Read all about Matt Rylatt representing GB in Limerick duathlon and double wins at Helmsley 10k and Leeds Park Run………
European 2011 duathlon age group championships, Limerick, Ireland
16th April. 10k run; 38k cycle; 5k run.
Something of a surprise for me saw me qualify for the GB team in my first
standard distance duathlon in March. I had a great weekend over in
Limerick. I went over on the Thursday and ran and cycled the circuits
on the Friday to check them out. Both run and cycle legs were fast,with a couple of tight turns for the bike. We had the ‘parade of nations’ on the Friday evening, followed by a good pasta party. Race day was good weather without being too hot. I’d had a heavy cold all week, so wasn’t too optimistic coming into the race. However, as the race got going, I found I was running a very
quick pace, perhaps too fast, so I eased off slightly. I ended up running a pb of 40:28 for the 10k, so very pleased with that. I did a pretty good transition to the bike, practice paying off. The bike was 5 circuits, with only one slight climb on each, and plenty of tuck down and get shifting. The quick bit past race control with a big crowd was a real buzz. Not a bad second transition, but tired legs on the 5k. Finshed in 2hrs 9 min’s getting 12th in my age group from 20. Really enjoyed it all.
Matt Rylatt
The club got a double win at the Helmsley 10k trail race and like at Ripon there seemed to be a procession of the club’s runners at the presentation to pick up prizes. I have not done the Helmsley 10k trail race before so didn’t know what to expect. The first half is on road, however, a quick glance at the map showed that with 120m of height climbing this would be the hard part of the race with the 2nd half being nearly all down hill through forest trails back into Helmsley. The early morning cloud cover soon burnt away to leave another warm day for April.
Straight from the outset the red York Acorn vest of Tom Bean hit the front and although New Marske’s Sean O’Grady tried to get on terms he was still 10 seconds down when the course turned into the off road section. Tom’s main prowess is cross country running and he soon pulled well clear to win by 48 seconds in a time of 34.32 on a course which was approximately 250 metres further than the 10k advertised.
Becky Penty made it an individual double by winning the women’s race by over 5 minutes. Mike Raynes tried to go with Becky up the opening climb but could only watch as Becky’s effortless running style began to pull away from 3k onwards as she once again placed 4th overall and nearly caught 3rd by the end. Mike Raynes was, however, reasonably pleased with 9th placed which just got him onto the prize list.
Fell running specialist Heather Tuffs showed she was just as profficient on the trails by taking the 2nd female position by a comfortable margin of nearly 2 minutes. With young Charlotte Mason finishing 5th female and first junior the club would have comfortably taken the team prize had there been one, both for the women and men.
Mark Harney had run the London Marathon last Sunday and most people still can’t run a week after a marathon never mind do a 10k race. Mark, however, might start suffering from withdrawls symptoms if he couldn’t do his weekly race so he bravely towed the line to finish in an impressive time of 41.25. He claimed he felt a lot better at the end of this race than he did last week on the Embankment at 24 miles.
Finally Mike Hetherton was first over 60, finishing about 100m ahead of Knavesmire’s Mike McGrath to take the prize.
The club is not just about elite athletes and it was great to see a mixture of old timers back in action and new runners to the club taking on the event for the first time. Starting with the women 16 year old Laura Eden stepped up to 10k for the first time to run an impressive time to cross the line as first under 17 runner. Hopefully she enjoyed the experience. Sue Hatfield and Janet Gibson put last week’s hills at Thixendale to good use as they both broke the hour. As for the old timers it was great to see Gerry Orchard, Dave Paver and even Ged Hemblade back in action. I am not sure who was aching most by the end but Ged showed that not all his talent was gone by crossing the line first in 44.49.
In other club news Mark Metcalfe was 2nd in this week’s Leeds 5k Hyde Park run with a time of 16.38 with Chris Judge placing 5th in a time of 17.41.
Mike Raynes
Related posts:
- Matt Rylatt, in Team GB, 16 April 2011 European Duathlon report
- Results 7th/8th April
- Results/Reports 2nd/3rd April incl Jolly Holly Jog
- Race Reports 20th/21st November
- Triathlon Race Reports
This entry was posted
on Sunday, April 24th, 2011 at 9:28 pm and is filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.