Ironman Vichy 70.3

31 August 2018 - By James Montgomery

For the weekend of Saturday and Sunday 9 members of Witham Running Club had headed to the spa town of Vichy in central France for the Ironman weekend, incorporating both a middle distance in the Ironman 70.3 event on Saturday and the full distance Ironman event on Sunday.

The 70.3 event incorporated a 1.9km swim, 90kms bike and a 21kms run. taking part were middle-distance first timers Carina Taylor, Lee Blake, Liz Stuckey and Mat Pearsons and a relay team made up of Theresa Montgomery. taking on the swim leg with Ironman old-hands, myself on the bike and Paul Hedger on the run.

Vichy is always known for its heat but in very un-Vichy like conditions, we all had to take shelter from the cold before the swim start. The swim was a staggered start with competitors self-seeding by expected swim times and then entering the water in groups of 6 at 7 second intervals, although this didn’t work so well and there were slower swimmers mixed with faster swimmers. To add to the fun there was also quite a drop into the water from the pontoon that wasn’t particularly welcome however the water was warm and still within wetsuit optional.

The swim was one lap of 1900 meters in a rowing lake and layout of the start meant jumping off or diving into the lake from the pontoon. This wasn’t to everyone’s taste and lowering oneself in seemed to be the better option, but this wasn’t easy due to the drop and the lake seemed bottomless here as Theresa found out! Liz had issues with her goggles misting early on and lost time trying to sort these out at the first bouy. There was also a slight current to swim against on the out leg before being gently pulled back towards the exit. Many found this quite a tough swim and from early on some swimmers were being pulled out. Unfortunately Theresa suffered from cramp late in the return and had to be pulled from the water, ending the relay’s day. Carina, predictable as always, was first to emerge from the swim exit. Her partner, Lee, wasn’t too far behind and neither was Liz. Liz managed to sneak past Lee in transistion and so a morning of cat-and-mouse began. Mat was a little further back, clearly not having had the most enjoyable of swims, but looking forward to getting out on the bike.

The bike was a single lap, 90kms loop, fairly fast with some slight uphill sections, but nothing to trouble. Lee soon caught Liz and the pair of them both caught Carina. With Lee and Liz locked in battle, Carina was having some fun of her own, having an off-road adventure after taking her eyes off the road whilst going down a hill at speed! Fortunately, she was able to regain control and continue un-injured! Meanwhile, Lee was gaining time on Liz throughout the ride and at T2, was almost 5 minutes ahead and well under 3 hours with an excellent 2hrs 54 at T2. However, with Liz also posting a sub-3 hour ride, and to paraphrase a line from an infamous 70’s film, Lee was going to need a bigger time gap. Meanwhile, Carina and Mat were getting the job done and posting not dis-similar times on entering T2.

So on to the run. Lee came charging out of T2 with Liz around 5 minutes further back, but evidently moving a lot quicker. Like the shark from the aforementioned 70’s film, Liz clearly had Lee in her sights and caught him in the first lap of the 2-lap 21kms run. Carina was also out on the run and apparently enjoying the occasion as she was seen smiling at every point and Mat was happy to be heading in the directon of the finish line.

Liz put in an exceptional run to finish the leg in 1hr 43 minutes with Lee also well under 2 hours in an execellent 1hr 56mins, both coming home in well under an overall time of 6 hours. With Carina and Mat putting in strong runs to the finsh to post very respectable overall times.

Very well done all.

It was also good to see former club member, Yvonne Mortimer, who battled strongly to the finish line to beat the cut-off.

Saturday 25th August Ironman Vichy 70.3
1900 Meters swim/56 miles bike/13.1 miles run
Liz Stuckey
Swim:      00:45:39
Bike:        02:59:41
Run:        01:43:43
Overall:   05:39:42

Lee Blake
Swim:      00:45:24
Bike:        02:54:52
Run:        01:56:51
Overall:   05:48:24

Carina Taylor
Swim:      00:41:04
Bike:        03:20:49
Run:         02:10:11
Overall:    06:25:14

Mat Pearaons
Swim:       00:55:44
Bike:         03:18:41
Run:         02:01:59
Overall:    06:36:26