We were in Chingford League action this week in round #4 of the winter running series. A 5k at the Olympic Velopark and it looks like our track sessions are paying off for a number of us with PB’s a plenty.
Of course we had to celebrate after – a small break before getting back to training…
For anyone interested in taking up triathlon next year, why wait? Joining now gets you ahead of the game!
Last night we held our annual awards. Thanks to everyone who came and for being a member of the club this year
All the winners are below.
Congratulations everyone.
1) Swim Gala 2024 Winners Leath Al Obaidi, Eleanor Steer, Cédric Lévêque, Jade Soiza, Sean Reed, Andrew Short
2) Best Newcomer 2025 – Stacy Dowding
3) Swim Gala 2025 Winners Jess Verrall, Marc Wardley-Cresser, Mark Durrant, Ilia Loubenski, Ali Trauttmansdorff
4) Most Improved Athlete 2025 – Maya Goodwin
5) Also Most Improved Athlete 2025 – Laura Fournier
6) Club Aquathlon Champion Open – Stephen Thompson
7) Club Aquathlon Champion Female – Jess Verrall
8) Outstanding Club Member of the Year 2025 – Stephen Thompson
9) Grand Prix Senior Open Senior – Cédric Lévêque
10) Grand Prix Series Open Veteran – Michael Loiacono
11) Grand Prix Series Open – 3rd Place – James Swift
12) Grand Prix Series Open – 2nd Place – Lawrence Shafier
13) Grand Prix Series Open – 1st Place – Stephen Thompson
14) Grand Prix Series Female Veteran – Lucie Lachnitova
15) Grand Prix Series Female – 3rd Place – Laura Fournier
16) Grand Prix Series Female – 2nd Place – Rachael Clarke
17) Grand Prix Series Female – 1st Place – Rachel Mayer
18) Club Triathlon Champion Open – James Swift
19) Club Triathlon Champion Female – Rachael Clarke
20) Athlete of the Year 2025 – Rachel Mayer
21) Athlete’s Athlete of the Year 2025 – Rachel Mayer
East London Triathletes Swim Gala 2025 
.
What a bumper turnout for our swim gala this year!
Everyone brought their A (for aqua?) game.
Reputations were on the line. New faces 
threatened upsets.
Lego was involved…
Massive thanks to Trish, Jan, Eleanor and Tim for organising and helping control this lot.
Big congrats to the winning team 
of Ali, Ilia, Marc, Mark and Jess. Well done everyone else who made to occasion brilliant.
Winning team prizes (along with 2024 team prizes 
) will be presented at the Annual Awards 
on Dec 6th (see Spond).
To be eligible for the prizes you need to complete a minimum of three races which must include atleast one triathlon. There are prizes for Open and Female 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Also prizes for Open and Female Senior (18-39), Vets (40-59) and Super Vets (60+). Age group will apply as per age on 31st December 2026.
All events (except Club Championship races see below) will score 50 pts for placing 1st against other club members in the open or female category, 49 pts for 2nd etc. In the event of a points tie the results from the best four races including two triathlons will be considered. If still tied, the results from the best five races including two triathlons will be considered. If still tied additional races will be used always with a minimum of two triathlons.
We’ve added the Spond events with all the details where we have them. To score you need to have clicked ‘Attending’ in Spond (no exceptions), as well as entering each event independently with East London Triathletes as your club (unless first claim run/cycle is needed).
Club Championships
We ELT Club Championships for Duathlon, Triathlon and Aquathlon. These are three specified events where the outright open and female winner will be crowned club champion of the respective discipline. To encourage as many members as possible to enter, these three races will also garner an extra point per place for the grand prix (so 51pts for first etc).
The three events are the LFTC Duathlon in March, Cotswold 113 Triathlon in June and the LFTC Sprint Aquathlon in September.
London League
We’ve included all seven London League GP events. These will be an additional chance to win regional awards against other London Clubs of which there were twenty five competing last year. We had one 2nd place and one 3rd place team finishes last year as well as five individual age group 2nd places.
The Schedule
The provisional Grand Prix race schedule is below. We’ve tried again to keep most of the events local, and also included individual swim, bike and run events so there should be atleast a few races for everyone. Where an event is marked available this can be booked straight away. Where an event is marked TBC we are still waiting to confirm its go ahead but will publish confirmation as soon as we hear and a Spond event will also be added with all the details. If anyone has any questions, please let anyone on the comittee know.
29 March 26 – LFTC Velopark Duathlon TBC (Club Duathlon Championship) LL
03 April 26 – RunThrough Victoria Park 10k (Good Friday)
04 May 26 – Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon LL
10 May 26 – Crystal Palace Sprint Triathlon TBC LL
2nd/9th/16th/23rd June 26 – LVCC Tuesday 10’s (10 mile cycle TT) – Best time from any Tues event in June
07 June 26 – Cotswold 113 (Half Distance) (Club Triathlon Championship)
21 June 26 – Southend Standard Triathlon
28 June 26 – Windrush Sprint Aquathlon LL
05 July 26 – Dartford Bridge Standard Triathlon LL
19 July 26 – Eton Dorney Family Sprint Triathlon LL
26 July 26 – T100 London
08 August 26 – ATW Aquabike Standard
16 August 26 – Bedford Standard Triathlon
19 August 26 – 5k on the Rides
19 September 26 – Swim Serpentine 2m
26 September 26 – LFTC Sprint Aquathlon TBC (Club Aquathlon Championship) LL
With an eye on planning out next year’s races already we’re bringing news of the Grand Prix Events to you early so you can plan out your year ahead.
To be eligible for the prizes you need to complete a minimum of three races which must include atleast one triathlon. There are prizes for Open and Female 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Also prizes for Open and Female Senior (18-39), Vets (40-59) and Super Vets (60+). Age group will apply as per age on 31st December 2025.
All events (except Club Championship races see below) will score 50 pts for placing 1st against other club members in the open or female category, 49 pts for 2nd etc. In the event of a points tie the results from the best four races including two triathlons will be considered. If still tied, the results from the best five races including two triathlons will be considered. If still tied additional races will be used always with a minimum of two triathlons.
We’ve added the Spond events with all the details where we have them, but you will also need to enter each event independently with East London Triathletes as your club. If you are also part of a running club some running events will default to that club, just make sure you have then clicked attend in Spond so we can find you.
Club Championships
We are bringing back the ELT Club Championships for both Triathlon and Aquathlon. These are two specified events where the outright open and female winner will be crowned club champion of the respective discipline. To encourage as many members as possible to enter, these two races will also garner an extra point per place for the grand prix (so 51pts for first etc).
The two events are the Dartford Bridge Standard Triathlon in June and the Windrush Sprint Aquathlon in July.
London League
We’ve included all six London League GP events. These will be an additional chance to win regional awards against other London Clubs of which there were twenty-one competing last year. Club member Maya Goodwin came 2nd in her age group last year and we as a club came 4th in the open category and 6th in the female category by entering only a few of the events.
The Schedule
The provisional Grand Prix race schedule is below. We’ve tried again to keep most of the events local, and also included individual swim, bike and run events so there should be atleast a few races for everyone. Where an event is marked available this can be booked straight away. Where an event is marked TBC we are still waiting to confirm its go ahead but will publish confirmation as soon as we hear and a Spond event will also be added with all the details. If anyone has any questions, please let anyone on the comittee know.
09 March 25 – Dorney Lake Sprint Duathlon – Lets Do This
18 April 25 – RunThrough Victoria Park 10k – Runthrough
05 May 25 – Thames Turbo Sprint Triathlon – Thames Turbo
11 May 25 – Crystal Palace Sprint Triathlon – CP Tri
03 June 25 – TBC – Lee Valley CC Tuesday 10’s (10 mile cycle TT) – LVCC
07 June 25 – Blenheim Palace Triathlon (any individual Sprint over the weekend 7th or 8th June) – Lets Do This
22 June 25 – Dartford Bridge Standard Triathlon – Bridge Events – Club Championship
20 July 25 – Eton Dorney Family Triathlon – Full Steam
27 July 25 – TBC – Windrush Sprint Aquathlon – Windrush Tri Club – Club Championship
10 August 25 – T100 London – T100
10 August 24 – St Neots Aquabike Standard – ATWEvents
20 August 25 – TBC – 5k on the Rides – Orion Harriers
20 September 25 – Swim Serpentine 2m – Swim Serpentine
21 September 25 – Maldon Triathlon Standard Distance – ATWEvents
27 September 25 – TBC – London Fields Sprint Aquathlon – Lets Do This
04 October 25 – Dorney Lake Standard Duathlon – Lets Do This
Round 6 of the ELT Grand Prix saw 7 athletes descend upon the very picturesque town of Arundel. With the race starting at 6.40am and Arundel being a few hours drive away most decided to stay locally avoiding waking up at stupid o’clock. Several of the ELT bunch decided to meet up the night before to register and go for a cheeky pre-triathlon pizza (new club tradition??).
It was a cold early start on Sunday morning with an early race brief before the long walk up to the swim start. The swim course was a 200m upstream swim followed by a 1300m downstream swim. As always Liam O’Mahoney made a last minute dash to get to the swim start just before the gun went off. Liam, Chris Tait and Dan Fish were the first to go off in the Under 30 waves with George Tidmarsh, James Swift, Patrick Farrenn and Lawrence Shafier going off in subsequent waves.
It was a fast start start and Chris Tait pulled away in the front pack. Unfortunately for him the race organisers made a massive error and hadn’t put out the buoy which we were meant to swim around before heading back in the opposite direction. As Chris made his way up the river he was met with a loud ‘you’ve gone to far!’ from the safety boats before all the other athletes caught up with him with a look of puzzlement and confusion. We believe the total swim distance for the first waves was about 1900m, a tad extra for an Olympic Distance.
The bike course was a rolling 40km one lap course through the countryside surrounding arundel. However, to get there you had to cycle along a dual carriageway with cars going past at least 70 miles per hour. With it being an early start it should have been fairly easy for traffic to negotiate cyclists however some still chose to pass by with very little space, not a great start to the bike leg. With several long ‘climbs’ it made for a difficult course and having to adapt the typical pacing strategy so as not to blow up on the first hill. Unfortunately for Dan he had a mechanical about 25km into the bike where the derailleur decided it didn’t want to live anymore and completely fell apart bringing about Dan’s first DNF and a long wait for a van to pick him up. Liam put the strongest effort into the bike finishing the bike leg in 64 minutes with Chris Tait just 9 seconds behind.
The run was a two lap affair with a climb going out of transition and a steep downhill section that tested your nerves and your jelly legs. It was here that a lot of ground could be made up. The course looped around the castle and was across concrete, grass and trails. Once again, Liam came away with the quickest run leg of the day finishing the 10k run in 37 minutes exactly with George Tidmarsh finishing strong in 37:35.
As this was a qualifier for the European Championships in 2019 most ELT’ers put their hat in the ring to earn a coveted spot and I’m pleased to say that already Chris Tait and Lawrence Shafier have already qualified and will be representing team GB in Weert 2019! Good racing ELT!
If you haven’t read Norma’s previous blog, find it here.
After the Edinburgh marathon at the end of May, I needed to start training for triathlons again with the Vitruvian half iron man coming up on 8 September.
I had a week or so off after the marathon just to let my body recover and then I started back with the ELT weekly training – but with a special emphasis on swimming and cycling as I had been ignoring these a bit in the lead up to the marathon.
Unfortunately, I needed to have an operation on my nose which meant I could not swim for a couple of weeks so that set my training back a bit. However, I was able to cycle and so it gave me a chance to start doing a couple of long cycle rides a week. Having fully recovered from the operation, I got back into the swimming in the pool during the week and at Stubbers at the weekend.
My only triathlon race this summer was the London Triathlon on 5 August where I did the “Olympic Plus” event which is basically an Olympic distance but with an extra long bike ride (1500m swim; 80km bike; 12km run). It was a good event but a very hot day so I struggled a bit on the run. I finished in 4 hr 39 mins (3rd in my age group) but it made me realize that I needed to up my training for Vitruvian.
I now have a 4 week training plan in place in the lead up to Vitruvian so hopefully if I manage to get through that training over the next few weeks I will be well prepared for trying to complete Vitruvian on 8 September (without being the last to finish!)
If you haven’t read part 1 of Norma’s journey, read it here.
My training this year has been interrupted quite a few times with injury and illness. In particular, I have had a problem with my Achilles tendon that has meant I have been prevented from running for a few weeks and have only recently got back to running longer distances with my ankle strapped.
I had been planning on keeping up the training for both the marathon and the half Ironman in parallel but the reality of daily life, especially with training interrupted by injury and moving house has meant I have only really had enough time to focus on the running in preparation for the marathon. I will have to take one event at a time!
My typical training schedule from around February – March was:
I have only managed to do one bike ride this year (Easter weekend) and may not get back into that until after the marathon at the end of May as it is quite difficult to fit in a long run for the marathon training and then do a long bike ride the next day! So far my longest run has been 26km. The longer the run the more challenging it is to decide where to go. So for this run I got the tube to Westminster, started at the Houses of Parliament and ran home to Buckhurst Hill. The long run distances step up from here over the next few weeks. The London marathon is provided a bit of inspiration although I hope it is not as hot in Edinburgh. 2 weeks to go until the marathon and I will have to worry about the half ironman training after that!
Swimming on the 31st March 2018 is cancelled due to the pool being closed.
Swimming will resume as normal on the 3rd April.
