Bedford Classic Triathlon: 26 August 2007

 Men and women:  Separate Other races:   

Overall club triathlon championship results for 2007

Scoring runners

#  Pos arrow Name arrow Time arrow Cat arrow Club arrow
1 1 Neil Melville 2:17:58 M40-44 Serpentine
2 2 Andy Tough 2:20:32 M25-29 Serpentine
3 3 Andrew Harrison 2:20:41 M25-29 Serpentine
4 4 Andre Segger 2:25:54 M35-39 Serpentine
5 5 Tom Seal 2:30:19 M30-34 Serpentine
6 6 Oliver Jones 2:34:35 M25-29 Serpentine
7 7 Andrew Reeves 2:37:30 M35-39 Serpentine
8 8 Chris Saunders 2:41:30 M35-39 Serpentine
9 9 John Bowron 2:43:31 M35-39 Serpentine
10 10 Dominic Walker 2:47:27 M35-39 Serpentine
11 11 Luzian Wild 2:49:55 M25-29 Serpentine
12 12 Jennifer Marzullo 2:53:43 F30-34 Serpentine
13 13 Rachel Whittaker 2:56:42 F25-29 Serpentine
14 14 Shusanah Pillinger 3:03:44 F30-34 Serpentine
15 15 Bev Bates 3:10:05 F40-44 Serpentine

Race photos

Race photos are at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/galeforce.com/classicdes07.htm

Report

If you are looking for a good race to set a PB or a good race to suggest to tri newcomers or just a good race then I’d recommend Bedford.

I went under 2:20 for the first time in a while thanks to a fast, fast, fast bike course on a good road surface, and although mostly on main roads in the flatlands of Bedfordshire, it was also scenic. All these reasons also make this a worthwhile course for those less strong on the bike too. This race also has to have one of the shortest transitions of any race I have done. Race timing had my T2 at 21 seconds but I suspect that is a bit suspect, but it all helps towards a fast time.

There are two distinguishing features about this race for me though. First, they have made a real effort to make a standard distance race actually a standard distance; I probably biked faster in Milton Keynes one year but that course is a good 3 km short. An accurate distance swim is helped by being river based and hence easily measurable and it is narrow and accessible enough to offer unusually good spectator views right along its length on both banks – that’s the second distinguishing feature. We were even close enough to pick out a few Serpies in earlier waves. And, for new-comers to open water swimming, direction finding can’t go wildly wrong.

There were 20 Serpies present in the Classic and the Sprint races, numbers perhaps swollen by this being a club champs race or perhaps by the proximity to London. The result format is pretty hard to pick through and all the category positions are wrong but I note that Andy Reeves had the 15th fastest run split in 39:26.

The race photography is worth the hassle of 128 pages to browse through. Interim results below:

Club Champs results:

Women – Jennifer Marzullo 2:53:43

Men – Neil Melville 2:17:58

Result queries

If you have any queries about these results please email results@serpentine.org.uk