shropshirepaddlesport.org - the blog

Sorry, should have posted this before (as we've already missed the Anker Valley one) but here are the details for the Midlands WInter Duathlon series of events.

Midlands Duathlon Winter Series 2010

Dates & Times
SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER 2009 - ANKER VALLEY
SUNDAY 24TH JANUARY 2010 - LEAMINGTON
SATURDAY 20th FEBRUARY 2010 - BURTON
SUNDAY 14TH MARCH 2010 - SHROPSHIRE

There will be an entry fee of
£4.00 per adult,
£2.50 for lightnings.

All races will start at 11:30 a.m. Further details from the relevant club contacts below.

The Format
A continuous Run – Paddle – Run over 3 different courses
4k Run – 6k Paddle – 2k Run (Div 1-6 on separate starts)
2k Run – 4k Paddle – 1k Run (Div 7-9 Paddlers)
1k Run – 2k Paddle - (Lightning Paddlers)

Points
1st place 20 points, 2nd place 19 points,down to 20th place where everyone after that scores 1 point.

Prizes
Prizes will be given for the first 3 places in each event At the end of the series there will be overall prizes for the first 3 clubs and first 3 competitors in each category.
NB: The overall prizes will be based on the best 3 results from the 4 races.

Entries
Entries can be made on the day or by email to the club contacts who are:
Anker Valley: Liz Franklin 01676 542705 liz.ef@btinternet.com
Leamington: Tibor Herbent 024 76592247 tibor@herbent.co.uk
Burton: Bill Lawrenson 01283 542324 bill.lawrenson@bcu.org.uk
Shropshire: Deb May 07747 535341 deb@shropshirepaddlesport.org

Anita won the div 7,8,9 duathlon series following a silver medal at Burton!

Well done Anita!

In Gailey news - Bruce came second in the div 4-6 series and Grace won the lightning competition, with Rose 3rd.

Just a reminder that the re-scheduled Shropshire Duathlon (which was originally due to be run on Saturday 7th January) is being run on SUNDAY Feb 22nd i.e. this Sunday coming.

Apart from the change of day from a Saturday to a Sunday, all arrangements were as before. All offers of help and assistance (for car parking, turn-marshalls etc) gratefully received - please contact Bruce Blackman (race organiser) or one of the other members of the committee if you wish to volunteer your services.

Otherwise now that it's warmed up a bit, why not come along and give it a go - for the lower divisions it's only 2 km running + 4 km paddlling + 1 km running. Apparently this isn't very far at all (at least that's what they told Phil Bevan and I when we were talked into trying it a couple of weeks ago...)

Well Saturday morning dawned beautifully sunny up at Queens Head, but of course it was all still frozen. Despite the beautiful weather if we had gone ahead I think we'd have had quite a lot of teams chosing not to travel because of the bad weather forecast and also the sound of a large number of very expensive boats being chopped up by the icy waters of the Montgomery Canal.

The usual suspects turned up anyway to stand around and gossip in the sunshine and to turn away anyone who thought there might still have been a race on, but thanks to emails, the blog and some heroic 'phoning around by Bruce the message seemed to have got through to everyone that we'd cancelled.

It was very pretty up there though...

Winter view of the road bridge

Is the pub open yet...?

Sorry chaps - I've just heard from Bruce.  The canal is frozen and the duathlon has been postponed although a new date has yet to be fixed.

Folk will still be down tomorrow I imagine so we can see if conditions are suitable for taking out short boats, opens or the bell boat if anyone wants to meet up.

The club duathlon will be held at Queens Head rather than Shrewsbury due to river levels. It will start with registration from 9.30 with the lightning brief at 10.30 (race at 10:45) and the seniors brief is 11:15 starting to run at 11:30.

This means that there will be no club session on Saturday. However anyone who wants to take part in the race or is able to help is more than welcome to come down anyway!

Contact Deb or Bruce for more information.

The club session on Saturday morning with successful with almost all the lads (plus Gill Otto) chosing to trial the course for the duathlon (which they all did successfully; Cameron decided that the lightning option was a little short so added a couple more runs on to it and Andy has nearly stopped limping and wincing every time he stands up) leaving Caroline Bevan et al to go on a nature paddle to the rat pool spotting kingfishers, lambs and snowdrops.
Aww very pretty.

Anita had a cracking race at Anker Valley on Saturday being second lady home in 00:45:31. Unfortunately Ellie was ill and had to retire (learning from Jess Walker in Australia there!). However Anita's efforts put SHP 4th in the ladies team event.

Everybody's top 3 results count so with a few more bodies we could do quite well in the next three races. Only four lightnings entered Anker Valley so there are lots of points to be had in those classes. The Blackman's efforts put Gailey juniors third when Grace & Rose came first and second respectively just 20 seconds apart.

The next races are Fladbury on Saturday, our own race in Shrewsbury on the 7th February and Burton on the 28th Feb.