Treggy7

Sunday 5th September 2011

This Sunday saw TRCers participating in events across the county including the St Agnes Tri and the GP race the Treggy7. (I believe there was even an errant Jon Ford-Dunn way over the Tamar somewhere competing in a Triathlon – perhaps he’ll let us know how he got on!).  Those participating in the St Agnes Tri had a later start and a better Sunday morning lie-in than the rest of us: we had to get up at the crack of dawn (yes, 7.30am IS the crack of dawn!) to travel to Launceston. And one of us didn’t even have to be there: Alison wasn’t running (she’s already completed her 8 GP races), but travelled all the way up to give us some support and organise our race numbers – how’s that for dedication?! Thank you so much Alison!

Another welcome face to the Treggy clan, and wearing her TRC vest for the first time, was new member Lizzy Irvine, who may have been hiding her light under a bushel… Lizzie stormed home in an incredible time of 0:47:48 on this challenging course, bagging 3rd place in the Women’s Open competition and second in her category! With Anne Maskell winning the St Agnes Tri for the Ladies, I’d say Sunday was a good day for Truro! Big congratulations to you both! Mustn’t forget to mention that the men were on good form too, with Graham achieving an excellent pb and Nick winning in his category.

Lizzie, 3 is a magic number!

Hmm, are you thinking what I’m thinking?  Some of the TRC ladies are looking like they could make a fantastic elite team, giving those other clubs a good run for their money next year! Woohoo go Truro!!!

And on that note of exuberant enthusiasm, here’s our inimitable Hana with a report on her not quite so elite race!!! (She divulged at Treggy that she won’t  be in her prime until she reaches 65…)

What Goes Down…

Sunday 4th September, it’s 08:30 and it’s looking good outside………for a bike ride or walk on the cliffs. Blue sky, light breeze and all my neighbours are still in bed. So what am I doing…….getting into my car with Julie for company and heading off to a place that brings back bad memories of hills and exhaustion………you’ve got it……Launceston and the Treggy 7.

I didn’t need to do this race, as I’ve completed my 8 for the GP, but as I am a sucker for a day out with a good friend, I agreed (arm twisted up my back) to join Julie for a pleasant Sunday morning run.

I have not competed/completed this race so it was all new territory for me. The instructions for where to park etc arrived in the post, with plenty of time to study the contour lines on the attached course map. It looked to me to be a nice flat/undulating course with one horrid hill, but I still convinced myself, that as it was Launceston, it could only mean HILLS and lot’s of them.

As I entered the registration area at the Eagle House Hotel, I was greeted with a heavenly sight…..NO, not “Man in lycra” but a table groaning with homemade cakes. Large ones, small dainty ones, icing, walnuts, sprinkles, chocolate drops and flapjacks. Wow, I was in runners’ heaven. My only worry was, that if I came in towards the end of the race, these cakes would all be gone, but the lady behind the table showed me what was under the table, and I relaxed……even more cakes…lush!

A quick scan of the room, and TRC members were lacking in numbers once again. Nick, Julie, Steph, Anna, Grahame, Rob, Margaret and Diane were the usual faces in the crowd and new TRC runner Lizzie. Diane was sporting her refreshed RED hair and was worried that it may cause a few problems during the race, but was armed with tissues just in case of a hair crisis, unlike at the Turkey Trot….I’ll say no more, but grey hair never causes the same problems!

This way Hana!

Number attached…69 if you please, and just the age I felt this morning, and off to the start line we wandered. The start area was the town square, old and quaint and as pretty as I remember it, during my courting days with husband at home. Starter horn sounds and we are off, down a hill. Yes, down, I’ll repeat that again… down a hill. Ah I said to myself, “what goes down” and the man next to me replied “must come up” (I really should stop talking out loud to myself).

At the bottom we turned left and along the flat keeping the stream with very old bridge and lot’s of ducks to our right. Then it was off along quiet country lanes. Well they would have been quiet, if I didn’t have 300 other runners pounding down them alongside myself. The flat was rudely interrupted at about mile 3 by what was described as a beast of a hill. Would I call it a beast…not exactly. It had it’s nasty part where I decided that I would walk for a minute, but the rest of it was much like any other hill….something to get up and forget. When I tried to run after my short fast walk, my legs turned to jelly and were totally out of kilter with what my brain was telling them to do. Oh my god, had my run hungry strategy back fired on me…….thankfully not. 50 metres later and the legs tuned into my running frequency and we were off again.

Shock horror was that flat road ahead I could see? We were now at Tregadillett, a small village that the A30 used to run through, back in the early 80’s, with a lovely pub called the Elliot Arms. I used to visit this pub with the young man who turned into husband at home. 27 yrs later and I’m running passed it and not going in it….what a shame.

Next thing I know, I’m running down hill. Down hill….could I really be near Launceston? Should I make hay whilst the sun shines, or save some energy for the Hills that must be waiting towards the end of this race? It was at that point that good old Elkie Brooks “sunshine after the rain” song sprung to mind and with new vigour, I galloped down the road. Ooops I must have drifted off into a dream then….I should have said I plodded slightly quicker down the road.

I’m now approaching familiar territory. I see Launceston Police Station and the part of it, that was once single quarters, where I would sneak in and out to visit the now husband when the boss wasn’t around to know. Things were so different then, you youngsters who may glance at this blog, may not understand. “Covert operations” is all I have to say.

Sorry I digress. Now it was back on the main road into the town. A busy road crossing which was very well marshalled and a nasty uphill nip in the road, which felt like a mountain. How much longer? My god, there it was….the castle’s entrance. I needn’t have spent the last 5 minutes saving energy, I should have put more effort in. Then I crossed the finishing line with a welcome cheer from Lizzy, a very new addition to our elite running club.

Stop watch stopped and it read 58:15 as I crossed the line….another oh my god, as I had just run my fastest 7 miler ever.

So the run hungry strategy could be my answer, as I tried it at the Plymouth half marathon where I did a PB. This doesn’t mean running on NO food, just a very light breakfast. And the biggest bonus to this is????

Have you guessed yet????

You can visit the cake table and eat the biggest piece of coffee and walnut cake without any guilt what so ever and none of it ends up on your bum, so to speak!!!!!

So all in all:

• Race HQ venue……..brilliant. It would have been good to have showers on site, but we could go to the leisure centre if we wanted and use theirs.
• Toilets. Well there was some very good public ones in the car park and then the hotel had some very clean ones as well. No real queues either, so spot on.
• Parking. Brilliant. Council owned, huge, with no charge on a Sunday!
• Marshalling. Excellent, no gripes there.
• Course. Much, much better than expected.
• Goodie bag. Eclectic in it’s contents. Mine consisted of

Treggy 7 shoe bag/PE bag. ( much better than a beanie hat or a medal)
Co op bag for life (very useful and fulfils the green agenda)
1 bag of crisps
1 pot of Ambrosia Banana flavour custard.
1 pot of Ambrosia Rice pudding ( Pudding village for those of you who don’t know the area, is a couple miles away. It’s other name is Lifton and is the home of Ambrosia puddings
1 Twix
1 Snickers (My favourite post run recovery aid!!!)
1 Capri sun juice drink…….my nose has just turned up, but I can always find someone willing to drink this.

• Refreshments provided at race venue:

5 gold stars to these wonderful women. I’m an avid cake baker and they did us proud. So all other race directors take note….we need more cake stalls of this calibre, plus the tea was fab!

Would I run this race again……….definitely! 10 out 0f 10.
Hana

Results

Open Competition

Men

1. Daniel Alsop, St Austell RC: 0:38:14
2. Alex Milner, Enfield and Haringey AC: 0:39:20
3. Colin Snook, Cornwall AC: 0:39:23

Women

1. Emma Stepto, Cornwall AC: 0:42:04
2. Naomi Tier, Cornwall AC: 0:44:10
3. Lizzie Irvine, Truro Running Club: 0:47:48 / Sarah Kenworthy, Hayle Runners: 0:47:48

Overall Results

Treggy7 2011 full results .xls file

TRC Results

Gallery