Race report by John Barker.......

Saturday 5^th July saw Phil’s Gray, Smith and Coulson (1^st long course event) plus Elliot and John B head off into the North Yorkshire gloom to take on the Cleveland Steelman – our local middle distance event.

A 2km Swim, 93km bike and a 20km run didn’t seem so appetising on arrival at the race site in Ellerton Park Lake near Scorton with very grey skies and temperatures hovering around 14 degrees!

With myself, Gray Man and Smithy 6 weeks since Lanzarote and just getting back into structured training, Elliot coming off a calf/achilles injury and not much running and Mr Coulson suffering from a foot strain and nerves at his first long distance event it wasn’t apparent how we’d get on – not too bad would be the answer!

Tony Weed of Hartlepool looking back in shape led out of the water with his usual speedy swim with another on his feet and the main pack containing all of TRI followed between 4 and 6 minutes later – the lake at Ellerton is very clear and the buoys were easy to navigate from and everyone seemed to have an uneventful swim.

Smithy was first out onto the bike and took advantage of the new Ceepo to put the hammer down on the flat and fast bike course and begin to reel in Tony at the front of the field. However, no one would be able to match the pace of Rich Hunt who blew the field away with a bike split 7minutes faster than anyone else and held on for the win with a consistent run.

Phil Coulson was next on the road followed by Phil G, John B and then Elliot – the bike ensued with the rain pouring down at the beginning of lap 2 – stings a bit on the bare skin! Smithy and Elliot smacked it (2^nd and 3^rd fastest split), Phil G was a little off his usual pace and lost a bottle of Genr8 (and paid for it later) John B rode a little faster than Phil Coulson (no such danger on the run!) and then the games began on the 20km run.

Smithy arrived back in T2 in 2^nd place having just caught Tony Weed in the last km of the bike with Phil G and Elliot arriving a couple of minutes later in the top 6 or so with Phil Coulson and John B back another 5 minutes or so…

The run was a 2 lap affair where you got to see where you were against your competitors given the out and back nature of the course on a mixture of tarmac, trails and muddy fields…the numerous pot holes filled with rain water on the farm track for 2km both ways on each lap presented a challenge to navigate!

Smithy found his run legs straight away to hold a comfortable 2^nd place, with Elliot and Phil G running shoulder to shoulder with Tony Dixon of Hartlepool in about 4^th, 5^th and 6^th place. Phil Coulson made the decision to start the run (mainly to warm up from the cold!) and soon began to make speedy progress through the field with John B settling into a steady pace and picking off runners in front of him.

Smithy showed he is building on his Lanzarote performance and is looking good to have a good IMUK finishing in 2nd in 4hrs 14min  ,  Coulson showed he could run off a long bike with the fastest run of the day (67mins!!!) but should maybe drink more than 400ml on the bike?! to finish 3rd in 4hrs 15mins, Elliot maintained his pace to show he his hopefully over his recent calf/achilles problems to finish a great 6th in 4hrs 20mins, Phil Gray showed the effects of losing his drink during the bike and fell off the pace dramatically on the last 7km or so and looked wasted at the finish in 19th in 4hrs 27mins, and John B was happy to put the Short Course debacle to bed finishing 21st in 4hrs 29mins.

Smithy dodging puddles

Coulson running strong