Mike Orton Wins a Silver Medal in the Olympic Distance National Championships in Bedford
Having recovered from his Ironman event in June, Mike Orton decided to focus on the shorter Olympic Distance events and on 15 August 2010, Mike competed in the National Championships in Bedford taking a silver medal. Here's Mike's account of his fantastic achievement.
In June this year, Hemel Hemsptead Cycling Club member Mike Orton took part in an Ironman triathlon in Nice, France. Here’s Mike’s account of how he got on.
As some of you know I have recently returned from Nice where I took on the challenge of an Ironman triathlon. This is the longest of the triathlon distances and is competed for over a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a Marathon run (26.2 miles).
Well we have come to the end of the evening events with tonight's last 10. The evening looked like it would be quite tough with a cross tailwind out and subsequent tough return, but in reality the wind seemed to drop to almost nothing for most, resulting in many PB's or seasons best for the course. Although dry at first it did start to drizzle a little for the later starters. A pretty large number turned out too - although the majority were not club members!
Tonights event attracted a big field; 30 riders, many of them looking for a good ride to pick up the club Handicap 10 Trophy. The weather wasn't great, but wasn't bad - a tough headwind out but that meant a nice fast return and it wasn't cold. We were also back on the full length course again after the roadworks of the last 3 weeks.
Tonight's event was again held on the shortened course due to the roadworks. The evening was reasonably warm but quite windy. But luckily it was a cross-tailwind on the outward direction that is a little more helpful, and with a low pressure system (that was creating the winds and the many showers earlier in the day) meant that most people were doing times almost the same as last week that was thought to be a good day. Sadly the weather likely did put off a number of people so numbers were well down on normal with only 10 taking the start line.
