Something for the Weekend!

 

John Lunt and I in Hawaii 

We had a nice ride this morning, it was quite warm and we spend our time just riding back and forth along Sea Road Littlehampton, along to the place where we normally turn for home and then back again to a turn spot just beyond the promenade and round toward the village at the Rustington end. This is what the bike ride will be like in Brighton this weekend; it’s eight laps up and down the coast road, the Kingsway. I am looking forward to this event so much. The weather will be what it will be but right now, at least it is not cold, though our ride ended today when a sea fret came in that was very wet and our glasses fogged up so that we could not see where we were going. Thankfully home is just two miles from the coast, so we were soon home and indoors, casting off wet clothes and making hot coffee before long. 

There have been a number of Brighton Triathlons over the years and we have taken part in a most of them. There was one that also had a bike lapped course but based to the east of the Palace Pier, going along Madeira Drive, and up onto Marine Parade and back around the Marina. Years ago Steve and I and some friends always used to go and watch another triathlon yet, that was based right down in the Marina on New Years Day. I was never quite daft enough to do that one but we went and watched those who were brave enough to get in the water at the start of the year in mid winter. It became a New Year ritual to watch the race and then run home from there. It was about twenty four miles back to our house and seemed like a way of expressing our intentions for the year before us.

Mr. Lunt at the start of a women only run in Richmond Park

Motivational pre race chat by Denise Van Outen.

 

The event this weekend is based roughly around Hove Lawns area from what I can make out on the course maps and hence, it is Brighton and Hove Triathlon, although there may be other issues involving previous organisers of the other several previous events with the name, I wouldn’t know. What I do know is that it has a master race director at the helm. John Lunt is now well known for having been in charge of the 2012 London Olympic Games Triathlon but having masterminded mountains of events in the past twenty five years and more.  

 

Awards ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor hero Spencer Smith centre

 

 Steve and I have know John for as long as we have been in the sport and in fact my first multi discipline event was John’s pool base Damp Dash all those years ago. That was a swim/run and I recall that on that day of my very first event there was six inches of snow lay on the ground after an overnight thick snow fall, runners had to struggle through out on the 10km run that followed a route out of the pool and along the riverside path by the Thames. I had only just learned to do front crawl and I was only six months into running. I was so nervous, mostly because I thought I was too old to join in what I had expected to be a totally young person’s event. I was wrong about that. John had asked me to start early so that I would not hold the race up and make the marshal’s stay out in the snow long after the last of the competitors had got back. I was astonished when many of the faster runners, who started much later than me, all shouted out some encouragement to me as they passed, a poor old woman of fifty doing her first event! I was the oldest woman that day, as I was the oldest person last week in Worthing triathlon. Times have changed since then and there are loads of fifty plus athletes.

 

Awards at the Damp Dash,  Lunty presiding  

Over the years I have lost count of have many events we have done, that have been put on by John Lunt and his right hand person, his wife Nicola. One of the events they put on a great race called the Tuff Man, which was an Iron distance event but over two days for people to try out those distances before committing to the whole lot in one go. The bike ride was on Saturday morning and the swim in the Kingfisher pool in the evening and then the marathon was on Sunday morning, a similar run route the later Breakfast Run, along the Thames around parts of Kingston (where Steve hails from) coming back past the wonderful Hampton Court Palace and back along the other side of the Thames over Kingston Bridge and back to the finish.

 

I met young Josie Pether at the Grand Hotel in Brighton at the end of last year at the Sussex Awards dinner; she was seated right next to me and Steve and I found her to be charming, knowledgeable and great company for the evening. Josie works with John Lunt, as I suppose as a race manager and has answered any emails I have sent in during the entry process most helpfully as a small part of her duties.

 

John Lunt and I just a few years ago with Tim Don looking on 

So back to where I started, looking forward to the registration and bike racking this Saturday, also to taking a look around the expo stands selling sports goods and then a most exciting day on Sunday that will be well marshalled and controlled and will be a  shining example of how a triathlon should be run. Hopefully among the spectators will be people inspired by the spectacle, who will then take a shot at this event in future years. Maybe one of the little gems below.