denise does it with her usual distinction! Second kiss she'd blown at me as I'd missed the first one! Clearly, The Struggle is far too easy for this woman! Full report to follow shortly. Photographic evidence can be seen in the Gallery.

2 new Ironmen for Ryton Tri

Sam Grant became an Ironman on the 8th of August doing the Outlaw Triathlon. He has promised me a race report, so watch this space.

Brian Skean also became an Ironman on the 29th August doing Ironman Canada.

Well done both of you!

Alpe D'Huez race report

Click here to read Tim Pigott's report

Five go mad in Nottingham

Ryton Tri sent 5 crack teams down to Nottingham for the National Relays. No medals unfortunately as we were only able to enter the open teams but there were some outstanding individual results. Race report to follow shortly (hopefully!).

Hilly 21 TT results

Congratulations to John Tuckett of ActiveCycles/FentimensRT who did the course in 46:28. Results for Ryton tri were: Jaci - 2nd FV (1:01:03), Haydn Maughan - 3rd overall (51:04), Eric Blakie - 1st M50 (52:41) Nat Batey - 3rd F (1:03:51). Click here for the full results. And photos can be found here and in the Gallery.

Marshalling is a very demanding job and is taken very seriously. Click here to see how serious this marshall takes her job!!

2 Gold medals for Ryton Tri!

Read Philip's report of the Durty Tri

7 Virgins and a Gnome!

This is the unorthodox title of Madders' account of his exploits in Lanzarote. Click here to read it.

Couples Challenge Middle Distance Triathlon

Congratulations to Diane Chaney for 1st V40 position (5:10:06). Other entrants were Sam Grant (4:46:00), Bob Hogg (4:51:45), Andy Stevens (5:01:55)

Ryton Standard Distance Triathlon

Results are here and photos can be found here.

If at first you don't succeed, then tri again!

This could be the motto of the Ryton Tri that took place today, with every possible demon conspiring to thwart the organisers' best efforts to put on a decent event. First there was the precedent of the event having to be cancelled last year (despite a strong field in 2008), then there were problems with a dangerously pot-holed section of road that Northumbria County Council neglected to attend to (despite promises to the contrary) and, as if all this wasn't enough, competitors approaching the Sailing Club race HQ this morning were treated to the site of the Derwent Reservoir being blasted by a very strong wind with reported gusts of up to 60mph!

This ultimately meant that, despite the intentions of the organising team, the triathlon looked very much like it was heading towards a duathlon. This was finally confirmed to all around 30 mins before original scheduled start, when it emerged that the swell on the water was too much even for the safety kayaks to get out there: no safety kayaks, no swim.

So it was announced that it would be a 5k run / 40k bike / 10k run duathlon, with the original 5 k run replacing the swim. Cue a queue of people all telling me how well it would now suit me, the noted under-achieving swimmer. To be honest I was there for a triathlon and was already all wet-suited up and was probably as sad as anyone else not to be doing a triathlon, but I was happy that the organisers had pushed ahead and quickly and effectively made the effort to ensure we all had some sort of (safe) multisport event to compete in.

So at 10.15 around 70 or so competitors assembled for the run start. It went off pretty fast and about 6 guys made it back to T1 ahead of me, where I was quite surprised to be on equal footing with Dave Garner and just a bit ahead of Alan Blakie from Ryton. The bike was very windy on the outward lakeside section and final return from Kiln Pit Hill, but on the whole, I estimated that the wind was about 60% favourable and 40% adverse on the 2 lap circuit. I did a strong bike for the 25 miles, averaging 21.0mph and was quite happy to be on a non aero bike with narrow section rims as I seemed to fare better than most in the nasty cross wind section on the A68. Despite doing a fairly good bike I was told that I was third into T2 with the leader over 4mins ahead. Dave Garner had done a strong bike and was able to pass me within the first half mile of the run as I settled down to the fact that I couldn't get the gap to the leaders back, nor could I beat him so I concentrated on consolidating first V40.

The final twist in the trials and tribulations of the 2010 Ryton Triathlon occurred when, just 10 mins into the run, I suddenly saw the two leader powering back on the run towards the finish, having both of them turned at the turn for the previous 5k run, rather than the further point that they should have taken for the second 10k run. This suddenly left Dave in front and me in second, with him going on to finally finish around 3 minutes ahead of me. I was relieved to see that all the competitors behind us were indeed following us out to the 10k turn point so the majority of competitors did indeed complete the revised duathlon event as specified. It was very bad luck for a severe wind to be blowing on the day, so scuppering the swim, but I think the good will of the organisers and the spirit of the competitors overcame adversity on the day and the majority of us who got up for a 630 am breakfast on a Sunday were glad that some kind of a race was still run. It was good to see that very few competitors turned home when the duathlon was announced and most stayed to take part in a slightly different event than they had perhaps envisaged. Congratulations again to Richard and his organising team and LONG LIVE THE RYTON TRI EVENT.

PS apologies for slightly one-sided report but that's what you get when written on same day as race when full results not up yet.

Brief Ryton Tri results from memory in key categories:

Senior male: 1st Dave Garner; 3rd Alan Blakie

V40 Male: 1st Philip Addyman

V50 Male: Eric Blakie

V40 Lady: 1st Denise Parkin; 2nd Jaci Swinbank; 3rd Diane Chaney; 4th Laura Addyman

Cleveland Steelman

I'm sure Lance Armstrong doesn't have to write up Tour reports when he's finished a stage....

Ryton Tri fielded a team of 9 for the Steelman. Included in this 9 were 4 new to this distance (Sam, Natalie, Kirsty and Jenny). The weather was kind if a little breezy. First out the water was Natalie followed shortly by Sam. Jaci went on to record the fastest female bike split for the race and if that wasn't enough, then recorded 1:30 for her run to take the winning slot. Apparently she won because she actually ran the whole run rather than walking sections in order to admire the view! Diane really enjoyed seeing Jaci, Natalie and Denise come 1, 2, 3 into T2.

Despite leaving parts of his flesh on the tarmac after negotiating a gravelly corner in an effort to try and catch Denise, Bob managed to continue on to the end of the race. Natalie only dropped her 1st cat position in the run section (apparently she got bored) and therefore went on to win 1st place for her first attempt at a middle distance triathlon - result!! This was also Kirsty's first attempt at this distance and it was also her most enjoyable (she certainly looked very happy when I saw her on the run). She reckons her careful administration of her drugs - sorry nutrients (she is a GP) made everything all the more pleasant. Clearly Ironman material but she says she's not interested. Jenny had made careful plans back home of ensuring her Will was up-to-date and all her papers in order before embarking on the challenge she had set herself for being 50 this year. And when both her calves cramped up on the last stretch of the swim, there was a moment when she thought that her Will would have to be read! Being in agony made not a hoot of difference to her coach (Sue) who told her to quit moaning and get on with the race. Jenny made one very small eensie-weenie error in T1 which her loyal team of supporters thought was hysterical. It was nearly too much, however, the image of Sue's laughing face kept Jenny going on the long bike ride. The run was made bearable by the tremendous support of Ryton team mates and she even managed a sprint finish as a consequence of the cheers of her team to take 3rd place (ok there were only 3 in her category!) and most importantly - there were 3 (younger) blokes behind her!!

Jenny and Kirsty would like to thank all their supporters and in particular John Swinbank who was absolutely fantastic - from checking our bikes, to encouragement on the sidelines.

Jaci - 1st overall

Denise - 2nd Vet

Natalie - 1st Senior

Jenny - 3rd Super-vet

All in all a grand day out!

(Apologies that this report is female-orientated - if one of the blokes competing would like to write their report - please send it to me - my email address is on the Committee page.)

National TTT story

Boys will be boys ... Ryton Tri Club sent two 3 man teams down to the National Team Time Trial Championship today on a fairly flat 33 mile course run along much of the same roads as the Cleveland Olympic Tri. The organisers automatically designate teams from the same club as A, B, C etc. so this set up a bit of inter-club rivalry as Haydn Maughan, Gareth Huxley and Philip Addyman were designated "Ryton A", whilst Colin Gardener, Dave Garner and John Swinbank were titled "Ryton B". In the end both teams were separated by just a minute with the A team prevailing in 1:19:48 against the B team's 1:20:28 to give averages of 24.8 and 24.5 mph respectively for 19th and 20th places. The winning team was a pro roady team, Marshalls Pasta full of Olympic squad medallists who did 1:06:13 at just a whiskers less than 30mph! It should be noted they probably don't swim and run quite as fast as assorted Ryton Triers. The course was quite tough with a headwind out to Northallerton, which made the little drags even harder and a tailwind on the back straight, followed by a turn into the headwind again for the last 5 miles - not very nice. All in all not a bad day out and what this tester malarky loses with its covert early morning starts, it gains with the nice sandwich spread and communal presentation afterwards. Photos can be seen here.

(Editor's note: a piece of piss in comparison with the Cleveland Steelman! :-))

As many people have asked what happened with Diane - here's her story:

A Day in the Lakes

A Day in The Lakes is becoming a favourite for the Ryton Tri Team and this second running of the event enjoyed perfect summer weather, just like last year. There were 11 from Ryton competing in this Half Ironman event than many finishers said was tougher than a full Ironman. This is probably due to the 56 mile bike ride that includes the tough climb of Kirkstone pass (from Patterdale) and then a steady climb on the A6 up to Shap to give 1250m of height in total. Conditions on the bike were tougher this year with a headwind out to Kirkstone, and also for the last 5 miles, that favoured strong bikers. The 13 mile run was over dry, hilly fell, with a tough 300m climb up Fusedale after 6 miles and the last 3.5 miles on road. Ryton sent a crack team for the men's event and ended up with 3 athletes in the top ten! Lanzarote sensation Dave Garner held his form to finish 3rd (05:03:06, 2nd Senior), Gareth Huxley (still nursing a broken foot!) 7th (05:10:30 3rd V40) and Philip Addyman 9th (05:12:46, 4th V40).

The team was happy to welcome Alan Blakie back into our colours and he finished 41st overall and 23rd Senior (05:40:38). His dad Eric pulled off a nice result in the V50 category coming 3rd (05:56:50). Bob Hogg was 12th V50 (06:34:58) and now has just the Steelman over the same distance to do next weekend!

Laura Addyman (06:50:54) and Sue Chester (06:53:25) both had excellent results in V40 Ladies category, with Laura finishing 5th and Sue finishing an excellent 6th on her debut. After being separated by just 3 minutes on swim times they then proceeded to do virtually identical bike and run splits.

Dave Thompson did a similar time to last year (06:43:30) and finished in 79th in his category, whilst Dean Swanston (07:53:23) and David Nicholson (07:12:17) both performed heroically on their debut. Dean jumped straight to doing the toughest half Ironman in the country directly from Sprint distance!

Finally, Philip and Gareth seem to have hit upon the magic numbers for pre-race hydration and are prepared to reveal to you all that it is ..... 3:1. (Three pints of real ale on the Friday night, one on the Saturday!)

Report by Philip Addyman

Cleveland Short Course

Another strong contingent of Ryton Tri athletes braved the attrocious weather and made their way down to Ellerton Lake for the Cleveland Short Course. Included in this bunch were some Olympic distance newbies (Rachel and Kirsty). The rain kindly stopped during the race for the (one) loyal supporter who stood shouting words of encouragement from the sidelines. First out the water was Natalie with a time of 22:40 followed by Andy Beattie (23:15) and then Dave Garner (24:08). Dave then went on to record the fastest bike split of all entrants with an incredible time of 1:01:24, quickly followed up by a run time of 34:19 making a total time of 2:01:59 earning him 2nd Senior place. On the female front, Natalie completed the race in 2:20:21 on "tired legs" for 2nd Senior and Rachel recorded a time of 2:25:37 giving her a podium slot (3rd Senior) for her first Olympic distance triathlon - excellent result! Kirsty surprised herself by not drowning in the lake and after asking Clive to keep an eye on her in the water, promptly left him in her wake as she stormed ahead! However, Clive was able to reel her in with his strong bike and managed to keep her at bay on the run. Full results can be found here and photos can be seen in the Rogues Gallery.

Castles Challenge Triathlon

Well, Jane Mooney has done it again with another amazing result: 2:22:42 10th place overall (ie there were only 9 blokes faster than her!) and her nearest female rival was a good 6 minutes behind her. She was 5th out of the water and 6th fastest runner with an incredible time of 37:06. Other Ryton Tri results were: Vanessa Butler 2:46:15 and David Nicholson 2:52:28. Full results can be found here.

QE2 Triathlon

Natalie Batey came 2nd in her age group with a time of 1:19:09. Andy Beatty was the fastest of the Ryton Tri lot with a time of 1:15:21. For Sarah Bradford it was the first time in a wet suit (borrowed) and the first time in an open water event - however that didn't phase her one bit and she completed her swim in a very acceptable time of 14:51 - 7th in category. Other times were: David Thompson 1:21:18, Bob Hogg 1:24:45, Mark Wouldhave 1:27:39, Jennifer Batey 1:28:42, Jenny Stewart 1:42:34. Full results can be found here.