Maxwell ends as top veteran
Any athlete who tackles the Ironman for fun is by nature tough, so it should be no surprise that Chris Maxwell excelled when taking on the Dartmoor Way Granite 50 miles ultra race.
The 48-year-old Team Bath AC member is first and foremost a triathlete but, having qualified for the Kona World Championships in Hawaii next year – and just as a reminder that comprises a 2.4 mile ocean swim, 112 miles on the bike and finally a marathon – he fancied a challenge to keep the mind and body sharp.
It proved successful on both counts as Maxwell finished runner-up and easily top veteran in a time of 9 hours 21 minutes 25 seconds, a little over seven minutes adrift of the winner and over ten minutes ahead of third.
“I am very happy with that, very happy indeed,” said Maxwell.
“I had done a 50-miler before in the
White Horse event last year but the terrain on Dartmoor was a lot tougher and navigation was also an issue.
“There were no sign posts and we had to rely on GPS and sometimes the signal wasn’t too good. I ended up running just over 52 miles in the end.
“There was also a lot of climbing and scrambling over rocky paths which were not runnable; they were particularly difficult in the dark and I suffered a fall towards the end so it was pretty difficult.”
The long, sustained physical effort in a challenge that included 20000m of ascent will be close to what Maxwell can expect when he travels to Hawaii next year having qualified to contest the M45-49 age group event in the spiritual home of the Ironman.
“It has been a dream of mine for many, many years to do the Hawaii Ironman,” added Maxwell.
MAXWELL wasn’t the only Team Bath runner tackling an ultra distance event over the weekend.
A group of the club’s women headed
to west Wales to tackle the Gower Ultra 33 with Beccy Tarling first Team Bath runner home in a time of 6hrs 53mins 30secs.
Alison Vaugniaux won the veterans over 60s prize (7:27.22) and Ilana Wigfield was second W55 (7:27.30).
HEATHER Fell ended a busy week with another impressive performance to finish runner-up in the Sodbury Slog 10 miles multi terrain race.
Seven days after winning the Over The Hills race, before squeezing in a business trip to Lanzarote, Fell showed she is getting to grips with this off-road stuff as she slipped and slithered through the South Gloucestershire mud to finish less than a minute behind Bristol & West AC’S Annabel Granger.
Ella Treby was ninth woman (79:53) home from a field of 1,000 runners while Barry Awan top the club’s top man in 16th overall (70:35) which also won him the over 50s prize.
REPRESENTING Beechen Cliff School, Dylan Stoneman finished fifth in the senior boys’ race at the South West regional final of the English Schools Cross Country Cup.
Stoneman, who is a member of Team Bath AC, led a strong Beechen Cliff challenge with Joseph Milton also making the top ten in ninth and Finley Mowat placing 11th.
Sadly, the school didn’t have a vital fourth and final scorer so didn’t feature in the overall team competition.
In the senior girls’ race the Royal High School GDST squad of Lottie Silverton (18th), who is also a member of Team Bath, Sophia Skidmore (19th), Lottie Ravenhill (33rd) and Fran Sill (37th) finished sixth.
The athletics coverage in the Chron is sponsored by Running Bath