Harlech Sprint Triathlon, Sunday 15th April 2007

Report by Rob Wilby

A glorious sunny morning greeted Manchester Tri Club competitors at the Harlech sprint triathlon on Sunday, 15th April. The event comprised a 400m pool swim, a 30km rolling out and back bike course along the coast road, and a beautiful but testing 6km run that included a run on single tracks through the sand dunes, a section along the beach, before another leg-killing section across very soft sand dunes to the road. To finally finish the legs off, the run finished with the final lung-busting kilometre up the 1 in 4 switchback hill to Harlech Castle. Later in the morning, an eerie sea fog rolled in, reducing visibility to only 30 meters on the beach for the later starting athletes.

Rob Harvey took the honours as first club member home, finishing the event in 3rd place overall. Rob had equally strong splits on the swim, bike and run, missing out on second place by only the handful of seconds that were taken out of him by an even stronger swimmer than himself.

Andy Norman, competing in his first ever triathlon only a few weeks after buying his first bike, finished as second club member in 5th place in his age group, and 13th place overall. Andy is a Great Britain runner, and has turned to triathlon to keep fit while he recovers from a foot injury that has prevented him running for the past 8 months. "I thought my bike was great at first because nobody passed me and I passed so many, but I really suffered in the last few miles. Think I set off too quick up that hill! I just had to jog the run because of my injury that stopped me running competitively." (Runners in the club will shudder to see that his 'jog' was the 4th fastest run split of the day, despite not having run a step in 8 months!). Rob Wilby was third club member home a minute behind Dave, in 6th place in his age group and 16th place overall.

Martin Webb wrote in his race report, "The swim went well and I managed to find my way out onto the bike course without mishap and having already ridden up to the first hill I knew it looked worse than it was. I was one of the later starters and was expecting the 'fast boys' to come flying past, a few did but not many. On the return leg negotiating the speed cameras (a first!) and the fog proved the biggest problems and then out onto the run. It was good to get onto the wet sand on the beach and it would have been great to do the whole run there, even if you couldn't see much, a total contrast to the previous three days. After about 4K I got a really bad stitch which coincided with Andy Norman flying past me with his injured leg!"

Guy Dobson wrote, "The bike section was great, the only problem being having to slow down on the last hill down to harlech, then missing the turn off and having to turn around. One of the weirdest bits, was looking down at the beach at one point and seeing the sea, then a little later just seeing a load of cloud. Surreal. The run was ok. I didn't enjoy running over the dunes. In fact, I'd say that they were harder than the 1/4 hill. The best bit was the sprint down into the finish. Couldn't walk afterwards but it was worth it!"

First woman home for the club was Judith Wall, finishing first novice in her age group. Despite swimming two extra lengths in the swim, Sonia Harris finished 5 seconds ahead of Roisin McCourt.

Overall, a fantastic day out and a race that comes highly recommended. MTC were well represented there, with 15 members racing. Rumours around the race transition at the end of the event were that the Harlech pool is to be demolished this year, possibly meaning the end of what must be the most picturesque triathlons around. Other rumours were that the organisers were thinking of going ahead next year with an open water sea swim in place of the pool swim. Fingers crossed that the event continues in some form in the future.

Results (400m swim, 30km bike, 6 km run)

Name	Swim	Pos	Bike	Pos	Run	Pos	Overall	Pos
Harvey, Robert	0:05:42	6	0:47:12	5	0:25:08	8	1:18:02	3th
Norman, Andy	0:06:36	28	0:50:38	31	0:24:32	4	1:21:46	13th
Wilby, Rob	0:07:07	69	0:50:18	29	0:25:27	10	1:22:52	16th
Brown, Mark	0:06:12	9	0:51:39	38	0:30:40	109	1:28:31	49th
Parker, Carl	0:07:16	82	0:52:23	45	0:30:57	116	1:30:36	70th
Wolstencroft, Gary	0:07:30	100	0:54:23	75	0:30:12	94	1:32:05	78th
Webb, Martin	0:06:46	43	0:55:12	88	0:30:17	96	1:32:15	79th
Reed, Nick	0:07:18	85	0:53:35	66	0:33:50	171	1:34:43	105th
Wall, Judith	0:07:34	103	0:59:20	164	0:31:25	124	1:38:19	136th
Dobson, Guy	0:07:13	77	0:58:43	152	0:34:31	192	1:40:27	152th
Harris, Sonia	0:08:11	144	0:58:40	149	0:35:54	218	1:42:45	177th
McCourt, Roisin	0:07:54	128	0:59:25	166	0:35:31	211	1:42:50	179th
Waterhouse, David	0:08:36	184	1:02:43	203	0:34:14	182	1:45:33	203th
Perrault, Katy	0:07:46	121	1:04:55	226	0:36:46	232	1:49:27	218th
Alcock, Steve	0:09:25	235	1:09:28	255	0:35:33	214	1:54:26	242th

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