Llandudno Sea Triathlon

Loads of members of Carneddau Triathlon Club took part in the Llandudno Tri with a large number featuring at the front end of the results. First out of the 1500m sea swim across Llandudno bay was Carneddau’s Rhian Roxburgh, exiting the water with the eventual winner of the men’s race James Ratcliffe. The 39km bike course, four laps of the Great Orme, saw the women’s race stay unchanged whilst Ratcliffe using his biking prowess, opened up an unassailable lead .Unfortunately it wasn’t to be a home win for Rhos on Sea based Rhian , being overtaken 5km into the 10km run on Llandudno’s promenade by fellow Elite Triathlete and winner of the women’s race, Jacqui Slack of www.netcentral.co.uk.
Simon Roxburgh was first local athlete home finishing in 8th place in a time of 2:18:16, joined by club mates Adrian Leonard 10th in 2:20:01 and Russell Godwin 11th in 2:21:40 to claim the team prize, based on the aggregate time of the first three finishers from any club.
Russell Godwin and Rhian Roxburgh both won there age groups as did Florida based triathlete and Carneddau member Rosemary Gay. Other club member’s times as follows Vince Edwards 12th, 2:22:49, Chris Lord joint 38th 2:38:50, Ian Taylor joint 38th 2:38:50, Gareth White 51st, 2:42:27, Tim Harding 52nd, 2:42:28, Martin Jones 67th, 2:49:25, Vicky Ronald 7th lady 2:58:19, Martin G Williams 94th 2:59:07, Neil Brampton 122nd 3:17:30, Richard Lawrence 123rd 3:20:30, Rosemary gay 16th lady 3:29:19, Guy Mair 135th 3:29:20, Rachel James Owens 24th lady 3:51:28. A special mention should go to Barry Craven who piloted blind triathlete Maggie Bowes around the course to finish in just outside four hours. Colin Davies & Stephen Wellington...sorry guys I don't have your results! Well done everyone.

Ironman Nice in Roys own words......

I'm back and I made it!!!!!!! And what a return to find donations have been coming in whilst I've been away, so thank you all once again and remember for those of you who have not yet had a chance to donate it's not too late, you can still send me Cheques (payable to charity dance ironman) or you can go to my just giving page at www.justgiving.com/ironmanroyden .
I've attached a copy of my finishing line photo with my new best friend Laurent Canu from Champigny 51 (the champagne region of France strangely enough).

What a day it was! It started at 03:50 in the morning followed by numerous visits to the loo, final bike checks at 05:00 to 06:00 then we headed down to the beach for the start at 06:30, and what a start! It was like being in a washing machine (not that I've ever been in a washing machine, but you get my drift? Stay with me here people). Now at this stage I didn't realise I also had to be trained as an under water kick boxer, fortunately with a bit of luck and a few shrewd moves I managed to come out unscathed which is more than some people could say (broken jaws, dislocated shoulders, black eyes etc etc). Transition went well and away we went for a 112mile jaunt! Now I read the profile in detail before I went and whilst I was there and I quote 'flat - descent'???? since when has a flat piece of road risen for 20km at an average gradient of 3%??? and since when did a 9km descent turn to just 2km?? I was going to have words with the course organisers however I thought I'd better save my energy for the run . Anyhow the only words I can convey for the bike course is BRUTAL, I have never seen hills like it, I thought Lance Armstrong and co only rode hills like this and being one of the larger male species (I'm more like Jan Ulrich, at least that's what I kept saying to myself as I was trying to push the big gears going up the hills) I really had to dig in on the Bike and what a relief it was when I did hit those flats and descents as I breezed gracefully past most of those sub 11 stoners as my additional weight, technical ability and fearless attitude to descending kicked in and if I say so myself I absolutely mullered the down hills with only 1 iffy moment where I nearly overcooked a corner with a little drop of a few hundred feet, So then it came to the run and what a run it was, now a couple of the lads at Carneddau who have done Nice told me to save some energy for the run (easier said than done lads). My strategy at this stage was to run the first 13miles or so without stopping!!! After about 2km I decided this strategy was flawed and I would therefore resort to plan B! Plan B was my run walk strategy which was going quite well, however I made a couple of errors! If any of you out there ever decide to run a marathon never, I repeat never run through the cooling showers. On the second 10.6km leg I started to get an uncomfortable feeling on the sole of my right foot, yes you guessed it, I got the mother of all blisters right down the middle of the foot which restricted my running to more of a shuffle and then came the bombshell! I got the father of all blisters on the heel of my left foot (pictures available for the less squeamish), now I still had 21km to go and my shuffle was more like watching your drunk uncle trying to moonwalk the wrong way so I had to think of a Plan C? Now being an ex squaddie a couple of blisters weren't going to stop me so I reverted to 'Tabbing' in other words power walking and strangely enough my splits were almost the same as my Plan A run strategy. During my final 6km I met up with my new bessie mate Laurent (in the picture) who was ready to stop as he was in so much agony with back spasms (Laurent had to pull out in 2008 due to stomach problems on the Bike). Now I was having non of it and together we managed to encourage each other through those last few kilometres with both of us running the last couple of kilometres like it was the start of a training run and what a finish it was with thousands of spectators all the way along the course screaming you name and offering words of encouragement (felt a little bit like a pop star) with the final 200metre being the most awesome I have ever experienced, the noise was thunderous the people were hysterical and the volunteers were forming a guard of honour for the finishers. what a day, one I'll never forget and most importantly I did this, yes for some personal satisfaction and some perverse reason of enjoying putting my body and mind through pain but mostly for the Arthritis Research Campaign which will receive over £1500 to help them find a cure for this dreadfully debilitating condition.
Thank you for all your support and your donations?

A win at the Welsh Championships

Rhian Roxburgh won the women’s race at the Welsh Olympic Distance Championships on Saturday. Rhian Roxburgh, defending the title she has held for the previous three years was first woman out of the water in 20:38, close on the heels of the two leaders of the men’s race. From there on in she opened a further lead , winning the women’s race in a time of 2:13:30 and more remarkably claiming 6th place overall.
The race, held at Parc Bryn Bach Country Parc in Tredegar, covered a 1500m open water swim, 40km bike on a ten lap closed circuit and a 10km run .The first male was Julian Hatcher of Team AVS in 2:01:42. Simon Roxburgh finished 7th in 2:13:56, winning Bronze in the Welsh Championships, closely followed home by club mate Matt Ashton in 8th place in a time of 2:14:26 posting one of the quickest run splits of the day.