So, that was some hell of a weekend. A tonne of you smashed the event over the slightly longer route. Bryan Marshall won for the third year running with an impressive time of 1:48:03 (which technically is a new course record, again) with Ross Macpherson hot on his heels less than a minute behind. Kirsty McLeish won the fastest female title in 2:06:38 (13th over the course) with Karlyn Sagan racing over the line in 14th place. Well done to them and to everyone who took part. Click on the link below for the full results:
The Sally Challenge III Results
There was also high drama with two DNFs from the bike section. Brian Scally and race veteran, Steve Barnett were injured and had to withdraw from the race. Hopefully you’re making a speedy recovery. We wish you well.
We’re very grateful to the Rowardennan Hotel and the Wishing Well Cafe for the use of their carparks. With the larger participant numbers we thought it would be prudent to move the transition 150 metres up the road to afford us a wee bit extra working space. Hopefully you experienced a smooth transition.
From a management perspective we were delighted with the way things went, however, we know we can always do better. To that end we’d love to hear what you thought about the event; good or bad. We’ll be emailing out a questionnaire in the near future but in the interim if you want to leave a comment on the bottom of this post we’ll have a read.
And finally, if you enjoyed the Sally Challenge why not keep up to date with our other races on Facebook?
Comments
Cracking event boys. Smoothly run, great vibe and thoroughly enjoyable.
Couple of thoughts for next year..and they really are just minor things that dawned on me during my shamefully slow effort:
– Electrolytes (sports drinks) available at 1st water station (transition)
– Water available at final water station (in addition to the lucozade)
– A few black bags along the way so people could dispose of bottles instead of dumping them (All you superstars who through down your bottle in search of Olympic qualifying times, I hope you all chalked up PB’s!)
– A 1/4 mile countdown of distance during final 1.5 miles (as I came through at the end, a handful of folk asked how much they had to run).
I had a cracking day, thanks to the Breaking Strain team and Andy et al. And especially thanks to the rest of the competitors, made my trip south well worthwhile!
Andy, thanks for the feedback, it’s exactly the stuff we want to hear. As you know, we want the competitor/participant experience in all of our events to be exceptional and this is how we’ll get there.
I agree with all the stuff you’ve identified and the way we’ll hit those points and several others is through a larger number of marshals (volunteers, that is.. Not Bryan Marshalls, one of those machines is quite enough!) and a few tweaks to logistics.
Furthermore, Lee and I are having a serious look at technical solutions to race timing as we’re still not over the moon with our current options. We always have to work within the budget of a totally not-for-profit event with what we believe to be competitive entry fees.. But that’s our problem to overcome and I am confident we can crack it!
Thanks for travelling down for the event, was great to have you and we’ll expect you back every year. 😉
Garry
One of the best events I have entered. Agree re: black bags.
Also, that last mile seemed to go on forever, was it really a mile?
The sushi tent, massage tent and beer were a stroke of genius. I can’t wait for next year. Well done guys.
Craig, thanks for your comments. Glad you enjoyed the day. The last mile’s deceptive as the route’s is almost the full 10 miles and the run downhill towards the finish takes it out the legs. The thought of sushi and beer at the end hopefully helped though. See you next year.
Loved the event – really well organised and great fun. I agree with the comment re a countdown distance in the final mile or so… I hadn’t run the course before so didn’t know how to pace myself on that last stretch. Other than that, top notch. Looking forward to next year 🙂
Julie, Thanks for the feedback. Delighted you had a good day. The countdown in the final mile is a decent shout, we’ll have a look at that. catch you next year.
When is the entry for 2014 race , going too be open ?.
Gerry,
Entries for 2014 opened on the 27th December.
Hopefully see you in August.
Lee