Never underestimate the power of Sun city tri!
Four teams entered, four prizes won in another great day's racing, and we had a heck of a lot of fun doing it. Wins in the novice (defending the club's title from last year) and open categories and third places in the 2+2 mixed and vets categories meant everyone went home with a prize. Sadly no Magners, but the prizes were all alcoholic. Very special mention has to go to the 2+2 team "vicars and tarts" (a.k.a. Mandy, Kerry, Mark and Dmitri) for keeping the competition entertained with their superb fancy dress (oh my eyes...) whilst still posting great times.
The Cleveland relays are the unofficial season end for North-East triathletes and the atmosphere's always good. The swim is 4x400m with all of the team members in the water together. You can draft if you're all similar abilities, or just go like billy-o if not. The four individual times then get combined. You have time to change before the bike leg which is an 18 mile loop on good roads, run as a team time trial format- so you can draft legally for once! This year the wet weather made following a wheel really hard as you got a big faceful of spray, but being Sun City athletes we toughed it out and posted some great bike splits, including fastest of the day for the "sun city slickers" open team. Afeter an hour or so's recovery it's out for the run which works like a traditional relay: each runner does a 5km loop then hands off to the next. The weather by this point had cleared up and the humidity was horrendous. It was worse still if you were wearing a feather boa and fishnet tights, mind...
It all made for a grand day out and gave us some targets to chase for next year. Well done everyone!
Full results are available by clicking here.