Sunday 7th June in Ladywell lake hosted the Northumberland Triathlon which is organised by VO2Maxaracing events.  As usual they put on a fantastic event, very well organised and marshalled.  Saturday was extremely windy, so Sunday didn’t seem so bad but in reality was still fairly windy to be swimming in the lake and cycling with a side wind.

The club had 3 participants and a team entry in the Standard distance and 7 entrants in the sprint tri.  Great to see Richard and Kevin back to competition in their first event of the year.  Pictured here before and then after the race.  Perhaps looking a little more relaxed after they had finished than before…..

The water was certainly rough and Mark Kelly was keen to see some of the fast standard guys on the rugby pitch instead of in a lake as they had “swam over him”  when they caught up the sprint distance swimmers.

Fantastic performance and well done to finish to husband and wife team Mark and Tina for finishing and for Mark running extra distance to keep Tina company at the end of the run.

Sue completed her first standard distance event,  and maybe even a convert to the longer distance.  Danny and Dave were both warming up for half ironman distances in the near future.  Great to see Danny completing as it’s not long since surgery so the return to fitness is great to see.

John wasn’t well last week but facebook proved it’s worth and the others talked him into it on Saturday evening.  Finally well done to Steve, Dave and Sue for great times in the standard distance on a challenging daty.

Final picture from the day is some of the club members enjoying the atmosphere and sunshine as the event finished.  Awards were being made whilst the final competitors were finishing and it was great to hear the cheers and encouragement that was given to these athletes.

The second Go Tri event of the year was held at Ponteland Leisure centre on Wednesday 20th May. This event was a mini triathlon and consisted of a 200m swim, a 9k bike and ending with a 3.3k run. A total of 39 people took part, for the vast majority of those, this was their first triathlon.

We had a lot of our club members entering the event, for many participating in a tri for the very first time, a few using it as a training session.

We also had a large group of medics from the QEII taking part in a tri for the first time. Many thanks to Bart for organising them.

By far the best finish of the day was between Lois and Kelly with a superb sprint for the line.Both crossed the line at the same time!

Final results are:

The next event is an aquathlon on Wednesday 3rd June and will be a 300m (12 lengths) pool swim followed by a 3.3k run.

Many thanks to all our marshals who made sure the event ran smoothly and gave lots of encouragement to the participants! I’ve already received lots of thanks from many of the participants who have said how much they enjoyed it and surprised at how professional and cheap it is!

Alnwick Tri put on a great event again this year but the weather conditions were extremely windy as the competitors headed out towards the coast on the bike.  It was quick heading east but everyone knew we’d pay the price when we turned to head back towards the town.  The run route was slightly changed this year to accommodate building work but had the usual off-road up-hill format.

Well done to Phil for his first triathlon,  great result.  Also great to see Tina and Kelly competing as they were volunteering at Ashington a couple of weeks ago and cheering all Ponteland Tri members on in the run leg. Ponteland Tri had 10 participants in the event this year out of the field of 180.  Just need to make sure all club members register against the “Ponteland Tri” club name when entering BTF events.

Our thanks go to Alnwick Tri club and all the volunteers who made such excellent event.  I will add some event photos once available.

Here’s Kelly on the run, she does need a nice “Ponteland Tri” suit for future events….. much better than plain black.