Club Roundup

The club that I race for, Bedfordview Athletics, put out a press release in our local town newspaper. In a nutshell: you have a story with pictures, you'll be on the weekly newspaper. Of the bunch, at least three of the athletes pictured below should have pipped me to the finish. Keeto is to thank for that. If my brother hadn't buckled his back wheel, who knows, maybe he could have knocked off an hour.

Back row left to right: Robbie Riccardi, Jacques Terblanche, Grant Greeff, Roger Zipp, Darren Wordon, Alberto Riccardi, Craig West.
Front row left to right : Karen O'Leary, Anne Karle, Michelle Joseph.
Twelve well trained athletes from Bedfordview Athletics ventured down to Port Elizabeth's Nelson Mandela Bay on the 5th of April for the South African Ironman event. There are 22 official Ironman races held around the world. The South African event held in Port Elizabeth, consists of a 3.8 km swim in the Nelson Mandela bay, followed by 180 km cycle ending off with a 42.2 km marathon distance run. The race has a cut off time of 17 hours.

Athletes from around the globe congregated to take part in what is the ultimate endurance race. It's history goes back to Hawaii 1978 when a debate ensued around who were the fittest athletes. Were they the winners of the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (3.8 km), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (180 km) or were they the marathon athletes of the Honolulu Marathon (42.2 km)? To settle the argument, Navy commander John Collins proposed combining all three of these races - to be run consecutively- and honouring the fittest athlete with the title of Ironman.

This year's event took place in blistering heat which reached a maximum of 36 degrees at stages. This caused many athletes to suffer from heat exhaustion and dehydration on the bike course which resulted in a larger than usual drop out rate. Despite these difficult conditions Bedfordview Athletes had great performances and results are as follows: Robbie Riccardi 10h58, Roger Zipp 11h28, Craig West 11h44, Michelle Joseph 11h56, Jacques Terblanche 11h59, Alberto Riccardi 12h53, Grant Greeff 13h01, Karen O'Leary 13h26, Darren Wordon 13h29, Anne Karle 13h38, Joe Cruz 14h13.

Our athletes will be enjoying a well deserved rest after many months of grueling training!
Resting at his desk,
~RobbyRicc

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