Mid Sussex Tri - free downloads ready

The Mid Sussex Triathlon 2011 race gallery is now live and online here for free race downloads:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=413zgsg 


Having been given the choice of a very early start (4am) to do PR photos at Windsor, or to meet up with the local Triathlon club at my local sports centre to cover their race - I went for the lie in until 5:30am yaay!
Also the race director lives about 100yrds from my house, so it would be poor form not to turn out, regardless of the financial rewards, or indeed the weather forecast and the traffic.

With the tennis from Queens postponed the forecast was not that good. at 5am this was the rain radar:

Rain radar at 5am, rain closing in fast

Logistically I don't know how much this effects the competitors - you're wet when you get out of the pool, so as long as you're warm - what's the problem ? For me, it's taking the cameras into a humid dark damp room (ISO1000, 1/200, f2.8 +flash fill if you're technically minded) and physically sweating away whilst working, then getting outside, putting on the full waterproof kit, including mini-tent ready for the rain and wind.

As it turned out, my flash was damaged from last weekends Adur Ironman swim - it's zoom function was out of calibration, so it kept overpowering itself and blowing out the images - which is "not good" - so I had to bounce the flash directly up (which is never very good, but better than nothing). This also caused difficulty at the prizes, so apologies to those guys for what are ok, but not the very best pictures. It's off to Canon for a repair sometime soon.

Everything started off on time in the pool, with the (almost unique) zig-zag laps meaning I can get a shot of (almost) everyone at the end of the first length. Only a few (naughty) people doing tumble turns, but I think they got "advised" as it was clearly against the rules. Negative points to the tumble turner who did three lengths with tumbles and then reverted to breast stroke, stopping everyone behind him.

Fast arm swim action - sweeping the water along

different arm techniques with different results

There was a shark in the pool, which sped some up a bit

CPT support one of their own on the turn

attacking the swim

Emma turns just enough for a breath

 

 

To be honest, I'm not a swimmer but some observations from being poolside -
1. many of you over-rotate your head on the breathing - you don't need to breath at the ceiling, sideways is enough (see Emma photo above)
2. take a clean arm out of the water on the recovery - throwing a load of water every stroke in the air takes energy (and makes me wet)
3. practice getting to the end of the lane and turning effectively at speed - many of you slow down on the last two strokes into the wall, bobbed round and then swam away - not even using the wall for a push.

Slight change to the bike route put a few more hills in from Hurstpierpoint

The horse was out for a walk and got spooked by the runners, goodness knows what the owner on the reins was doing.

The run course was nicely packed and made for good racing

Quite a few first timers which is great to see, I even saw a sprint hurdler giving it a go this year.

You've got to give it some go

Overall a very enjoyable event

If you see the Tom Hills Experience (THE) at another event - ask them about this photo

As for the rain, well it seemed to just about keep off - compared to what came down later on, it wasn't too bad.

Well done to everyone from the MSTC team for making the event go so smoothly - it gets better every year so as Steve said - constructive ideas and observations and thoughts back to them via their website http://www.midsussextriclub.com/the-mid-sussex-triathlon/contact-us.aspx

Please remember - all the images are on free 800px download (usually sold for £4.99 each)- so please enjoy them for your personal use (forums, blogs, facebook, twitter etc). If you want the better quality resolutions then please order the digital files and prints as normal.


Next races for us are the Richmond 10k, the Norwood Junior Bike Ride, and then the End of Month G3 races. Otherwise for us it's a quiet month and it all starts crazy again in July... perhaps I can fix this dead computer hard drive in the meantime...thankfully backed up.

Until next time
Anthony


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