Welsh Long Course Weekend

Four intrepid Harriers travelled to Tenby South Wales to compete in a triathlon over three days. Kevin Willett, Steve Turner and Alastair Fadden had chosen to complete the 3.8km swim on the Friday night, followed by 112 mile bike ride on the Saturday then a mere half marathon on the Sunday. Paul Hudson had registered for the entire long course weekend including the marathon on the Sunday.

All 4 started the swim, a little apprehensively as the sea temperature was a reported 13.5c. The first swimmer, a GB Olympic open water swimmer, finished the first lap in an impressive 25 minutes then we waited for the rest of the field….and we waited. We could see that the swimmers were all being pushed by the currents and this would not be a PB course. As the rest of the field began to exit the first lap, Kev was first of our boys out of the swim in a little over 50 minutes closely followed by Alastair only to hear that the commentary was advising the cut of for the first lap would be 1 hour which was fast approaching. A little over half the field failed to make the cut off, unfortunately Steve did not make the cut off and was not allowed to complete the two laps finishing his one lap in 1h 24 mins. As many of the swimmers were bought to shore on boats, Alastair finished in a very creditable 1hr 43mins (usually his swim is 1hr 15mins). Kevin was our next swimmer in, in a time of 1hour 46 mins. The organisers could be heard interviewing another competitor who had taken 31 minutes the previous week to complete the 1 lap and today he had taken 1hr 30 mins the currents were so bad. Paul just managed to beat the 2 hour cut off time to finish just 1 lap of the course in 1 hr 53mins.

An early start on the Saturday morning saw Kevin, Steve and Alastair leave for the next event, 109 miles cycle over the rolling Pembrokeshire countryside – cut short due to the refinery fire at Pembroke Port. Paul Hudson didn’t make the start line for the second day. Apparently the views were stunning over the countryside but they didn’t stop to admire! Kevin and Alastair finished in a time of 7hrs 5minutes, Steve a short while later in 7hours 21 mins.

Sunday morning we were out on the promenade in Tenby, to cheer on Ronnie Singleton and Rob Bishop, as they set off on the Welsh marathon. It was then off to Pembroke Castle for the start of the half marathon where the 3 boys were joined by Zoë Willett on the start line.

This was another challenging course which the Bedfordshire flat countryside could not prepare our runners for, so we were amazed to see Ronnie finishing as 4^th lady in a time of 3:35:23. Rob just missed the 4 hour barrier finishing in a time of 4Hr 00min 36 secs. 

Alastair and Kev finished their run in a time of 1hr 44min followed by Steve in 2hrs 08min and Zoë in 2hrs 19 mins. The winning time of 1hr 26 mins is testament to how tough the course was.

Good luck to Steve when he takes on all 3 events, in the one day in the Welsh Ironman, in September
 

Sarah Fadden

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