Hares & Wattisham Race Report

Wattisham Base and Hadleigh Hares hosted their first joint Sprint Triathlon race

on Saturday 19th April 2008, attracting a mixture of civilian and military

competitors eager to test themselves over a fast flat course. The race comprised

a 300m pool swim, a 20km bike ride around the Wattisham Base roads and a flat

5km run, again inside the base. Despite the cold and windy weather the event was

enjoyed by 109 competitors and 10 relays teams. Particularly enjoyed was the 1.5

mile section of the cycle ride into the wind on the exposed runway - enough to

sap the strength of the hardiest athletes.

Six Hadleigh Hares competed, and for three this was their first ever triathlon.

After a hard winter of novice triathlon training, Marianne Aitken, Jo Baker and

Jonas Grist were apprehensive but excited about the race and keen to test

themselves against their more experienced peers. More experienced triathletes

Curtis Caba, Martin Alabone and Alex Embiricos were on hand to offer advice and

help them through the event. Alabone was the first male Hare home in 48th place

an overall time of 1:11:48 (swim 7:32, bike 41:42, run 22:34) followed by Caba

in 55th place in 1:14:09 (swim 6:55, bike 43:20 and run 23:54) and Grist in 71st

place in 1:17:18 (swim 7:36, bike 47:01, run 22:41). Embiricos was the first

female Hare to cross the line in 79th place (13th female) overall in a time of

1:20:41 (swim 7:15, bike 45:54, run 27:32) followed closely by Aitken in 81st

place (14th female) in 1:21:28 (swim 7:45, bike 48:38, run 25:05) and Baker

(19th female) in 90th place in 1:24:15 (swim 7:20, bike 49:41, run 27:14).

Congratulations to Alabone and Embiricos for being the first male and female

Hares to cross the line and well done to Aitken, Baker and Grist who performed

exceptionally well in their first ever triathlon race and eagerly await their

next triathlon challenge.

Also recently in action was Hadleigh Hare, John Chisnall, who completed his

second Ironman. Rather than attempt an 'easy' Ironman, John chose to compete in

the gruelling Ironman Arizona event. The race comprised a 2.4 mile swim, 112

mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run - all in 90-100 degrees of heat and, this year,

strong winds. The race proved too much for many competitors, and the race had

the third highest drop out of any Ironman race ever. Chisnall completed the swim

in 1:15, bike in 7:02 and run in 5:37 to finish in 1048th place overall (112th

in his age group) in a total time of 14:13, a truly magnificent effort in

adverse conditions.

If you are interested in getting really fit and joining the Hadleigh Hares

please contact Doug Grimwade (doug@grimwade.demon.co.uk) for details