Category: News

September 12th should of been our National Championships the final Quad of the season in the lovely seaside town of Bude …. its always a great end to our Quad Season, spectacular views, a challenging course, our wonderful Simon Hammond and his team, and not forgetting those awesome Cornish Cream Teas! 

Many of us did ‘Yet Another virtual one’ and some were lucky enough to be spending ‘holiday time’ there … I do know for the ‘Chappills’ it was the thought of the Cream Teas along with the Millock Hill that took them back for a September Break! They enjoyed the Quad course and rumor has it they even did the bike course twice (though not on the same day!) 

This is Pete’s Report! ‘Repli-quad event 4 Bude-ifull’ Pete, Donna and Jeff Chappill

Due to the current covid situation a decision was made to have this event on Thursday. It was nothing to do with the best day weather wise with the lightest winds, honest governor! The weekends in Bude have been busy with people in the usual transition area by the canal, so the order of disciplines was adjusted to minimise the time spent in the area.

We were staying at a site on the bike and run course so drove down to Bude to catch the tide coming in. This was Donna’s first sea swim for many years and the sea had been kind with no waves and a small swell. The usual 2 laps were completed. Transition into the kayak as usual completing the normal course. Dodging the pedellos and rowing boats slowed things a little but being able to use the weed free centre channel made the time up. Transition out the kayak saw us driving back to the campsite.

Change to the bike and off with Donna and Jeff to battle with Millock. 

There was a lot of traffic on the roads so progress downhill was sedate. Progress up the hill was also sedate but completed. The wind was increasing a little for the ride back but the sweeping downhill allowed good progress.

Into the site for transition to the run. Jeff and I joined the route into Bude as usual. Donna famous for add-libbing decided to run the coast path.

It was warm and as hard as ever. I missed the drink stations and marshals. I don’t normally see many other people on the run but it felt strange.

So course completed tee shirt tour to attend and relax.

Hopefully see you all in 2021…. Pete

‘Sprinkling the Fairy Dust’ – It’s been great company to have Lance Ball along side in all 5 of this years Virtual Quads, I certainly think this was one of the calmest and warmest a fitting tribute to Bude! Perfect conditions here in Chester on the River Dee warm calm and sunny… certainly ideal for our 4 disciplines, transition area was a bit tight in the backs of our cars but it was good to be out there and reminiscing about Bude Races gone by!

So not quite the way the Quad Season should of ended in Bude with National Trophy presentations and Simon’s Banter … but a big thank-you to those of you that did 1 or 4 of the Quad disciplines today we were there in spirit, lets hope its the real thing in 2021!  Jean #motivationalmileswithsmiles

A note from ‘John Durrant’

Today would have been the Awesome Foursome in Bude – honestly my favourite event of the year and has been a regular pilgrimage for my wife and I – we’ve even considered moving to Bude as we’ve always enjoyed the feel of the place…

This year I’ve set my own little mini-event for my 50th birthday on Thursday which will be a swim in the Thames, followed by 1,000 Burpees (with push-up and a jump), and hopefully an evening kayak down the River Wey to have some food in the Pyford Anchor pub with the family, although they’re currently closed due to a Covid case in the pub…

What a strange and lonely year this has been – so I guess it calls for strange little physical challenges like this to keep sane…! 

Other Quadrathletes that sent me news were Helen Recchia and Paul also on holiday in Bude reviewing and testing the hilly bike course, ready for next year!

David Jones and his Quad Friends at Manvers Lake doing there motivational multi session swim kayak and a run in and around the lake!  If any one is near Manvers sessions like this go on most Sundays!

Well Done to you all and thank-you for sharing your Quadrathlon Passion!

Pete Chappill from Lincsquad finished his season with the Re-scheduled Box End Quad, well done to him for completing all 5 Virtual BQA Quadrathlons, along with Lance Ball and Jean Ashley, lets hope we will bet out there for real next season!

Pete’s Report  Boxenderventure

So today 6th September should of been the wonderful Shrewsbury Sprint Quadrathlon, unfortunately like all our Quadrathlons this season sadly Covid cancelled. However not to be disheartened and as always #makingthemost members of the BQA got their Quadrathlon Heads on, and did their own virtual quadrathlons! 

Jean and Lance took to the water in Chester and completed a long version of the Sprint quad including an extended kayak and bike, the weather was beautiful and it brought back many memories of all those fantastic races organized by SYTri … we gave it our best shot and we can’t wait to be back in September 2021!

Meanwhile Pete Chappill from Lincsquad was actually in Shrewsbury for the weekend this was his 3rd Repli-quad event of the season ‘The famous Shrews-bearly’ this is Pete’s wonderful race report! 

The start and finish for this event were at Wingfield caravan park in Montford Bridge close to Shrewsbury and right on the river bank.
The river was swollen and flowing fast so for the 500m swim I tasted what a decent swimmer feels like finishing in around 6 minutes. Had it been against the flow I would still be there.
The kayak leg was out against the flow and provided some wobbly moments at the turn. The return leg was 2 mins quicker and a lot easier.
Onto the bike and out towards the monument junction on the actual Quad course. This section was a lot more undulating than the section from the showground. Turning left placed me on the actual route up to the turn and back to the monument. The return to the site was again undulating with a variable wind direction and about 16 degrees of warmth.
The run had to be limited for me as it was the first since an injury 7 weeks ago. 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back proved to be a good test for gait maintenance and a good sign for the next event in a weeks time, the Bude-ifull.
The usual screaming crowd was at the finish. However numbers were limited to one in order to remain covid safe.
All though these events are not the same with people passing me spurring me on it does act as a normalisation in these frustrating times! Fantastic effort Pete … we look forward to the Bude-ifull Report next weekend!

As always Pete is very passionate about the ‘The tee shirt tour’ so full marks for his one -off original race Tech-TShirt, and at this rate Pete you must be on for a Trophy Prize!!

I hope all our Quadrathlon friends are keeping fit and motivated, its been a crazy year and I’m certainly missing our friendly banter and smiling faces! One Virtual Race Left … ‘The Awesome Foursome’ …..please post a photo on our facebook page if your out and about next weekend and raise a glass on your own T-shirt Tour to our Wonderful Sport!  Love from Your Fairy Quadmother XX

Covid-19 Replic-Quad Series Round 2 ….the avid followers of Quadrathlon will know that round 1 was the Adventure Bomber.

So Lincsquaders were out in action on Sunday 14^th June, it was the turn of the Dearne Valley event which was covid cancelled.  In the spirit of the sport and adhering to the latest guidelines Kev Lovett, Donna, Jeff, and Pete Chappill commenced a similar distance course at a local venue.

At 08.30 the Dearnish Valley Quadrathlon set off with the 800m swim, (The tape measure got wet and snapped part way around so estimated distance). The weather was kind with a light breeze from the east. The transition was on a small piece of grass and had a long run out with the bike onto a 2 laps “P” shaped technical course with “s” bends and climbs. Kev had ridden the course in the week and blamed a chill on the fact that his wife beat him. Jeff and Donna utilised their ability to have no social distancing with Jeff drafting and changed the direction of the second lap as it was more scenic. Once again I complied with the rules and let Kev make some space up front.

The transition was back to the grass having to carry the bike through the gate. To simulate Dearne it was a deep water start in the kayak. This allowed Donna the opportunity to practice her high brace.5 “ish” laps around the perimeter of the lake made the 4kms route. The shapely course, plenty of turns and cross winds made for some interesting moments as did the deep water exit.

The run course which was a square and undulating one with 2 laps around the surrounding estate followed by a lap of honour around the lake.

That’s the second event of this series completed with the prospect of at least two local age group champions. Thanks go to Dawn, Tracy, and Ben for transition security and ensuring that social distancing was maintained.

The next event should have been Box End which has been rescheduled to September! We will schedule a Repli-Quad in July to try and keep some normality to this year’s calendar and there are valuable points for the local age group championships! ….. Thanks to Pete Chappill for his great report!

Meanwhile over in Chester Lance Ball and Jean Ashley were replicating Dearne Valley, thinking of Mark Benton and all at Manvers Lake we took to the River Dee to keep sharing our Quad Passion, and doing our own ‘Social distancing Quad’.

Perfect conditions as we started our swim in the River Dee at 9.30am this morning, though slightly cooler than expected due to a heavy thunderstorm the day before! 24 miles #swimkayakbikerun from start to finish around similar distance to Dearne Valley (though I probably made the Kayak leg slightly longer just because the river was so calm and I love that bit the best!! ) Once again we were using our separate cars as our transition areas, a bit of a squash and its a good job we weren’t timing our transitions! We had a very fast out and back bike, followed by our steady run , not quite race pace as we did have enough breath to keep chatting!  We made up our own ‘Banter’ – not quite the same as Mark‘s commentary and the cheering from the Manvers Team, but we got out there and smashed all 4 disciplines!

Other BQA Members were out at Manvers Lake, well done to Bob Mawson, Dave and Caz Jones also flying the BQA flag!

Sending Love to all our Quadrathlon Buddies, and especially thinking of ‘The Manvers Team’ 💜 #makingthemost