Zoom Tri Club

New Club Running Vests now in stock!

The all new Club running vests arrived last week and are looking really good :-)

We have all sizes in stock so something for everyone. We have priced them at £12.50 which is quite a bit less that they cost but as we have some cash in the bank we felt we could afford to dicount them to make sure we get them out and about and seen at races. They were made by Ron Hill and look and feel great. Lets see them out crowding out the podium places at those races soon :-)

See Tim or JJ to purchase

New Forest Middle Distance

Well done to everybody who raced at the NF Middle on Sunday and thanks to all the supporters too!

A cracking event that saw some super performances and a step up in distance for almost all the athletes that took part. Freddie Devos smiled all the way round and showed just how much potential he has at this event with a 5:10.30 clocking, this was even after biting the dust or.. gravel! by the Ford near to Moyles Court School. Steve Birtwistle was sufering some knee discomfort on the bike and was considering stopping after the bike fortunately the knee settled down and Steve laid to rest his disappointment at Ironman 70.3 earlier this year with a strong perfomance to finish in 5:34.21.

Special mention should go to both Graham and Jean Perkins, who are no strangers to the podium places this season, again did the club proud by posting excellent times and both achieving podium placings in thier age groups with Graham producing a 5:40.14 and Jean a fantastic 5:52.45.

In their first events of this distance and producing really solid performances on what must be said is a very demanding course were Ivan Whitehead 5:42.22 and Janine Jones 6:46.12. Returning to his old stomping ground was Mark Warren turning out for the club even though he now lives up in Stamford Lincs, well done Mark with a 5:50.18. Sporting the very latest in Club apparell was Tim Fairbrother, he showed us the clubs full range of gear and just how to present oneself when racing over this distance, with his use of cosmetic treatments in the transitions... although some people had the cheek to suggest that the  use of a hairdresser could be deemed as outside assistance! His easy 6:21.41 was a model to any youngster eager to learn about the art of looking good in later life. His precise and highly practiced transition work was exceptional and a joy to behold and seemed like a man on top of his game, however at the end of the race it became clear that Tim's success was based on a banned substance the ugly truth was revealed as tight fitting German speedos....! I always wondered why he alked like that.

Southwater Relays Photo's

Takes a little searching through the thumbnails, but quite a few pictures of the Zoom teams strutting their stuff!   Have a look here...    http://www.photino.co.uk/eventp.php?c=&p=1&par=30

No team photo of the super Vets team as Dave Doust was too busy getting massaged (Andy D does have a rather dodgy picture of the team celebrating), but what are the 2nd placed Vet ladies team doing posing around all the sports cars??

Graham

My day started at 3 am!!!

My day started at 3am; with a quick breakfast and back to bed for 30 mins power nap, hoping that the wind and rain that had woken me had disappeared. Up again to the sound of gale force winds and Mike munching on more food we got our gear together and made our way to transition, amid a crowd of equally stressy triathletes I wasn’t helping as I really didn’t want to be there as the weather was s..t!! but the fact Mike had told me to stop being so f…ing negative!!! I thought I better perk-up sorry mate. The start had been delayed 15 minutes because of two days of monsoon weather on Friday and Saturday. We then made our way to the swim start pausing for photos with family and friends. In the water we swam our way to the starting buoys and awaited the start!! After 20! Minutes of treading water and having cramp we were finally off and I did my usual ten rounds with Mike Tyson in a cement mixer

During the initial stages of the swim, I knew the swim wasn’t going too well when I noticed Mike going past me on the second lap I could see the red of his eyes, the thought of pulling down his zip crossed my mind for a second but guessed it may not go down too well!. I finally dragged myself out of the water 69 minutes after the start, never likely to be anywhere near the front runners after the swim, I was just thankful that it was all over and I would be on my trusted steed in some minutes.

After fighting with my tri tops for what seemed like hours I exited T1, I was out on the bike and climbing out of Sherborne. The weather was cold and miserable and I was beginning to think only wearing a tri suit and arm warmers was not a wise move but After the first hill I was ok, had a good ride down to Dorchester but like most hit a brick wall all the way back to Sherborne, we had not only the hills to contend with but the gale force winds, only two laps to go!!! On the third lap coming up to Sherborne, I could hear what I thought was a rave going on only to see Cathy and the guys with a megaphone blasting out some home support of which was a great help eventually I made it back into the Castle grounds with a bike time of 6 hrs.

Once I was out of T2 and running I knew the race was on. I ran into Paulo on my second lap so that was great running with him for a lap. I said my goodbyes and knew all I would have was the two laps up the A30 to get over  After about 15 miles my knee was giving me a little problem but having Simon and Tim on the A30 road was good (I stopped and had a chat with Simon for five mins until he reminded me I was in a race!!)

Eventually I crossed the line in 11:20, 1hr 38minutes faster than last year and 55 in age group and feeling much fresher, no need for the hospital tent this year!. Next stop was the food tent and to try and put back in the 10,000 cals I had burned!! Always the best part of the race.

My dearest wife Julie, mum, brother and many friends were there to greet me, all of them had been doing a fantastic job around the grounds and out on the course. I managed to get 20 mins in the whirlpool, change and get my gear before Mike finally finished in under 13 hrs great effort no need for the glow sticks!! I shook his hand and swiftly lead him to the hospital tent! Mike thinking it was the food tent approached the man dressed IN WHITE WITH A STETHOSCOPE HANGING FROM HIS NECK who politely asked him what he was in need of which Mike responded to clearly with pizza and beer THE DOCTOR looking puzzled, patiently pointed in the opposite direction to the food tent, as he turned and saw me in stitches laying on the floor he had realised the joke was on him for a change!! As he would say HAPPY DAYS!!

Cross Country Running

With autumn approaching, now is the time to start thinking about x-country running for strength and fun!   Running offroad is kinder to your joints and helps improve strength and balance as you deal with different terrain and surfaces.  It also gets you out and running away from the stresses of traffic and the dark streets of your usual winter training.

We are lucky in having two x-country leagues in reasonable proximity, that we could compete in, but we will need to get organised quite soon if we are going to take part.  The two options are the Hampshire XCC League:

  http://www.hrrl.org.uk/2007/XC-0607/HXCevents0607.htm

or the Todays Runner Winter League:

  http://homepage.mac.com/bob_ayer/runner/

The main differences are in the days they run - Saturdays for the Hants league and Sundays for the TRWL league, the terrain - Hants is mainly grassy parks with hills, TRWL is woodlands, ditches, water and hills and, I suspect, the standard, with Hants drawing the track runners, TRWL a wider range of abilities (in fact men who can run under 5:40 and women under 6:15? are banned :-).  Not sure of Hants cost, TRWL costs £1 and you get fed afterwards.  Otherwise, Hants is mens and womens teams (5 and 3 people to count, respectively), TRWL is mixed (5 men, 3 women still but all needed).

Both leagues spread the races about but travelling looks quite similar for the furthest events.  We can always arrange car shares to get more people over for less vehicles travelling (don't want to extend Zoom's carbon footprint any more than necessary).  It is also necessary to wear club vests in both leagues, and Tim has these coming, so form an orderly queue...

I believe we have affiliated for the Hants, but not sure what this gets us.   If people are interested in TRWL we have to confirm our participation ASAP or we will be dropped from the league.

If you are interested in either (or both!) leagues, please get in touch.  Rob or Andy D can tell you more on Hants, talk to me about TRWL.  No reason not to run teams out to both leagues, although there is some overlap on race days. 

Looking forward to getting dirty!!

Graham

Southwater et al

What an incredible result! What drama, intensity, and competition focus was shown by the winning team in the pub quiz last night! :-)

Almost as big a drubbing as the Super Human Male Vets team handed out to the Senior mens teams ;-)

Well done the the ladies Vets for a fine performance and showing us all the way home to a fine 2nd place. (Well done Bev, even getting off your sick bed to race for the team... awesome)

With Personal duels taking place on almost every leg it was very exciting, Spud chasing Dave D, Ed chasing Ash and Jenny chasing Tim it was like a seen from the Benny Hill show.

Steve repaired a puncture after a close inspection of the tarmac and still got around in 1.07. Steff and Rob Harris both did there first open water triathlons, in fact it was Steff's first ever Triathlon.. much respect :-)

There were fine performances by the whole Zoom community yesterday, the atmostphere at southwater was fab thanks to everyone for making it so much fun! ( I have posted a link on a blog page in which I have placed in order the Zoom performances, after a few ammendments for team position changes)

Whilst we were racing at Southwater, Sarah and Hilary were ripping it up at the World Champs, with Sarah taking the Gold Medal and Hilary placing 4th. Fantastic results well done to both of them. I not thet Sara also put 3 minutes into the Craig Doyle (BBC TV Tri commentator and 30-35 age group competitor) He was done up like a kipper!

Well done BBC on showing the World Champs on the day of competition, pity we only saw Craig Doyle doing the age groups and not our gold medal winners!!

Rob