A brief race update and reminder of upcoming dates.
Race Marshalling – Mon 4th May (HOP set up on Sun 3rd)
This won’t be a final call; we need marshals for our two races. These form a substantial chunk of our club revenue; and from PR terms, it’s imperative that we continue to give competitors a positive experience of our club. https://thamesturbo.co.uk/volunteer
We’ll be posting social media posts advertising the race – please could you repost the links to these in personal capacities? We know many people will sign up at the last moment & we could do surge of late entries. https://events.kronosports.uk/event/1874
Turbo takeover of Bushy Pacing duties – Sat 2nd May
Thanks to Maria’s efforts, we have been offered the opportunity to take over the pacing duties at Parkrun. This is a wonderful chance for us to promote the club to a target audience, demonstrating that we’re welcoming and encouraging to athletes of all abilities. Please respond on the Spond poll if able to help. Actually, the slower paces are even more important than the faster ones. But an encouragement to all to turn up in club kit and stay for coffee afterwards.
Swimming
We have now had to switch back to the single 20:30-22:00 slot on a Tuesday. We will continue to monitor numbers and will redouble our efforts to find alternatives if people are regularly missing out.
On our weekend club pre-paid swims, we are waiting for the main Shepperton lake to reopen, before switching from HOP. This is likely to be 16th/17th May.
Cycling
We’ve been really encouraged by the numbers joining the Sunday rides and Friday pacelines. It’s really gaining momentum; and with the increased numbers we’re able to offer more options at different, appropriate speeds. Our one request is to sign up early, so we understand numbers and can organise suitable ride leaders.
Marathon season
The London marathon is rightly the highlight of the running calendar. Despite a few dropouts, Turbos are still well represented. For those tracking - Chloe 41258, Maria 44700, Jonny 51804, Nicole 52358, Dave 7381, Kevin 12150, Thomas 44650, Billy 19981, Josh 6656, Lauren 52213 & Callum 30946.
A number of us will be forming a Turbo corner to cheer. Please let us know you’re coming on Spond and we’ll share the live location (likely to be before the Limehouse split on 14 & 21.4 miles)
Also on Sunday, Angelo will be out in Stratford for the Shakespeare marathon, whilst Denis will be doing the Woking Sprint.
Huge congratulations to Elliott 3:02 in Milan, John 3:55 in Newport, Dan’s superb 1:20 in the Tewkesbury Half and Lindsay having the 2nd fastest chip time for the Ultra X Spring Trail race in the South Downs (ahem, not gun time). Huge congratulations to Atharv who improved his 400m swim time to 5:10 in the British Tri Performance Assessments; though sadly suffered the vagaries of draft legal bike racing & missed the final result his efforts warranted.
Bring a family member to race days
We’ve seen a lovely growing trend of Turbos inspiring friends & family to race alongside them. Unfortunately Ian will only be able to cheer Callum, but the past few weeks have seen Lowri run Hanover with her dad, David & James running the Manchester marathon with his son, Freddy, whilst Gabbie was in Valencia 70.3 to cheer partner Alex to a hugely respectable sub-6 in his first ever triathlon. Possibly pride of place goes to Hamilton family at the Texas Ironman; Russ finishing 7th in the 65-69s whilst cheering his daughter smashing it out of the park.
And once again, a massive thank you to all who've stepped up to organise & arrange various bits & pieces on behalf of others.
Looking forward to a busy Turbo May.