Half Iron Man races 2013

Half Iron distance: what's the faves fo rearly season?
Suggestions, especially Pirate supported ones.

I need to plan ahead, as the wife is busy booking holidays.

Next year? 

Probably Bala, first (ish) weekend in June
Cowman has been popular
The one in the NF (name escapes me)
Marshman will prob feature again, nice early season

Marshman: early May. Can suffer from cold swim. Kent/Sussex
Silent Assasin's DIY HIM. Highly rated with great catering (I hear). Somewhere int' bleak industrial North.

Others are available. Problem with early season OW swim is the water temp. Bala is also popular, but June time.

Swashbuckler .. thats the one !

Blisters - although it's not yet been infiltrated by the Pirates, Cotswold 113 (both the June one and August one) would be local to you.  Lake 32 swim with fast and flat bike and run.  But above all, with the most glamorous and wonderful marshalls

Believe there's a half option at Henly too

Cotswold June 113 sounds like a good target, especially because of the fantastic marshalls. I do know that the water can be cold, I enjoy fishing but in June those lakes are frigid. Can you get heated wetsuits?
Flat? It can't possibly get any flatter. (Reminds me, a local was after a PB course, Cricklade springs to mind).

Do you know, our Tri club were unfamiliar with Pirates....obviously the shipmates meed to do some serious (what's the phrase?) marketing or marauding?

NF race is the Swashbuckler. June 2nd next year. Swim can be a bitch cos of the current though, and its usually a very early start. I hope to be there.

Blisters SA is going to be running the DIY half again next year worth a look if you want to play and don't mind heading to macclesfield?

Marshman is in the middle of nowhere. The Romney marsh is stuck in the 17th Century and is worth a visit for that alone. 

Beaver Middle has shallow water and higher water temp, i read somewhere.  Late May.

Macclesfield? Ah, that sounds promising: stay with my sister in Buxton, her hubby does an occasional tri as well. (swims like a fish, but bikes & runs like one too). And I'd get to drive the Cat & Fiddle on the way.

Romney Marsh? I know where that is. My wife is from Kent. We got married there. There's a nice view over the marshes, and on a clear day you can see Dungeness Nuclear Power Station. Is that 17th century too?

Middle Beaver? You've got to be joking, they might as well call it Lady Garden.

+ you get a t-shirt with 'i licked the beaver!'  

its got to be done

I also like the Swashbuckler and the Cowman, but feel I should get to Bala next year.

Blisters wrote (see)

Macclesfield? Ah, that sounds promising: stay with my sister in Buxton, her hubby does an occasional tri as well. (swims like a fish, but bikes & runs like one too). And I'd get to drive the Cat & Fiddle on the way.

Romney Marsh? I know where that is. My wife is from Kent. We got married there. There's a nice view over the marshes, and on a clear day you can see Dungeness Nuclear Power Station. Is that 17th century too?

Middle Beaver? You've got to be joking, they might as well call it Lady Garden.

 If you like the cat and fiddle you might be interested in buxton tri next year mate the bike leg goes on there. Only a sprint but christ with that hill might as well be a half ironman.

The DIY one is in may there's a thread up in the tri section and should be a good laugh.

If you fancy a trip up north try Aberfeldy, a good one if you like hills!

HIM in Macclesfield? Really? Cool

Buxton sprint tri? There's no way on God's planet that anyone can sprint so much as 100m in Buxton without at least one bitch of a hill to climb. Even the bleeding lakes are on a slope.

If anyone fancies a trip off shore then the Guernsey Granite Man may be worth a look.

The swim will be an open water English Channel affair (which on a clear day offers a view of the French coastline) before the bike and run legs that loop around the island's coast line. Both are flat and, winder permitting, fast.

While not yet officially announced its usually a biannual affair with a date in early Sept.

I'll be making the trip home for the event which will be my A race for next year. Links etc. to follow.

ooooh that sounds interesting!

Blisters wrote (see)

Buxton sprint tri? There's no way on God's planet that anyone can sprint so much as 100m in Buxton without at least one bitch of a hill to climb. Even the bleeding lakes are on a slope.

 I know it's fecking hard The half marathon there is pritty cool as well.

7755matt wrote (see)

HIM in Macclesfield? Really? Cool

It's diy thing Silent Assisint has set up not a proper race more mates having a laugh well worth a look just go in the tri section and look up the thread DIY half.