Final Trunce 2015

The last Trunce of this year was run off last Monday and delivered a bit of a sting in the tail. Regular readers will know this tough multi terrain race is really a fell race in disguise, complete with three river crossings that are sometimes thigh deep, plus two ridiculously hard ascents that - unsurprisingly - also mean ridiculously hard descents: one of which is particularly technical and tricky.

Add Monday’s appalling weather conditions of persistent rain and wind and you can imagine the fun.

Nonetheless, Mick W and Rosie Wigg got stuck in and took it on. Rose (pic) made it round pain free after a year of niggling injury and was very encouraged. This bodes well for a full racing return – here’s hoping.

Mick, meanwhile came off second best to the course this time round by taking a hard tumble on the troublesome descent. In spite of a pretty substantial knock to his wrist he grimaced on to a top 30 overall finish. This was the first time in 8 consecutive Trunces that Mick didn’t improve on his course best. His run of PBs have been an extraordinary achievement and who knows, but for the fall, it might have continued.

Mick’s consistency delivered some consolation though, he managed a 12^th Veteran finish in the overall series for 2015 which, given the level of competition in this event, is absolutely superb.

Ten out of ten

Steve W and Emma S made the most of the fair September weather with a joint assault on the Epworth End of Season Sprint Triathlon (swim 400m / bike 20K / Run 5K) last Sunday. Both performed well with Emma taking a 3^rd place in her age group in spite of many months off the multisport scene due to niggling injuries.

Steve, meanwhile racked up another age group win and an impressive 4^th position overall. This was Steve’s tenth consecutive age group victory meaning he maintains his unblemished 100% 2015 record. In all ten triathlons he’s entered this year he’s won his age group – he’s also finished in the top ten in the overall field (a frankly amazing) nine times.

Steve didn’t even take up triathlon until well into his 40s, it would have been interesting to see how he’d have performed at about half his current age. We reckon he might have been pretty quick.

Seeking out the tough stuff

The past few weekends have seen Steve C in pretty serious preparation for an upcoming triathlon. First 'training race' up was the Prudent Riverside Half Marathon in Lancaster on Sunday 16th August. Steve reported a pleasant location for the run which was mostly based on a path the River Lune but a slightly less pleasant experience overall as the dreaded longer-distance-fatigue started to creep in towards the back end of the race.

Last weekend saw a change in discipline with Steve taking on the 90km Winking Sheep cyclo-sportive based around the notoriously steep and twisting hills of Teessdale in the North Pennines. The organisers made full use of the testing countryside incorporating some genuinely lung-busting ascents with an number of frankly scary 80 kilometre per hour dry-stone-wall-lined twisty descents.

Steve finished the beautifully-backdropped challenge exhausted but upright and did the honourable thing of sinking the free-to-all-finishers bottle of Winking Sheep Ale even before the sunglasses came off. Hardcore.