Hever castle Olympic distance triathlon – Race report

This race was chosen for the World’s qualifier for next year in Spain by BTF 

Had slightly more of a lie in than usual due to the 0930 start time.

Arrived about 0730 and met up with Adam and Megs.

Wandered through and collected numbers, chip etc.

Met up with Mike and Mary

Racked up and left transition.

Then it was time to get wetsuited up, popped a gel and wandered down to the lake.

Brief briefing and into the 13’c water. It was cold , and very murky. No visibility whatsoever.

I stood on the start line in the mud to warm my feet. Quiet shallow and about 300 in our waver

The gun went and chaos ensued. It’s like the first leg of Southwater X 4. Punched, kicked, swam over, dragged under. Not pleasant at all. The lake was so shallow in places that your hands were scraping the bottom through thick mud.

Anyway, I exited the water in a good place having swam 24 minutes, then it was a run on grass up quite a steep hill into T1.

Got my bike etc and ran out, mounted and got my feet in my shoes. The first 50-100m was on packed gravel then it was out onto the hilly bike lap. When I say hilly, it’s just under 300m of elevation per lap (we did 2).

Saw a few crashes and several punctures (unsurprising) but had a fairly solid bike leg averaging 33.3kph Back down into transition and over the gravel again.

Chose to wear socks for the run and glad I did. It was more a trail run with more hills again. Grass, gravel, fields, and compacted mud. The run course zapped the energy out of my legs but I managed a 2:31 time. I think I finished 8th in my age cat. Not sure it’s enough to get to Spain next year but all in all a good end of season race.