Vitruvian Half Ironman 2010

4th September 2010

Six Hadleigh Hares took part with over 800 other triathletes in the Vitruvian Half Ironman Triathlon at Rutland Water on Saturday 4th September 2010: Richard Hanley, David Dulake, Doug Grimwade, Martin Alabone, Neil Crisp and Jonas Grist.

The event comprises a 1900m lake swim, a hilly 52 mile bike and 13.1 mile flattish run around the edges of the lake. The 2-lap bike leg includes the infamous Rutland Ripple a series of three hills that test athletes to the limit. As they say on their web site "it's a full on tough quad crunching, lung buster of a race...".

This was the first time at this distance for Hanley, Crisp and Grist and there were some nervous faces before the race. Grimwade's day started badly when at 5am he discovered the gear cable on his bike had somehow snapped whilst the bike sat in transition overnight. Grimwade instantly went into panic mode but help from Alabone and some on-site bike mechanics ensured Grimwade's bike was fixed and ready to go moments before the race began. As sun rose it became apparent that a very heavy fog was going to make the swim very difficult. With only 30m visibility, none of the navigation buoys were visible and sighting was virtually impossible. Despite this the race began with the advice from the organisers being 'swim towards the sun'.

Hanley led the Hares out of the water in 33:37 followed by Dulake in 34:57. Hanley continued his impressive season posting a very fast 2:29:44 on the bike to extend his lead over the other Hares to about 5 minutes. A solid run from Hanley ensured that he was first Hare home in 262nd place overall in a magnificent time of 5:02:25. An excellent performance from Dulake saw him home in 288th place in 5:05:04. Grimwade's bike repairs held up he finished in 316th place in 5:07:53. After a good start to the race Alabone unfortunately pulled a muscle at the start of the run and, unable to continue, had to withdraw from the race. Crisp and Grist performed well, particularly when considering they were under trained for the event. An ever-improving Crisp finished in 504th place in 5:34:23 and Grist broke the 6 hour barrier finishing in 650th place in 5:57:01. The Hares need to build upon these excellent performances and try to break the magic 5-hour barrier at this race next year.

The results for the Hadleigh Hares were as follows:

Athlete              Swim         T1        Bike       T2        Run        Pos      Overall Richard Hanley   33:37       3:05     2:29:44   2:55    1:53:01      262      5:02:25 David Dulake      34:57       3:03     2:33:46   2:14    1:51:01      288      5:05:04 Doug Grimwade  36:17       2:33     2:34:39   2:09    1:52:13      316      5:07:53 Neil Crisp           43:36       3:21     2:39:51   2:40    2:04:53      504      5:34:23 Jonas Grist        44:18       3:58     3:04:09   3:06     2:01:28      650      5:57:01