If Johnny thought he had it tough compiling a report last year with 40 club members entered, try doing one with 55 club member entries. In the end 50 competed on the day between the two races but as you’re all such a shy bunch and wish to keep your race day experiences quiet I’ll have to do my best to fathom out what happened – apologies if I’ve missed anybody out. Why the heck did I choose this race to report on!

This race is the first in the calendar for many of the 104 novice competitors (55 male and 49 female) and 225 sprint competitors (163 male 62 female). With over 20% of the club entered in the sprint race it’s great to see many of the regulars still competing with such enthusiasm and competitive spirit along side some of the newcomers keen to get involved and give Triathlon a try. This event more than any other on the calendar provides a great opportunity for members to meet, race together and enjoy the day - plus it’s an interesting guide for everyone to see who’s wintered well and fired up for the new season.

Once again conditions were good for racing although somewhat chilly for the early starters especially after the heatwave the week before. This year the race seemed to have quite a relaxed laid back feel to it, probably due the way the event was so well organised by Paul and Caroline and the army of helpers from club members, their families and friends. There was however some notable pacing up and down from our first local male winner and club coach Adam Masters who was apparently feeling the pressure to do better than last year, when he thought he had a bad race. In the end he posted a time 3 minutes faster to finish 16^th overall in 1:06:56.

Also spotted doing some serious warm up sets before the race and making a welcome return to the race this year was Alan Vickery who finished a very creditable 5^th overall in a great time of 1:04:07.

In between Alan and Adam in the club results table was the 1^st female athlete home, Alice Hector, returning to form and competing again following injury problems over the winter and speedy Veteran Rob Wood who was a well deserved 10^th overall and 3^rd amongst the Veterans. Rob has only made a comeback into Triathlon fairly recently after competing in his first triathlon back in July 1984 at Winchester which he won. He then did over 20 races the following year, winning five and was in a sponsored team. The following year he was part of a team that included Rob Barel (several times European Champion). The highlight of his triathlon involvement back then was spending a week training with Mark Allen in France in 1986.  Only three years ago did he manage to get back into things properly and finished third in the AAA 24 hour Championships at Tooting Bec Stadium completing 128 miles! – He hopes to do an Ironman next year.

Nigel Callum, obviously feeling the benefit of his extra time on the bike this winter and the training week in Majorca, showed a huge improvement on his 2007 time of almost 4 minutes finishing a creditable 8^th overall in the Veteran category. Our ageless Supervet and swim guru Nick Smith, another regular Majorca training visitor, showed what a consistently good performer he is by finishing in an almost identical time (1:09:53) to the previous year to win the Supervet class.

At the other end of the age spectrum was one of our youngest club competitors, Holly Lawrence. She posted the fastest overall swim time of the day to give her a great start which she consolidated during the bike leg and continued well into the run to record a great result as 2^nd in the female sprint category. Holly’s riding skills and power have improved dramatically over the past year and she shows great potential as a future top-flight senior competitor in Triathlon.

Then followed a gaggle of club veterans and regulars lead by Andy Pearson who after last years crash in Majorca which slowed him up somewhat, couldn’t do anything but improve. Which he did by almost 4½ minutes hotly pursued out of T1 by his brother Mike in their own private family race!

Ilton regular, Gerald Gilbert, another man who's been concentrating mainly on his cycling shaved almost a minute off his 2007 time, whilst Chris Short managed an improvement of over 2 minutes.

 A special mention to Joe Page who had a superb race to improve on his 2007 time by 9 minutes which was all made up on the bike section. Believe it or not he still thinks he could have gone quicker, even though he paid the price on the run for such a good bike split. Having started well he suffered on the hill with a tight hamstring and stopped twice to stretch it out. He suffered on the hill again but received a welcome boost from Kathie Lock and Caroline Facey’s shouts of encouragement at the top of Birchills Hill to see him home in a great time of 1:13:38. Obviously the ten days in Majorca did you some good as well – and of course that flashy new bike! (and aero helmet)

Nick Facey and Peter Galley also showed huge improvements over last year recording times almost 5 and 6 minutes faster, finishing 5 seconds apart in 1:16:05 and 1:16:10 respectively.

Tone Leisure man and senior competitor, Duncan Bawler was in the mix of Vets and described his race as sh** but enjoyable after struggling with a stitch!

Relative newcomer Lorraine Ayres, in her second year of Triathlon proper, had an excellent race in the female veteran category recording a great win in a very respectable time of 1:16:22. Lorraine's favourite discipline is swimming having competed for Birmingham Masters up until last year. Nevertheless her running is coming on really well with a 22:49 run split and a PB and second local female in the Taunton Half Marathon with a time of 1.38. She now has her sights set on the Weymouth Half Ironman, the entry for which was given to her as a birthday present!! - Stuart you old romantic.

Our very own World Age Group Sprint competitor and 2007 silver medallist Julia Hector showed her class by coming home first female Supervet in a time of 1:17:52 which was a PB over the 5 years she has done the race. She was especially pleased as both the bike and run splits were PB’s too which is a great confidence booster for her World Sprint Championship campaign in early June. Best of luck to you and Malcolm Hector who is also competing in Vancouver.

Penny Morgan our club webmaster picked up the first local female trophy in a consistent performance very close to her 2007 time.

Sue Fulford came close to not being able to race after not running for 4 months with an Achilles problem. She was however only 2 minutes slower than last year,  but still happy even after having to stop to put her chain back on and both her and Kathie lock were held up on the bike after a horse lorry got wedged in the lane outside Milverton school. Sue’s swim training has obviously paid off though with a 45 second improvement on last years swim time. 

Jodi Cameron made further improvements this year by knocking 1½ minutes off her 2007 race time almost all of which was made up on the run section. She's now made up over eleven minutes over two years - a great achievement.

Paul Croker remained consistent although the flashy new Zipp wheels, he won in the 220 Magazine competition, didn't produce a PB bike split but his swim time is still under 6 minutes!

Caroline Facey was a massive 8 minutes quicker than last year most of which was made up on the run section although she shaved almost 2 minutes off her bike split as well. An excellent achievement.

Finally hats off to Gordon Caughey whose derailleur broke just outside Milverton on the way back so he jogged, pushing his bike all the way back and then still did the run. That’s bad luck - Well done for finishing Gordon.

Once again a big thank you to the Organisers, Marshalls, Sponsors and Clubmates for making it such a fantastic event. Clearly the club is growing at quite a rate with many of our members improving year on year. Well done to all.