Chirk Triathlon, Sunday 29th April 2007

Report by Tim Johns

This sprint tri in North Wales, has been held for the last 10 years & gets ever more popular, in 2007 it was booked up by the 6th January. So the deadline for entries for the '08 race is likely to be Xmas '07! Over 15 Man Tri athletes made it to the start line this year.

Chirk is famous for its castle & Cadbury's chocolate factory (who do not sponsor the race unfortunately!). The local pool has 4 lanes, so as there are over 350 competitors, the first start times are at 9.30am, with the elite of the field needing to wait until 2.15pm to start.

First up for Man Tri were Ian and Clare Welch, who both took big chunks off their previous best times (see below). Next was Arlett Schmidt, competing in only her second triathlon (1st in the UK) and had a great 46mins split in the bike. Arlett comes from an in line skating background & has taken to biking in particular, with regular outings on the Sunday Early Bird ride. Also in the field was Katy Perreault, who has a liking for triathlons in Wales and recently raced in Harlech.

Andy Chalmers & John Murray put in great '07 opening race performances (see below). I started just after them, at about 2pm, got a 1 sec PB in the swim and was also delighted not to have to swim 450m, as they made me do last year! For me, the bike was uneventful. Andy C & Dabbsy say I'm blind to hills. OK, there was a gradual rise to the halfway marker!

I got into T2, only to be passed by Andy White (Chester Tri). A fellow Vet, he'd taken 3 mins out of me on the bike, so couldn't let him beat me on the run as well. We were neck & neck for most of the run, although I had my perennial stitch problem, as if someone had stuck a carving knife in my ribs. Thankfully, the stitch began to wear off & broke Andy on the final hill. I finished strongly & was delighted to beat my time from '06 by over 4.5 mins.

Ahead of me Rob Harvey finished top Man Tri athlete in 8th, while Chris Standidge and Paul Skipper (racing for other teams) had top 5 finishes. Top of the tree was Chirk boy Paul Hawkins, a regular at Man Tri sessions but racing for others, who blew the opposition away in 57 mins!

Clare Welch wrote

We all had a great day at Chirk (even our girls, aged 8 and 10, who watched and loved the food from the Organic Food van!). Ian has concentrated on swim technique during the winter and bettered his swim time by at least 30 seconds and I knocked about 9 minutes off my overall time, compared with two years ago! The weather was glorious (as it has been for the last 3 years) and the organisation is very good. The cycle is scenic and not too arduous, good for novices, although the run is quite hilly (up and down though). We're both glad we did this triathlon, as it is a good for all abilities. It has fond memories as it was my first triathlon ever (two years ago), but I enjoyed it just as much this time. We will certainly do it again!

Andy Chalmers wrote

A late start on a lovely early summers day in Wales - a recipe for a good race. Swimming in the pool with all the competitors staggered was a real treat I only had to overtake one person and as he was the only other person in the lane at the time it was a easy and relaxed swim. Straight out of the pool to the bike and my first time in a race with my shoes ready in the pedals. Not super fast getting my feet in shoes but passed without any problems (the way forward for me had spent plenty of time practising though).

Tim had told me after a while it goes up a hill; what he forgot to tell me was that the hill carried on for 5-6 miles but as hill was not that steep it wasn't too taxing. Coming down the hill i thought would really fly but road surface was really poor so having pumped my new tyres to full it rattled my fillings (learning if road surface is bad don't put 160psi in your tyres). Out onto the run which was up and down, up and down, up and down... Very tough run but didn't drop as much time as I thought I would. All in all a well organised friendly race had a great first race for start of season.

John Murray wrote

This was my first attempt at a pool based triathlon and I can highly recommend this to other members of the club. The atmosphere was very relaxed and felt more like a Man Tri training day rather than a fiercely competitive race, maybe this was because I was further down the field away from the speed freaks breaking the hour mark. Although relaxed, the occasion was very well organised and Marshalls were at hand at every major turn to guide and direct on all legs of the swim/bike/run. If you want to do this race you really do have to be an early bird as the slots all vanish by Christmas so start planning now. Thoroughly enjoyed and I now have placed a marker for the season to work on.

Results (400m/24k/5k)

Name	Club	Swim	Pos	Bike	Pos	Run	Pos	Overall	Pos
Paul Hawkins	Planet X	00:04:52	2	00:35:18	3	00:17:14	3	00:57:24	1
Paul Skipper	Subsixty.com	00:05:45	17	00:37:34	9	00:17:44	5	01:01:03	3
Chris Standidge	Royles	00:04:53	3	00:38:07	12	00:18:27	10	01:01:27	5
Robert Harvey	MTC	00:05:39	13	00:38:27	16	00:18:09	8	01:02:15	8
Tim Johns	MTC	00:06:07	31	00:38:53	19	00:18:31	12	01:03:31	12
Peter White	MTC	00:07:41	171	00:41:17	43	00:21:07	64	01:10:05	49
John Murray	MTC	00:06:28	225	00:43:39	46	00:21:01	58	01:11:08	57
Nick Reed	MTC	00:07:05	100	00:41:41	47	00:22:58	130	01:11:44	67
Andy Chalmers	MTC	00:06:31	57	00:43:29	80	00:23:12	140	01:13:12	84
Mark Dunham	MTC	00:06:12	36	00:46:52	160	00:21:02	59	01:14:06	105
Ian Welch	MTC	00:09:56	292	00:46:19	146	00:23:01	136	01:19:16	169
Arlett Schmidt	MTC	00:08:32	228	00:46:53	161	00:26:22	250	01:21:47	199
Katy Perreault	MTC	00:07:14	113	00:50:18	220	00:26:13	237	01:23:45	222
Adam Fleming	MTC	00:09:24	264	00:52:38	256	00:29:28	300	01:31:30	278
Clare Welch	MTC	00:09:57	294	00:53:16	265	00:30:58	312	01:34:11	291

Back to main results page