Weekly Newsletter 17 September 2013

NEW RACE START TIMES

The second race of the season has crept up on us already. Sunday 22 September has the season in full swing with several members in peak form for various events, both locally and out of the area.

From this Sunday club races will start as close to 6.30 am as possible. This is due to the increasing amounts of traffic around the jetty area, with the markets and warmer weather bring more people out early in the morning. Please arrive early to rack your bike and register so the race can start on time.

Those on duty need to be there by 5.45am. If you are unsure of your duty, please check on the Duty Roster section of our website at http://www.coffstri.com/duty-roster.html or ask Mark Griffiths via email at [email protected]. 

The 7-day forecast is predicting a partly cloudy day with light winds and a possible shower. But as we all know, things could change between now and Sunday. A high tide of 1.5m is due in at 9:53am, so it should be a nice ride back in to shore with the incoming tide. 

Best of luck to all those racing on Sunday. 

TAKING REQUESTS…
There’s still plenty of time to nominate your song for the CHTC playlist. Please send your requests to [email protected] with your name, the song title and artist. Or leave your request on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/coffstri. 

CLUB UNIFORMS
There is also still time to place your order for CHTC uniforms. You can take your pick from a full trisuit, shorts, tops, knicks, jerseys and much more! Michelle Clarke will be placing an order shortly, so please contact her ASAP on [email protected] if you would like to place an order or see some samples.

IRONMAN 70.3 SUNSHINE COAST
Several CHTC members travelled to Mooloolaba, Qld to participate in the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast. 

Pete Jacobs took out overall line honours for the event in an incredible 3:39:58. Clayon Fettell came in 2nd about seven minutes later. New Zealand’s Gina Crawford was the first female over the line in 04:23:17.

Not too far behind was our very own Mark Garner reaping the rewards of a sensible yet solid training load, a slightly tweaked nutrition plan and lots of hard work to come in at 04:51:59 (00:31:46/02:34:31/01:40:19). This placed him a very respectable 26 out of 144 in his division. Well done Mark.

The results for other CHTC members to race include:

Ben Flanagan 04:50:43 (00:33:41/02:33:58/01:39:32); Andrew Hart 04:54:40 (00:31:22/02:24:57/01:53:37); Ian Nash 06:15:02 (00:35:21/03:02:44/02:29:29); Lee Varney 07:08:39 (00:46:55/03:10:30/03:02:01); Charlie Nalder 05:34:44 (00:32:38/02:47:42/02:06:44); and Christine Lefeaux 05:02:27 (00:36:05/02:28:49/01:52:40).

This was the first time for Lee Varney and Ian Nash who both put in lots of work prior to the event. It seems Ian’s new Shiv paid dividends with a very decent bike time. Although this is just a lead up to Kona in October for Chrissie Lefeaux, she still put in a typically solid time and came in 3rd in her age group.

Congratulations to all who competed. Hopefully we will see a more detailed race report in a future newsletter.

COFFS HARBOUR RUNNING FESTIVAL
Coffs Harbour put on another perfect day for the annual Coffs Harbour Running Festival. Now in its third year, this event has become a fixture on the race calendar and attracted over 1400 participants across all events. Some even from as far away as Zimbabwe. 

CHTC was very well represented, especially in the Half Marathon and 10km events. 

Club members took podium places in almost all age groups, with Richard Pearson and Leah Fitzgerald taking line honours in the Half Marathon. Richard managed to beat running legend Steve Moneghetti across the line and came home in 1:15:58.

Jacinta Smithers and Daniel Stein took out first place in the 10km, clocking in at 0:42:31 and 0:33:02 respectively. 

Full results are posted on http://villagesports.com.au/events/coffs-harbour-running-festival/results/. But here are some results of other CHTC members (apologies in advance to anyone not on the list). 

Half Marathon – Male
Richard Pearson 1:15:58, Joseph Kane 1:24:32, Andrew Rowlings 1:24:46 , Andrew Pitzen 1:29:28, Brett Hoffman 1:34:25, Michael Mcfarlane 1:37:53, Kristian Parkhill 1:38:09, Craig Busby 1:38:37, Ian Howchin 1:40:05, David Leckenby 1:40:51, Reuben Van Wyngaardt 1:45:19, Peter Giddins 2:05:54, Peter Wood 2:11:02, Steel Beveridge 2:24:08

Half Marathon – Female
Leah Fitzgerald 1:29:22, Grace Edwards 1:43:06, Jane Wilson 1:56:29, Lisa Alford 1:57:22, Katharine Porter 1:57:36, Lynelle Fulton 2:00:24, Bridget Diffey 2:05:57, Susan Clarke 2:15:38, Margaret Gill 2:17:13, Michelle McFadyen 2:21:36, Judy Chesney 2:35:49

10km – Male
Daniel Stein 0:33:02, Philip Viles 0:40:49, Guy Leckenby 0:40:57, Ed Harrod 0:41:39, Scott Brealey 0:44:32, Steven Alford 0:44:39, Joshua Doak 0:45:16, Todd Blewett 0:47:41, Paul Woods 0:53:28, Paul Courtney 0:54:00, Michael Tonks 1:00:48

10km – Female
Jacinta Smithers 0:42:31, Aimee Sutton 0:43:34, Kylie Marle 0:43:49, Michelle Pearson 0:44:45, Hadley Black 0:45:17, Sarah Brazenor 0:46:15, Michelle Randall 0:47:40, Sione George 0:47:48, Emma Sutton 0:48:40, Leanne Wellington 0:49:02, Belinda Heaney 0:50:02, Jan Rooney 0:51:06, Isobella Bowes 0:53:55, Melinda Pavey 0:58:51, Marlene Power 0:59:28, Ellie Luhr 1:10:21

5km
Tenielle Stubbs 0:20:11

AGE GROUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Reece Edwards flew the flag for Australia in London at the Age Group World Championships. Reece competed against athletes from all over the world in the Olympic Distance event. He came in 34th place in his age category and posted a time of 01:56:25.

This was Reece’s last foray into age group racing and will now try his hand as a pro. Well done Reece.

SLOW IRONMAN?
By Club Coach Andrew Rowlings
This Sunday sees the inaugural running of Ironman Take Tahoe on the Nevada/California border at an elevation just over 2000 metres. Having recently spent 5 weeks training at this location on segments of the course, this looks like being a very testing day for the majority of the age group athletes.

Coming up from sea level training base to altitude will have a dramatic effect on the competitors’ ability to maintain their usual swim tempo, with a high percentage of the field needing to adjust their breathing pattern accordingly to ensure they get through the first discipline with minimum discomfort. When you hit land it is possible to increase your breathing rate to compensate for the altitude effect, but this is not possible in the water, with the preferred option to start a little slower and revert to single side breathing for the first few hundred metres.

Although there are some very fast segments on the bike, with a great surface, there are also some steep segments up to a grade of 12% that will have legs screaming, especially on lap two.

With a predominantly flat run, this part of the course is not too difficult, despite a climb to Squaw Valley. The ability to run well will largely be determined by how well pacing has been judged in the first two disciplines.

The professional field will not be affected to the same extent as age groupers, with a lot of them having had altitude incorporated into their race preparation. Most age groupers do not have this luxury. 

Although I hope this is not the case, it would be no great surprise to see this event return the highest DNF rate of any Ironman, and also have the slowest average finish time across the field.

Lake Tahoe is a beautiful part of the world, but the sold out field for Sunday’s event are likely to remember this location for a lot of different reasons: thin air, hills, screaming lungs and burning quads.

WOOPI TRI – 2 WEEKS AWAY
There is also still plenty of time to enter the Woolgoolga Triathlon Festival – 28 & 29 September. There is a link to the event from our website (www.coffstri.com). Entries are also online at www.registernow.com (go to “Find an Event” and search for “Woopi Tri”).  Check out their new revamped website at http://woopitriathlonfestival.com/ or contact the Race Director Leeann Lloyd on 041 633 6524 for more details.

ADVENTURETHON…AN INVITATION
Rebecca Hall from Adventurethon has extended the following invitation to CHTC members.

“Hi,
 I am writing this email as an invitation to our upcoming event – Adventurethon Coffs Harbour. 

 Some of your Coffs Triathlon members may be highly interested in partaking in our event as we aim to hold a fun, enthusiastic and enjoyable weekend. 

 Our courses are quite similar to a triathlon structure although they are unique, off road and allow people to enjoy the scenic wonders of the areas we hold our events. We have also replaced the swim leg with paddling – which is something new, exciting and enjoyed by competitors! 

 We want to encourage people to step out of their comfort zone and try something new! Some of your members might find this as the perfect opportunity to excel in something you guys love doing, but at the same time experience a whole new aspect! 

 I believe most of your members would be super fit but might not be too comfortable with paddling? So just to let you know, we have a ‘Taste of Adventurethon’ course which is made for beginners and socializers – a great way to get the gist of what Adventurethon is all about!  Any of the courses can be tackled individually or in teams (max 3).

 We also have courses for those who aren’t that keen on paddling (land only option – ‘Dirty Duathlon’) and juniors. Those who do the Taste of Adventurethon also have the chance to tackle the race side by side with a junior as the courses are identical. 

 Affordable craft and bike hire is available by Peak Adventures and Ventoux Cycles for those who do not have their personal equipment for the events. 

Our early bird entry prices have also been extended to this Sunday 22nd September just to give you a heads up if you are interested, you may want to get your hands onto our slashed prices!
 
If you are really keen on getting people involved, we are open to offer discounts or entries for Adventurethon Coffs Harbour to use as prizes if you may have small competitions running at the moment. I could also send you down some posters if you are interested in hanging or handing some around. Feel free to contact me!

 Thank you for your time and I hope to see a few of your members have a go at our event!
 
If you want to seek more information – check out our website www.adventurethon.com.au or you can contact me personally

Kind Regards,
Rebecca Hall
Event Assistant 
Adventurethon Australia
0402207325
[email protected]
Website: www.adventurethon.com.au”

WISE WORDS
"It becomes almost addictive. Once you’ve done it once, you wanna do it again."
- Peter Reid, Canadian Elite Triathlete