At least that’s the way it seemed to me.
Mind you, I was only watching (having failed to cajole someone into timing the race so that I could take part). Surprisingly, some of the competitors seemed to disagree. One lady complained about the humidity and asked me to knock a couple of minutes off her time. (I won’t mention her name, because I like being married.
Although Carol Dixon led after the swim leg (is that good enough, honey?) Ian Pilgrim then tore into this race like a father trying to prove something to his youngest child. Which he was. In the end that youngest child, Nick Pilgrim, was our race winner. (Ian had led until the finish of the bike leg, but then withdrew, muttering that his eye lashes hurt. Or something like that.) A strong run helped Nick to push Otis Ingham into second place despite his strong time. Rapidly improving Tim Palmer wasn’t far behind. Ben Lau deserves an honourable mention for a good fourth place.
This event has never been all about winning. Other things which caught the eye tonight:
- Doc Gerhard Boonstra made his debut and broke the course record for slowest transition.
- Dave Hope beat his daughter for the first time in years. This was ample compensation for his narrow failure to beat me in the highly contested “race for 85th place” in the Tokio triathlon last Sunday.
- Dean Minors continues to hold the edge over Tim Sousa. There’s no truth in the rumour that Tim is planning to put tacks in Dean’s running shoes next week. It’ll be his bike shoes.
- Rebecca Harrison and Laura Hope, who may have been the first competitors ever to finish this race holding hands.
All that said, our star of the week was without doubt Janet Harrison. Helping when it’s no hassle is great, but helping when you’re really tired and don’t feel like it is one better. Thank you, Janet, for keeping our athletes safe, once again, at the bike turn. Thank you also to Tammy Ingham for helping me at the finish, and–as always–to the many people who pitched in to help set up and break down.
See you soon–
Alan
200m swim/8km bike/2km run
1 26:39 Nick Pilgrim
2 26:50 Otis Ingham
3 26:56 Tim Palmer
4 27:34 Ben Lau
5 27:42 Kim McIvor
6 28:05 Charles Leonard
7 29:00 Lindsey Palmer
8 29:56 Gerhard Boonstra
9 30:20 Trent Harris
10 30:20 Kamryn Minors
11 30:42 Zoe Roberts
12 30:44 Cyprian Zimacki
13 30:58 Meredith Head
14 31:26 Dean Minors
15 32:13 Liz Stewart
16 32:34 Jennie Lightbourne
17 32:42 Aaron Cannonier
18 33:11 Joseph Lam
19 33:25 Carol Dixon
20 34:28 Tim Sousa
21 34:30 Kaylin Davy
22 34:34 Sam Naude
23 34:54 Dave Hope
24 35:07 Lara Rogers
25 37:01 Judith Howe Tucker
26 37:02 Donnie Francis
27= 37:52 Rebecca Harrison
27= 37:52 Laura Hope
29 39:47 Paul McLeod
100m swim/5.6km bike/1km run
1 20:02 Blake Oliveira
2 20:11 Cathie Oliveira
Other distances
Too fast to time! Ian Pilgrim 200m swim/5.6km bike/no run
Honorable mention Jane Hope Cycled until her chain got stuck!