A year later, and here we are again. Ryton managed to field 5 teams this year, 2 of which came home with medals: result! Hearing everyone's stories of their 'training (or lack of) and injuries (many)' prior to this event, perhaps we should have called it "Crocks on Tour". Here are the list of known woes:

• Colin very ill with giardia like illness on account of doing the Stockton tri the previous weekend
• Joe Horne and Calum Johnson, recovering from giardia like illness from said Stockton tri
• Mark Woodhave's lack of skin on his left upper torso and arm on account of showing off his mountain bike skills for his children
• Laura - nippy achilles tendon
• Denise - lack of any training (yes really!)
• Vikki - only bought her wetsuit the day before the race - had never been open water swimming
• Kirsty - a selection of broken/cracked ribs due to excessive spoke tightening
• Jenny - very bad asthma (or summit)
• Alan - achilles/calf injury

The weather as we travelled down on the Friday was looking like as good as it was last year - torrential rain and strong winds. Diane, rather than risk a bad race, was dropped off at the local Premier Inn for a good night's sleep, whilst her fellow triathletes had to cope with force 10 winds and monsoon rains camping in the nearby site.

The day of the race: we had one team (Joe, Calum, Philippa, Helen) going off in the morning. First out the water was Calum, and Philippa was third fastest in her leg. Helen was next, then Joe. They came 26th out of 179 teams which was an excellent result.

The girls (and Alan) then began their preparation for their afternoon race. Gears checked, tyres pumped, brakes tested, then an almighty BANG as Vikki's front wheel blew! No spare tube was available, so Vikky was sent to purchase some at the venue. Tube changed, pumped up, the girls retired to Jaci's awning for some pre-race banter. Subjects under discussion included problems with nosy neighbours twitching between curtains.... and the pros and cons of having your shoes clipped onto your pedals. One bottle of Stella was consumed for medicinal purposes by Jenny, and then we made our way down to the venue. Standing under our new Ryton Tri gazebo, Vikki appeared with her bike and stated that she was really pleased that her puncture had been sorted, when another almighty BANG was heard and her other tyre blew!! This was simply too much for our Vikki who was sent to lie down in a darkened corner whilst Ryton's bike mechanics (John and Philip) tried to resolve the problem of no inner tape on the wheels (I think that was the problem). A bit of insulating tape later and all was well.

With a little bit of spare time, Kirsty decided to do a bit of what she enjoys the best: shopping

Before we knew it, the race began. The water was very thick with weeds, however, our newbie open-water athlete coped admirably - in fact, she said she really enjoyed the experience. Our crack ladies V40 team did really well (considering some of their lack of training/problems), coming away with the bronze medal. The Super Slackers failed in their attempt at coming last due to some individual impressive times: must try harder next year - Vikki certainly will be as she plans to slash her open water, bike and run times.

So, next came the boys - but that wasn't until the Sunday morning, so it was all back to the campsite for bbq and booze.

Sunday looked like being a better day, but the wind picked up. There were 3 teams racing this morning, including a very poorly and weak Colin.

Being a supporter is a very important job and we all take it very seriously...

The juniors had a great race (read Calum's report here), giving some of the 'old-timers' a run for their money. The aptly named JellyBelly team was made up of Colin, Madders, Swinnie and Barry. And the Ryton Reivers were made up of Dean, Mark, Tim and Dave G (having driven down in the morning after coming back from his holidays the day before). Colin, despite his ill health, had said he would do the swim and see how he felt - amazingly, he managed to find some inner strength to do the bike leg - even when he hadn't eaten properly for days and when turned sideways, he disappeared. Ian Maddison did Colin's run, and Tim, Mike's swim. Mike found the bike and run very difficult due to his injuries, but like a good soldier, he did his best for his team mates. The JellyBellys came 86th (out of 154) and the Ryton Reivers 94th. Photos can be found here.

Ladies V40 Report

Our neighbouring team up the valley, One Life, has won the Ladies over 40 category in the National Relay for the last couple of years; Ryton, on the other hand, has never previously got around to entering a team, even though the club has a strong female membership. The One Lifers are a thoroughly drilled unit with coordinated podium kit, a European Champion and a national class fell runner in their squad. The Ryton V40 team is an interesting mix of characters: certainly, at least one of their number can be classed as a serious athlete, having as she does a coach, a customised training programme, carefully targeted race appointments and a reasonably balanced approach to diet and nutrition. Not of all the above can be said for the remaining three: "athlete 2" is a notorious salad-dodger and chocolate eater, who nonetheless can ride a bike or finish an Ironman at speeds that would bring tears to the eyes of most male triathletes (ditto the quantities of Stella she knocks back!); "athlete 3" is thoroughly blase in her attitude to nutrition, famously stating, "if you are what you eat, then I'm a red wine flavoured Pringle", but maybe she can afford to be because she's so nails that she recently completed the 112mile Fred Whitton ride just one week after being knocked clean out by a freak cycling accident. Both are reputed to have turned their noses up Kona slots because they heard that their normal pre-race fuel - full English fry up - wasn't available in that mecca to healthy living that is Hawaii. Finally, "athlete 4" is the classic case of the nice girl who got in with the wrong crowd - namely the two previously mentioned athletes! Before she met them she was content to do sedate coffee stop rides and thought that an Olympic distance triathlon was an extreme endurance event; now she wears snakeskin designer cycling shoes, gets upset if she doesn't average over 20mph for a hilly 10 mile time trial and her endurance only starts to get a bit tested on the third consecutive 7 hour rainy day mountain biking around the Cairngorms wilderness. So this unorthodox and charismatic mix of characters presented themselves at the National Relay Championships, with Diane going first, then Denise, Laura and Jaci as anchor leg. The swim went well but not as well as it could have done, with Ryton starting on the bike 1 minute down on One Life. However Diane played to Ryton's strength of being strong bikers and already managed to peg back the gap so that when Denise got on her bike and turned on the turbo for a 23'55" split she managed to open up a lead of 3 minutes for Ryton. Laura looked equally strong and by the end of her three laps on the bike had pushed out the Ryton lead to a maximum 3'25" with her 25'16". Jaci came up against some tough competition from One Life and despite doing a solid 25'28" the lead dropped down to around 2½ minutes as Diane started her run. While One Life were worried about the strength of the Ryton bikers, all the Ryton supporters were worried about One Life's strength as runners, but no-one expected the Ryton lasses to fight so hard to maintain their lead: Diane stuck in really well and still managed to keep the lead above 2 minutes and Denise only lost half a minute, so that Laura had 90 seconds start on One Life's third runner. Laura dug really deep to do a 23'10" run split, which was the fastest of all the Ryton girls, but unfortunately she was up against probably the strongest female over 40 runner in the North East and by the finish had been passed and the deficit was now 1'15". A bit of a sad end to Ryton holding the lead in this national competition for over two hours, in which time they had inspired all their fans and filled their hearts, first with hope and then with belief that they really could pull off a fantastic upset. But it wasn't all over yet as Jaci has won plenty of races off a good run, but unfortunately even her courage couldn't overcome a painful pull to her calf muscle and in run-in to the finish Cambridge sneaked by for silver. Bronze was an excellent achievement for a first attempt by the ladies and who knows, they may even be even more motivated if they come back next year? (Although possibly not, as this may entail things like scheduled training, intervals and speedwork - all dirty words to the majority of them). All four did very consistent total times for swim, bike and run, with Laura just coming out quickest with 58'07", 2 seconds ahead of Denise.

Philip Addyman