Woking Autumn Sprint Triathlon 2025 – Race report
14 September 2025
Woking Autumn Sprint Triathlon 2025 – race report by Mary Cooper.
Like many of you, we had been watching the weather forecast closely for this weekend – and we were lucky – it was dry and sunny!! (Bad luck to others who had races changed due to the weather – sometimes it sucks racing in the UK!!).
It was dark when we got up at 4.30, as this race set fast people off early – great to get it done, just on not as much sleep as usual. Porridge and coffee inhaled and off we went. It took less than an hour to get there with very little traffic, which bode well for the early racers on their bikes.
The ATW team were super efficient and friendly and we were set up next to each other in transition (numbers 21 and 22 respectively!) We even shared a towel (probably not allowed in big races, but this was fun with lots of nervous first timers with everything they’d need) – I heard one man say his wife doing a sprint had more food around her than he had for his Ironman 🤣
We set off just after 7 with Mary ahead and Mike chasing. It was a snakey swim, just like Tuesday night swim warm up I thought! Then out into 7 degrees (a little fresh. . . And Mike’s hands were numb by the end of the bike)
Out onto the quiet bike course with a dead zone at the exit/entry to the leisure centre for safety . . . Questionable in our opinion as you had to pause to let them scan your chip (which most bizarrely was on your left wrist!) but the bike itself was undulating and best of all dry!! Mary held Mike off til they were heading back into T2 where he snuck past her. . .
Onto the run and I managed to keep Mike in my sites for most of the 3 laps of the park – but he did stretch ahead a little in the last km. However to finish with less than a minute between us on our runs was a huge boost for me, as I’ve been working on my run recently.
All done by 8.15!!
Brilliantly organised event once you get over the left wristed time strap. Good fun racing, will definitely be up for it again next year -they do a spring and autumn race so you can check for improvements! No cheesy award pictures at this one as it’s all just for fun! But lovely medals to go on our hall mirror.
Last triathlon race for us will be Hever Castle in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed for calm dry weather.
To find out more about joining Chi Tri click here!