Tribute to Dearne Valley

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