Early rise for Kings Lynn Tri Club
It was an early rise for Kings Lynn Triathlon Club on Sunday with some members having the unenviable task of trying to get their teenagers out of bed before the sun had even popped its first rays over the horizon!!
Why get up at such a time on a Sunday morning you may ask when only one member of the club was actually racing. Were we engaging in some crazy training schedule that required our family members to tag along? Were we all heading to the river for some extremely cold open water swimming? Although some members would probably relish in the thought the answer is no. We were all heading to Hunstanton to coordinate and marshal the first Sunny Hunny Triathlon and what an amazing event it turned out to be.
Members of KLTC in partnership with members of the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk and Alive Oasis Hunstanton had been meeting regularly over the last few months to organise a triathlon after Mr Roger Partridge, BCKLWM offered funding to help promote the gardens at Hunstanton. The race consisted of a 200 meter swim, an 18km bike ride around town followed by a 3.2Km run through the gardens finishing on the green. Within only a month of advertising the event we were 50% full and with only 2 weeks to go we hit our full complement of competitors. That meant that we had 100 people willing to come along to Hunstanton to either add another Triathlon to their belt or to have a go for the first time.
Triathlon can sometimes been seen as a sport where you need to be supremely fit, able to swim like a fish, ride a bike like Bradley Wiggins and run like Mo Farrar… this is not the case. The Sunny Hunny Triathlon was aimed at encouraging people into the sport whilst showing off the beautiful surroundings that Hunstanton has to offer and from the many different types of bike that began to fill transition in the morning it was obvious that the message was well received. One gent had actually not seen his bike for 5 years and had spent the previous evening trying to straighten his warped back wheel after digging it out of his shed! He succeeded as the bike passed the pre-race checks and was allowed into transition. It’s a good job we had a pro bike mechanic on hand in the shape of Stefan from Richardsons Cycles Kings Lynn.
With the race brief out of the way all competitors made their way into Alive Oasis for the start of the swim. Some were nervous, some were excited and some even questioned why?? But by then it was too late. Everyone completed the swim with most competitors beating their estimated time…. probably fuelled with a bit of adrenalin. From there it was onto the bike to head out to complete 3 laps of the town. Yes that meant 3 times up the hill and back down but no one said it would be easy. Add into the mix the local car boot sale and it made for an interesting bike ride. Fortunately everyone made it safely round and not a single puncture in site.
Next it was run time. The competitors were instructed to run along the promenade as far as they could go and then head up the cliff. Yes we allowed them to use the path as we thought that making people climb like Stallone in Cliff Hanger would have been a tad unfair. None the less the path was steep enough to add a bit of a tingle to already tired legs.
As the competitors made their way back to the green they were greeted by family and friends cheering them home and they were all rewarded with a very nice bespoke medal plus half a banana, a jaffa cake, some crisps and a drink of water …. Because we are a nice club and figured they would have earnt it by then.
Mrs V Dunthorne - The happiest competitor of the day
So after months of planning and a fair few meetings the event was a great success. The feedback has been amazing and there are numerous people to thank, namely;
The Mayor and Mayoress of KL&WN, Cllr Geoff Hipperson and Mrs Rose Hipperson
The Mayor of Hunstanton, Cllr Amanda Bosworth
Mr Roger Partridge, Mr Dave Morton, Mr Chris Durham & Mr Nathan Parrin, BCKLWN
Mr Dave Cleland and staff at Alive Oasis Hunstanton
Members, family & friends of Kings Lynn Triathlon Club
Members of Kings Lynn Cycling Club
Ryston Runners for the loan of the finish gantry
The Hunstanton Scout group
And most of all every single competitor for showing up and having a go.
Winners on the day were;
Female
1st place – Caroline Woods
2nd place – Della Brown
3rd place – Rebecca Harris
Male
1st place – Ben Smith
2nd place – Phil Hurr
3rd place – Jonathon Summers
1st female Junior – Alice Page
1st male junior – Callum Stedman
Kingy does well in Nottingham
In other news KLTC member Warren King competed in the Nottingham Sprint Triathlon on Saturday putting in a great performance. Following his first ever open water swim he produced an excellent time of 01:22:27.
