Mark Yeoman, Suze Pratt, Ian Talbot, Tim and Libby Ferguson all headed to Marlow last weekend for the Marlow triathlon.
Mark (as ever) set out to smash and dominate the Olympic race: ‘This was a two lap swim in the Thames, two laps over the challenging bike course & 2 laps along the river and up Marlow hill. I saw Olympian Toby Garbet and über swimmer Kate Henderson so I knew it was going to be an honest swim. I went hard and led for the first 300 before Kate glided past – however I stuck close to her and only after the last 100m did she ease away – but the guy who I was swimming also with who I thought was Toby was some random. 30sec behind Kate – 3rd fastest swim.’

Tim and Libby meanwhile where both embarking on their first Olympic distance tri: ‘The swim was fantastic, a poor start position resulted in an aggressive and quite slow start, however Viceroys swim coaching had prepare me to get around slower swimmers and to create gaps. Once out of the elbows and feet of the mid paced swimmers I was able to get my rhythm going and complete the swim in a personal best of 25:49’ and Suze meanwhile was just pleased to be competing again – although she found the swim start a bit frantic she had done no cycling or running for the last 5 weeks (due to an annoying hamstring/lower back issue! Another Viceroy who ignored her physio! Ian Talbot loved the swim: ‘relatively little current in either direction so the 2 lap course worked really well for me. Plus the sun stayed off long enough to allow decent sighting (crocodile eyes to the fore !)’

Mark meanwhile ‘set the fastest T1 to move into 2nd place and looked to close on Kate after the first hill out of Marlow. But leaving the area my water bottle jumped out -shite! Kept going as I wasn’t going to allow Toby to close in. Passing Kate I moved into the led with the led motor bike I pushed hard. On the out & backs I could see Toby wasn’t catching neither was anyone else. I knew the lack of fluid would be an issue, but by how much? Over the last 5km I cramped up & my legs soon became solid. 2nd fastest bike split behind 2nd overall – Tom Burkinshaw. Continue reading →