Weekend Round Up
Well its been a busy weekend with several events in Sydney and beyond!
Saturday was the monthly Sydney Striders 10K run out at Homebush - Both Emma and Sandra ran PB's in the low 48's
Ian Phillips was one of only 8 finishers from a field of over 40 in an 11km ocean swim from the Opera House to Manly on the same day. Most competitors pulled out as a result of bluebottle stings with only 2.5km to go but Ian hung tough to finish 4th despite being severely poinsoned. See comments (below) for a race report.
On Sunday the New Zealand Ironman had the swim cancelled and the ride/run halved to 90/21km due to massive winds.
Surf on Lake Taupo was huge and out on the bike course riders were averaging 15km faster on the first leg (which included a 10km climb) than the return section. The wind was a huge challenge on the run course too, with athletes reporting being blown sideways off the run course in places! Congratulations to Greer Sansom on her awesome win in the 35-39 age group and also to Dan Corbett who battled round to finish in the testing conditions despite being ill. Comiserations to Renaud Herrington who felt the shortening worked against him and finished 10th in 18 - 24.
Next Saturday is the 6ft track bush marathon from Katoomba to Jenolan caves. Starters will include Phil Dove, Darren Roberts and Rob Joscelyne. 46km of bush trails with some beautiful scenery and severe gradients both up and down!
On Sunday Wendy Andrews, Andrew James, Anne Besser, Helen Cox and Roo Killick will be competing in the Port Stephens Olympic distance triathlon. That's 1.5km swim / 40km bike / 10km run.
Best of luck to everyone who is competing!
Saturday was the monthly Sydney Striders 10K run out at Homebush - Both Emma and Sandra ran PB's in the low 48's
Ian Phillips was one of only 8 finishers from a field of over 40 in an 11km ocean swim from the Opera House to Manly on the same day. Most competitors pulled out as a result of bluebottle stings with only 2.5km to go but Ian hung tough to finish 4th despite being severely poinsoned. See comments (below) for a race report.
On Sunday the New Zealand Ironman had the swim cancelled and the ride/run halved to 90/21km due to massive winds.
Surf on Lake Taupo was huge and out on the bike course riders were averaging 15km faster on the first leg (which included a 10km climb) than the return section. The wind was a huge challenge on the run course too, with athletes reporting being blown sideways off the run course in places! Congratulations to Greer Sansom on her awesome win in the 35-39 age group and also to Dan Corbett who battled round to finish in the testing conditions despite being ill. Comiserations to Renaud Herrington who felt the shortening worked against him and finished 10th in 18 - 24.
Next Saturday is the 6ft track bush marathon from Katoomba to Jenolan caves. Starters will include Phil Dove, Darren Roberts and Rob Joscelyne. 46km of bush trails with some beautiful scenery and severe gradients both up and down!
On Sunday Wendy Andrews, Andrew James, Anne Besser, Helen Cox and Roo Killick will be competing in the Port Stephens Olympic distance triathlon. That's 1.5km swim / 40km bike / 10km run.
Best of luck to everyone who is competing!
posted by Dunstan at 12:20 PM
2 Comments:
Hi everyone
Here is a link to a summary report of the 11km swim Ian did on the weekend,
just to give you an idea of the conditions. It was a great effort and very
courageous of Ian to finish the swim and I was very proud that Ian was only
1 of 8 swimmers to finish the swim! (next time however Ian please GET IN THE
RESCUE BOAT!)
Well done to Tony Golden also who was Ian's support crew and was on a surf
rescue board. Tony hung in there as Ian's support and suffered through
numerous bluey stings himself. Ian couldn't have finished without Tony's
support so thanks!
Advice for everyone ...... stick to land activities!
http://www.oceanswims.com/nsw56/feedback56.html
http://www.oceanswims.com/nsw56/feedback56.html
Shannon xox
Not the organisers' fault
As one of the eight finishers of the 2006 Bridge to Beach swim I would like to say a few words about the race on Saturday. I've completed a good number of ocean swims over the years and prior to the difficult Bondi-Bronte a few years ago I thought I had come through relatively unscathed. That race involved a little bit of blood and a slow time so I suppose I can't complain....
It takes a difficult race or big achievement when there is a desire to thank those people around who supported and helped. That is what the Bridge to Beach race was all about.
As it turned out, it was not the distance that proved difficult on Saturday but the Bluebottles. Middle head went by at a little over 2 hours and sipping on coke from here on, I felt I was travelling well. One sting then followed another and within 10 minutes I was reduced to swearing a lot and threshing around trying to remove the bluebottles from every part of my body.
I think it was simply the fact that my paddler was in as much pain, and that I could vaguely see our destination that made me swim through the mess of stingers to the beach. I covered the last 200m in about 10 minutes which means I am going to request a position change from the fast lane at squad down to the slowest.....
In all fairness to the organisers, there was some warning about bluebottles at the start. Given we all had a support craft, I suppose the understanding is that should an individual need help in the water your support can provide that assistance. I think it is unfair to request organisers to closely patrol many kilometers of harbor by the time swimmers spread out over such a long course when a necessary requirement of entry was the support. Nature played a big part in producing what was one of hardest challenges around and I never thought i'd say that an ocean swim could hurt more than an Ironman. I can honestly say It did on Saturday. Can the organisers be blamed - not really.
Before I sign off I do need to thank a few people who played a part in my survival on the day ... My support paddler, Tony Golden, for a huge and gutsy effort - he was stung all over, especially on the hands as he physically picked up the bluebottles I was swimming into. Not sure what he did with these - he probably thre them back over his shoulder so they landed on my legs. He had stings all over his legs too but didn't swear back at me once when I suggested he do a slightly better job at steering me around the bluey's (or words to that effect).
I would like to thank my age group nemesis Alex Prendergast for pushing me under a shower as I got out of the water - I could barely stand and was having trouble breathing. He also sent me towards the ambulance and organised a doctor to give me painkillers and other drugs so a big thank you to Alex.
My coach Chad Sneider was very supportive as were the ambulance officers who covered me in ice and got me breathing oxygen - one officer whose name I didn't get especially spent a lot of time with me and deserves some appreciation.
A big thank you to everyone who helped and lets hope for a nicer swim next year - I'll be there.
Regards
Ian Phillipps
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