The busiest weekend of the Turbo year so far
Social news – and congratulations
Two marriages at the weekend to celebrate. Massive congratulation and best wishes to Ben & Lizzie and to Emily & Rory – I loved how both managed to shoe-horn a run with guests/family into their big days.
We also had a dozen Turbos at Shepperton to welcome the lake’s re-opening for the season. Whether lured by the swim, Lily’s brownies or Jon’s cajoling, it’s rapidly becoming a social gathering to match Bushy on a Saturday morning.
Dates we have in the diary (and all in Spond):
Weds 5th June are the Parkland Relays, meeting opposite the Pen Ponds café in Richmond Park. We’re in the process of finalising our team entries, so if you’d like to take part, but haven’t got in touch, now is the time to do so.
We then have our Junior Aquathlon on Saturday 8th June at LEH. Again, we will be asking volunteers to help set up on the Friday evening and then to marshal on Saturday morning. The race revenues are one of the reasons we can hold our subscription levels down, hence we ask firmly that you try to make yourselves available to help marshal at at least one of our club races each year. Thanks to all who have signed up so far https://thamesturbo.co.uk/volunteer .
https://thamesturbo.co.uk/our-races Entries close on 2nd June, so if you have children hoping to take part of know of friends’ children who might be tempted, sign up soon.
The following Sunday 16th June is the proposed date for our annual London – Brighton – London ride. One note of caution, we’ve been advised that the British Heart Foundation have a London – Brighton ride on the same day, so it is unlikely you’ll be able to catch the train back from Brighton (and have to cycle back at least part way).
Then (providing HOP don't object) on Thursday 20th June during our regular swim sessions, we have our own Reverse Aquathlon followed by a BBQ as a fundraiser for the Dylan Howell’s Foundation. You’re there anyway, it counts towards the club championships, it’s a fun social evening and for a great cause. https://dylanhowellsfoundation.org/
On Saturday 22nd June, James (and possibly a few other handy mechanics) will be putting on an Intro to Bike Mechanics, aimed at those less familiar with fixing their own bikes (I’m sure even those more familiar than a complete bike numpty like me will find it useful).
We’re also trying to finalise a date for a wine tasting session hugely kindly hosted & organised by Chris Scott. This will be limited in numbers & I suspect quickly oversubscribed – so get your names in early.
Event preview & Race report
This weekend will be the busiest of the Turbo year so far, with at least 20 Turbos in action. Angelo, Lewis, Malcolm, Ryan, Matt, Szymon, Jonny, James, Billy, Oli, Jess, Vicki, James, Eero, Nicole and Rob will join me on the start line for Ride London (you can track our progress https://apps.apple.com/us/app/2024-ford-ridelondon-essex/id1258105015). Elsewhere Thomas is heading to Marlow for a standard distance, but we’re all completely envious of Corin and Soph heading to Vancouver Island for the Victoria IM 70.3.
We’ve seen a flurry of 70.3 action over the past two weekends, with Tim, 5:01 in Samorin and Steve 6:42 at the Outlaw Half, adding to Mark’s 5:59, Phil’s 6:00 and Nick’s 7:35 in Mallorca and Matt’s 6:44 in the Huntsman from last weekend. Also, new joiner Adam Wells finished a hugely creditable 14th overall (2nd in AG) in the Outlaw sprint in Nottingham (like so many of our newer members, has really embraced life within the Turbos, see attached photo).
Adam in Outlaw action
Details of all the recent results and how they contribute to the Club Champs can be found in the attached spreadsheet (best 4 results from the following - Bushy Parkrun, HOP 432m TT, Westerley 10 mile TT, then best Sprint, Olympic, Middle & Long Distance Tris, Aquathlon, Duathlon & Aquabike – remembering the DHF reverse aquathlon & HOP TTs will be incorporated into our regular swim sessions, to make it even easier to rack up 4 qualifying events).
We also seen two absolutely stellar performances on the bike. Caz finishing 9th (2nd woman) in the Wild West Country, covering the 837km in 57 hours! On the much shorter South Down velo 10 mile, Steve averaged a mind-blowing 47kmph to finish in 20:33 for 5th (the 4 people quicker – bonkers). Also over the past two weekends, posses of Turbos took on the 180km Fred Whitton (Steve 7:19, James 7:59, Ryan 8:01, Ralph 9:24, Eamonn & Terry 10:52) and the Hampshire Hilly Hundred (Vicki 6:32, Jess 6:25 & Matt 7:48). And Nicole 1:27, Anish 2:01 and Alex 2:12 ran the Hackney Half Marathon.
New junior BTF supervision requirements
Jonathan wrote to all the junior parents last week, to detail the supervision ratio guidelines being imposed. In practical terms, we will need to supplement coach numbers with junior parents to be present at sessions (or seniors with coaching aspirations). To Supervisor training involves c5 hours of online training & becoming a BTF member (if not already) - the club will pay the involved costs & refund a month’s membership for the junior. This will be imperative for the ongoing running of the junior section – if you think you can help, please contact Jonathan on junior_rep@thamesturbo.co.uk.