White Oak

Tri Squad

Sun 28th July 2002
1500m/40k/10k

 

Paul Atkinson	Helyn Hiscock
Gary Bryant	Mary Anne Partridge
Martin Burgess	Kevin Perkins
Ray Evans	John Setford
Paul Fisher	Heather Simpson
Jel Utting	Alex Tyrell

The Milton Keynes Triathlon, whilst a relatively new event, has a reputation as a great place to go to put in a quick time, with its sheltered lake swim, gently rolling bike course and pan-flat run. The 2002 event was blessed with no fewer than a dozen White Oakers turning out. Out through injury, I was tasked with the highly worthy jobs of "helping people to register", "pushing bikes around", spraying oil on stuff, looking after kids and, also, filming the event with "Rocket" Ray Evans's latest new toy - his digital video camera.

The event is based at Emberton Park, a large park and camp site situated around a great big (and funny shaped) lake. It is actually well out of Milton Keynes itself and in a beautiful and very rural part of Buckinghamshire. Most people decided to make a weekend of it and travel up on the Saturday afternoon, camping overnight for the Sunday morning race. The weather was great, with bright blue skies and midsummer temperatures to match.

After a night of barbeque food and (mostly light) boozing, based around Paul and Alison's camper (thanks, you two), everyone was up bright and early to walk the few hundred yards over to the start. Some hardy members had got themselves out of bed very early and actually made the trip up from the Swanley area the morning of the race and everyone met up around the swim start. The swim course was in an M shape and was set off in waves. Conditions were absolutely perfect, with still (and warm) water and swim specialist Paul Fisher led out his wave, as did Jel Utting his, until he realised that he wasn't sure which way he was going, so he let someone else take it on until he could see the finish. So it had started well. Competitors were literally dragged out of the water by the marshals and up into transition and off on to the bike.

I decided to make my own way out onto the bike course to do some filming and the course looked great - not too much traffic and rolling at worst with great views. The run course was slightly altered for 2002 but was flat and fast, much of it on a path that tracked the perimeter of the lake. Gary Bryant headed the White Oak group home with a tremendous time of 2:07:59, with Kevin Perkins next in 2:16: 28, followed by Martin Burgess in 2:21:14. Other notables were Paul Fisher, finishing his first Olympic distance race in a great time of 2:29:09 and also Alex Tyrell running a strong 10k to finish in 2:27:06. All of the White Oakers who started the race also finished and, by and large, everyone was pretty happy with their performances. Tim Don, a regular at this race, won the Elite event, over the same course, with something to spare.

Drinks, lunch and several games of rounders followed back on the camp site before everyone headed for home. The rounders was particularly keenly contested, with several adults showing their competitive nature, even when playing against under 12s! A really good weekend of racing that I would urge anyone looking for a well organised Olympic distance race to take part in. Roll on next year- the race will be on 27th July 2003.

Guy Little