TRIATHLON: Triathlon season gets underway with first events of year

As winter has left us and spring has sprung the UK triathlon season has started to emerge and Rugby Triathlon Club members competing in the first triathlons taking place last weekend.

Alison Rose-Query (1:19:20), Sophie Albon (1:31:54) and Richard Mercer (1:31:40) competed at the Bicester Triathlon, a sprint distance pool-based event in Oxfordshire. The run route was changed at the last minute as the grass course had been affected by the amount of rain recently and so was moved to the local pavements.

At the Southwell Triathlon Neil Tooby (1:12:05) had a similar experience with wet transition areas making for interesting times! The rugby pitch where the transition was set up was having water pumped from it the day before so muddy feet were guaranteed. Despite this Neil started his season with a personal best at this event setting up a good season hopefully.

Getting much wetter this weekend Anthony Dale tackled the Tour de Gwent sportive in Wales.

As expected when competing in Wales the weather was wet, windy and cold and the terrain was very hilly too. Over the 93 mile course there was over 7000ft of elevation making for a tough day out in the Welsh countryside.

Running her first marathon Laura McCrystal travelled to the south coast for the Brighton Marathon. The course has some notorious lumps in it and is very well spectated and supported by the locals. Laura was pleased to come in just under her target time in 4:28:34.

Closest to home Rugby Triathlon club were out in numbers at the Regency 10k in Leamington Spa. Derek Hoyle (46:29), James Daly (47:34), Tony Stinton (51:50) and Alan Towler (1:05:11) all raced at the well supported event running through the heart of Leamington Spa.

More information about Rugby Triathlon Club can be found on their Facebook page.