Triathlon review

James

Jul 13 |07:53

Last Updated on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:45

Triathlon review

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What an epic event, even if I do say so myself. The Tresco Triathlon was held this weekend on Tresco; an event comprising of a swim, cycle and run for 32 competitors.

Sunday saw the culmination of over 6 weeks of planning and preparation by myself and Pete Marshall; working day and night to try and cover every eventuality - after all, it was the first ever triathlon on the island, and with it came the inherent risks of the three sections. Swimming in itself is an insurance minefield - one step wrong, and we'd be (trying to think of a swimming based pun, but the words aren't flowing this morning) in trouble. The cycle, although not overly dangerous on it's own, is also somewhat of a headache in the eyes of the insurers when run on roads filled with bystanders.

The run though, we were quite experienced in ensuring that went well, what with our countless years of marathon preparations!

Tresco Triathlon - Swim

There were no injuries on the day, apart from our own Pete Marshall, who actually pulled his hamstring setting up the course. Can you get any worse luck than that?? The weather, despite previous panics, held out superbly - quite possibly perfect triathlon weather? The sea was as calm as glass, no wind to speak of, and that mid-summer muggyness decided to dissapear at lunch time. Warm enough for tshirt donning supporters, and cool enough for hard working athletes. Thank you, mother nature.

Saturday was a busy day, preparing the course and ensuring we had everything we needed. Possibly leaving it to the last minute, but that was the only chance we all had to get together! Luckily though (or more due to the expert planning), it all seemed to work. Worryingly though, by the end of the Saturday, we still had a long list of tasks to finish. The Sunday therefore was again an early start, but we had an awesome team of marshals and helpers; without these guys the Triathlon would be nothing but the dream of one New Inn chef..

I want to thank the following for helping to make the day great:

Tresco Triathlon - Finish Will Ash, Chev Chelios, Julie Christopher, Rachel Young, Jo Ash, Ellen Marshall, Amy Lambert, Livi Cook, Ben Robbins, Ellie Tabron, Sam Reed, George Kershaw, Jon Taylor, Joey Aram, Jamie Parkes, Pauline & Trevor Washington, Ian Warren, Dave Jew Reis, Tom Lambert, Peter Adams, Mark Watkins, Becky Brint, Oliver Plante, Nick Mackey, Harry Getliffe, Max Rowe, Ross Christopher, Neil barbary, Robin Lawson, Andy Lawson, Clare Lewis, Richard Hobbs, Tony Smith, Emma Driscoll, Paul Heslop, Steve Ash, Lisa Roberts, Robert & Lucy Dorrien-Smith, Hugh Jacobs (and there are probably more, so i'll edit this list when i'm shouted at for not including someone)

That's a huge list of people - and (pretty much) everyone of them were so willing to give up their Sunday afternoon to help make the event a success. There are more thanks of course, from the runners who did this to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, and including all those supporters that came over from the other islands and our own Tresco residents to cheer on each and every competitor; a mainland visitor who'd watched many such an event commented to me that this was the best event he'd ever watched - no where before had he seen such an amazing community spirit where everyone cheered for each and every athlete at every step of the way.

Have a look at the Tresco Triathlon page for a full list of results, and i'm in the process of uploading the (literally) thousands of photos from the day. A huge congratulations to Joe Gresty, who finished the trial in an amazing 59 minutes and 03 seconds!

The runners, who all completed the triathlon, are no doubt in the process of collecting their hard earned sponsorship, and we'll give you an update on monies raised as soon as we get it. If you have any photos you want to add, please do contact us. I'll eventually sort them out into nice manageable albums - in the meantime, click below to see those from the three stages.

Until next year....?