A date for your diary.

Vet’s T&F League Fixture 3

The Dell – Brierley Hill

22/07/26

 Report – Nathan Darby

If I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to this meeting very much. Even though it would be a homecoming fixture for me in the Black Country, I didn’t think that too many others would be dewy eyed about driving to Dudley on a Wednesday night, particularly in peak holiday season. Because of this we didn’t quite have a full roster of athletes.

Adding to my fears was the fact that the events looked like they would be hard work. It might make some of the endurance runners smile, but the thought of running 200m, followed by two 400m events in the same night was making me nervous!

I then had a stressful day driving 300 miles around the country, so my head was elsewhere when I arrived!

Then the first thing I saw when I got there was a man telling Diane Farmer that “Yow cor bring your dog in here bab!” The last thing I needed was someone not being able to compete through dog sitting needs!

I was concerned that a depleted team would struggle. We have been finishing a consistent second place all season, I was ready to take a hit on third or maybe even fourth for tonight.

However, enough negativity!

Once I got my first triple jump off, I relaxed. The team got going and something pretty special happened…

We finished second in both the men’s and women’s events. The men finished only 3 points behind Worcester on the night. This means that we have improved our performance in each event and look impossible to dislodge from second place in either competition!

I am beyond proud of how the team acquitted themselves and the spirit that was shown on the night.

Track highlights include:

First places in the 200m for Andy List, Dave Wilson and Sharon Masters and a creditable second for Di Farmer. Peter Sugden came back to dominate the M35 race walk and Jan McLure as ever pushed her opponents to the limit. We got three second places in the 400m from me, Dave Battersby and Sharon Masters. In the mile Angela Williamson won the W50 event convincingly and Mike Hayward was second in a close-run race.

In the Field:

Debut performances for both myself and Sharon Masters in the Triple Jump, getting third place in each event. Paula Williams wining both the Hammer and the Shot and Mark Illingworth won the M60 Javelin. The M35 Javelin was particularly tight with James Chamberlain only 30cm behind the winner in third place.

However, this match was pushed close by all of the people who teamed together to enter events that they’ve never done before and did so with a big grin on their faces!

Di Farmer and Angela Williamson took part in more events than they had before and did so brilliantly. The key to these matches is not winning all of the races (though that would help!), but the team picking up a 3^rd place here and a 4^th place there, as they all score valuable points.

Which brings me to the “what if” moment… The only men’s event we had no entrant for was the M35 mile. Had we been able to fill that space, we would have tied with Worcester on the night. And IF that person had run faster than 7:10, we would have won. This only goes to show that despite the great season we are having we could still manage to do even better and participation is what we need to do that.

I implore all of you who are old enough and available to try and make the next fixture in Worcester on the 19^th August.

For our team to get even better, we genuinely need more people to get involved, trust me you will have a great time!

As ever, huge thanks to all of the volunteers who helped officiate; Daph Hawkins, Sue Mothershaw, Sandy Green, Kathryn Woodcock and Eleanor Nabney. Without you there is simply no event!

European MultiSport Championships

 Banyoles Spain

 

Report – Adam Linforth and Paul Faithfull

A club contingent of 3, Paul Faithfull and Camilla Cresswell (Middle Distance Triathlon) and Adam Linforth (Aquathlon) attended the European Champs this year is a sweltering Northern Spain. 

Weeks of heatwave in the UK went some way to heat training but 37 degC and higher than expected humidity meant walking let alone competing was going to be a challenge.

Thankfully as we all stayed on the same campsite, we all had the benefit of air-conditioning to get some respite from the heat.

Adam’s turn first, competing on the Saturday in the 1k swim, 5k run event, helpfully scheduled for midday (mad dogs and all that).  What could go wrong when the lake alone was at 30 degC (try swimming hard in your bath!!!). 

Over to Adam – ” My first real competitive race since breaking 2 metatarsal a Steeplechase race almost to the day a year ago. So it was an honour to pull on the GB tri suit and be able to even make the start line for my last year of competition in this age group.

The organisers sensibly pulled the race forward by an hour so we could at least benefit from it being a little cooler (its all relative though as it was still 31 degrees when I started).

Waiting for the claxon to sound in the water it was quite calm and refreshing, but then it was time for the off and the melee that is a swim in any of the triathlon disciplines.

A 1km swim was ahead of us, which other than suffering from a suspected broken rib meant I couldn’t swim my normal stroke, it was an uneventful swim taking me 18:33 and  coming out the water in 13^thposition. In to transition where I made up a few places and then on to the run.

OMG, the run whilst we benefited from some shade, when out in the open, the heat soak off the road was unbelievable and thankfully only for about 1.5km of the overall 5km run.

Finishing the run in 20:26 and an overall position of 10^th place (3 places better than last year in Pamplona), I was hoping the run was going to be a bit quicker, but given the heat It was pretty good.

My time on the day was good enough to finish with the 131^st fastest time of the day across all age categories. There was definitely more time in me and I was a little disappointed to be 4^th placed Brit, but there’s potential redemption ahead as I have the world champs in Abu Dhabi in November to aim for. 

All in all a great weekend and great to be there with good friends from the club, with each of us helping each other out for our events, making it so much easier to just focus on the competition without worrying about keys, phones, bags etc, etc.. Thanks Paul  and Camilla..”

Paul and Camilla’s race was shortened reflecting the temperature issues, a 1.9km swim, 84km bike and 14km run (reduced from half marathon distance).  The temperature started a chilly 26 degC and rose to 35 over the course of the event.  

Paul’s Race – “I’ve trained considerably more this year than any prior year across all disciplines, and seen the benefit in bike and run, but swimming has been a challenge and whilst my position (6^th / 32) was better than I had hoped, I lost 8.5 minutes on the leader, a margin which increased after a measured transition to try not to get too hot before hitting the bike. 

Once on the bike, things started to click and a measured first lap paid dividends as I passed the hares who had gone out hard and started to blow up on the second lap.

The heat was rising making holding power more difficult.  There are 3 aid stations and the second was followed by a number of speed bumps.  Water collected was immediately ejected meaning a very dry 20km mid bike, not great!  I came in as 2^nd fastest bike leg, on plan and into a very hot transition (now well over 30 degC).  Again a measured transition lost me time on the leaders but ice down the trisuit (yep you need to cool those places where the blood is close to the surface) and it was onto the run. The plan was clear, 5:00/km for 9 km and if feeling good wind up to 4:30/km.  A tall Spaniard in my age group left transition at the same time and set off at 4:00 pace.  I held him for 1 km, realised this was not going to work, and settled into a 4:30 pace.  Simple strategy, stay cool, at every aid station I would soak in iced water. 

2 laps, it got tougher as the temperature continued to rise but the pace stayed metronomically the same and I finished 4^th having reeled the leaders back in by 7 mins on the run. 

A longer run (my strongest discipline since being in the club) and who knows, that podium remains illusive but the Worlds are next….

Camilla’s Race – “I had realistic expectations racing in the 35 degree heat, having always suffered with gastric distress & gut issues, this race has really highlighted that you must ‘Trust the Process’.

Heat training paid off, training in many layers followed by hot baths, sweating it out for an hour after on the bathroom floor, wasn’t a waste of time after all!

I am very pleased with how my body adapted to the extreme heat and humidity. So clever is the body.

I was expecting the run to be super slow, and it wasn’t, my body felt great and my recovery also good. The 10 litres of water consumed each day including during the race definitely contributed to this. I am now looking for an electrolyte sponsor as I’m officially out!

Crying into the buckets of water and sponges as I crossed the finish line was sure a sign of relief from juggling the months of training, work and life!

An honour racing for GB in the great company of Paul, Adam and my wing woman Amy… and this year my top mechanic Paul only encountered a chipped tooth whilst looking after my bike, last year it was a deep chain ring wound to his forearm.

Who knows what’s in store for 2027, or should I change mechanic?!

SuAAC Parkrun Tourism

Kate Sergent

On Saturday 25^th of July a group of senior members’ went to Leamington to take part in their local parkrun. 

It was not far from home but a parkrun some SuAAC members’ had not run before. 

We proudly wore our club vests and the race director gave us a shout.

It is a challenging one lap course with lots of shade, which was certainly welcome on such a sunny day.

We all went for breakfast afterwards at the Newbold Arms.

Next venue is Weston – Super- Mare, with date to be arranged, so watch this space!!