Triathletes thrive in stately surroundings

TRIATHLON GRAEME COURTNEY CULTURE seemed to be a theme in last weekends triathlons with no less than five Rossendale Triathlon club members competing within the grounds of two of Britain’s stately homes.

Furthest afield were Marc Evans and David Rickson who travelled to Holkham Hall in Norfolk for a half Ironman distance event.

The 1.2 mile swim took place in the lake alongside the hall, with Marc completing the distance in 42 minutes and David in 35 minutes.

The 56 mile bike route took in the Norfolk countryside, on this section Marc took the honours with a 2 hour 55 minute ride, David wasn’t far behind with a time of 3 hours 6 minutes.

The 13 mile run wound it’s way through the grounds of Holkham Hall and Marc managed the run in a great time of 2 hours 6 minutes, with David finishing in 2 hours 29 minutes.

Both posted fantastic finish times for their first time at this distance with Marc completing the event in an overall time of 5 hours 50 minutes and David in 6 hours 17 minutes.

A little closer to home in Derbyshire were husband and wife Stephen and Lorraine ●● Rossendale club members Stephen and Lorraine Hopley at Chatsworth House Hopley and Dave Smith who were at Chatsworth House competing in a Standard distance triathlon and a Sprint distance triathlon respectively.

Both events ran alongside each other with the swim taking place in the River Derwent which runs through the stately home’s grounds.

The undulating bike route was through the Peak District countryside and the run to finish was through the magnificent grounds of the Chatsworth House estate.

The standard distance event consisted of a 1km swim, 36 km bike and 10 km run. Stephen and Lorraine were incredibly evenly matched in all three disciplines and it was only in the run that Lorraine pulled away from Stephen to finish 3 minutes ahead. Lorraine’s fantastic finish time of 2 hours 42 minutes placed her 1st in her age group and 4th female overall.

Stephen’s time of 2 hours 45 minutes was still good enough to give him 2nd place in his age group.

Dave Smith competed in the Sprint distance triathlon at the same venue and finished with an overall time of 1 hour 28 minutes.

The Sprint distances that Dave completed were a 750m swim, 21 km bike and 5 km run.

Although not at a stately home Stephen Hutchings was at another beautiful location in Shropshire.

Dearnford Lake in Whitchurch hosted the Ultimate Half, a half ironman distance event consisting of a 1.2 mile swim in the lake, 56 mile bike route along the Shropshire/Cheshire border and a multi lap 13 mile run.

Stephen had a decent swim at 43 minutes but disaster struck on the bike when a puncture pushed his bike leg time to 3 hours 21 minutes.

Stephen tried to make time up on the run, completing it in 2 hours 15 minutes but the damage had been done and he finished with an overall time of 6 hours 27 minutes