Track352 Racing

Luck : Where preparation and opportunity come together

GRANITEMAN

Coming round every other year GraniteMan has developed a must do reputation locally and attracts a fair few visitors. The 2019 edition of the Middle Distance (Half Iron) event threw up some surprises and in the end previous winners were returned as champions. Whilst I was keeping my powder dry for IronMan Italy 70.3 by opting for the sprint distance event, most of the coached athletes were taking part.

At the front of the race the Jersey duo of Nick Thorne and James Allen stormed the swim and finished the bike close together, whilst Thorne then started to open up a sizable lead it was not to last as a course error near the Quarry saw him relinquish his lead whilst 2017 winner Matt Dorrian steadily ran through the field and went on to take the win whilst the young Dan Galpin finished second, despite a less calamitous error on the run course. Thorne recovered to 3rd place.

Of my coached athletes, Magda Murphy took a gun to tape Ladies victory in 5:09:48. Magda was using the race as part of her build up to the full distance IronMan Italy event at the end of September, so it was a pleasing result for her.

Dave Crosland powered through the swim and admitted to ‘over biking’ leaving the legs a bit empty on the run and he fell back to 6th place (4:30:51) – one place ahead of Magda’s husband Sean Murphy (4:31:41). Ove Svejstrup completed the squad in 9th place (4:33:53). Long time training partner Ian Scholes was still off colour after illness and toughed out the race to finish 15th in 4:49:11

The sprint distance was a fairly straight forward affair for me – I came out of the swim with upcoming Thierry Le Cheminant and then built a victory across the bike and run legs.
Full results here.

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