Bala Olympic (2007 course): 16 September 2007

 Men and women:  Separate Other races:   

All runners

Pos arrow Name arrow Time arrow Cat arrow Club arrow
1 1 Laurence Harding 1:54:10 M40-44 Serpentine
2 2 John Lund 2:01:42 M30-34 Serpentine
3 3 Quintin Wright 2:02:27 M45-49 Serpentine
4 4 Stephen Bell 2:08:45 M25-29 Serpentine
5 5 Paul Perry 2:10:24 M30-34 Serpentine
6 6 Michael Shaw 2:11:49 M25-29 Serpentine
7 7 Danny Bent 2:15:44 M25-29 Serpentine
8 8 Fiona Lawrence 2:22:33 F30-34 Serpentine
9 9 Francesca Wright 2:29:26 F45-49 Serpentine
10 10 Fiona Strouts 2:34:56 F25-29 Serpentine
11 11 Ian Hodge 2:44:29 M45-49 Serpentine

Race conditions

Very windy with occasional showers towards

Report

With a 25-30knot gale blowing down the lake, it looked more like the open ocean than an inland lake when we arrived at the start. Conditions were deemed to be so bad that the organisers cut the swim down to 1000m. Even so, the swim was very challenging (a little too challenging for my less than brilliant swimming - I felt like I was swimming on the spot for a time and I probably was!).

Of course the headwind on the lake also meant a headwind for the first half of the bike (an out and back course on a closed A road). This made it a slow, grinding ride to the trun point but a blindingly fast return run - easily the most enjoyable part of the race for me!

The run at Bala is always tough, having a big hill on from mile 2 to 3 but this year it was also tough from mile 5 to the end as we had that lovely headwind again.

All in all, a pretty tough Olympic distance race, with finishing times for most competitors very similar to their usual times, even though the swim was cut short.

Ian Hodge

Result queries

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