Posts Tagged ‘triathlon’

My final triathlon of the Worfolk Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) 2026! I’ve done Sundowner several times before, including my first middle distance, but that was back in the Freebird days. The event is now organised by U Prevail and just as good.

There were four waves: fast mixed, fast women, slow mixed, slow women. I went in the third and found that I was pretty good in comparison to the others in my wave. I wasn’t first out of the water: there was a small pack and a few lone swimmers ahead, but I was ahead of most people and it felt great to have the confidence to go out and swim reasonably hard (for me). I came out around a minute faster than Bishopton.

The cycle also went well. I stayed down on my aero bars pretty much the entire time. Not quite as fast or as hard as at Brigg, but my back continued to work even after the race so I feel like the trade was worth it.

The run was a lot different from the old days: it took place entirely inside the grounds of Allerthorpe Lakeland Park and was mostly trail. One of the lovely things about having the middle and standard distance athletes on the course at the same time as I felt pro-level fast overtaking people who were doing four times the distance I was.

My total time was:

1:26:11

And here are my splits with a comparison to Bishopton:

I missed all of the official photos, unfortunately. In a very generous move, they gave out prizes to both the first and second place in each age category. Alas, I came third, but I wasn’t that close to moving up a space so oh well. It’s a lovely race for both beginners and seasoned veterans.

Brigg, a market town in Lincolnshire with a population of 5,000 hosts two triathlons per year: and early season run by FastFwd, and an end-of-season race run by local club Lincsquad, which also includes a quadathlon option with paddling.

It is a small race which meant we almost all fitted into the regular leisure centre car park. The transition area was on the astro turf pitches with nice big secure walls so you could leave your bag there. It does mean we all came home covered in those little rubber black balls, though.

Thw swim was pool-based started in two-minute intervals. I was much faster than anyone else in my lane, but everyone who set off with me was about the same speed, so I think I gave an accurate time but given it was small race, it inevitably meant swimming with different abilities. The lanes were wide enough to make passes.

The cycle was a flat route. There were no hills at all that I remember though it did slightly creep up hill at 1-2% max. I decided to get down on my aero bars and see how far I could go. As it turned out, it was the whole cycle leg. This was a decision I would later regret after getting home and having a nap, only to realise my back had ceased up. But, at the time, I was flying. Averaging 31.8 kph from just 177 watts of power. I can’t remember the last time I had a bike split averaging over 30. I got up to 41.8 kph coming back.

The run involves a out-and-back section that involves several road crossings, but once past these, we got onto the canal and things became much more pleasant.

My overall time was:

01:12:07

Splits were given as swim+T1 of 12:10, cycle+T2 of 35:15 and run of 24:41. On my watch, my splits were:

Overall I was position 31 out of 69 and yet somehow 9th in my age category of Masters 40-49. I thought I had now escaped the category of death. A nice event and one I would happily do again. Thank you to Malcolm Dent for the photos.

Bishopton Triathlon is a UPrevail event held at the North East Wake Park near Stockton. They do a variety of distances and it was a club championship race for Hyde Park Harriers. I was taking on the sprint. It was an eye-watering early start: up at 4am to get there for 6am.

Despite it still being August, it was freezing when I got there! Luckily, the water was still a balmy 19 degrees. Classically, by the end of the race it was glorious sunshine and I had to go find my suncream.

The swim was fine. I felt reasonably confident the whole way around (as in, wasn’t panicking I was about to drown). It was super-shallow at the edges and I could have stood up in a lot of it. The cycle route was a lovely tour of the countryside and had plenty of flat to get aero while having a few short punchy hills for variety. The run was two laps of the field which was tough in road shoes.

My overall finish time was:

1:34:57

And my splits were:

I was around three minutes faster on the swim than in Ripon. T1 was slow, though, as it was cool enough to put my gloves on and I fumbled them quite badly with my wet hands.

It was a really friendly race and I would do it again. Congratulations to fellow Harrier Jamie who completed his first Olympic distance triathlon at the race.

It’s IRONMAN Leeds day! And what a day to behold. This was the second staging of the race since it moved over from Bolton in 2025. If you’re unfamiliar with IRONMAN, its a long-format triathlon race which means you swim 3.8km, cycle 180km, and then run a marathon. In under 17 hours or you’re out.

Except there was no swim this year. The levels of blue green algae in Waterloo Lake were significantly above threshold. There was a great deal of anger about this in the community, much of it directed at IRONMAN as an organisation. I like to bash IRONMAN as much as the next person, but this isn’t their fault. Water pollution is a massive problem in the UK and is compounded by climate breakdown. Until we, as a society, choose to tackle these issues, more swims will be cancelled.

Personally, it meant I could have a lie in as there as no swim to watch. I turned up just after lunch and had an explore of the event village with plenty of time to get comfortable before Adam Baker and Anna Lawson break the tape. Lawson ran a 2:59:22 marathon to take the win. Because it was a rolling TT start, it wasn’t clear for a long time who had actually won the race. In the end, Toby Nisbet pipped Baker by two minutes.

I took a short break for tea and then rejoined the event as it was getting dark to watch the final 50 or so athletes come in. David Neal (M70-74) was the last athlete across the line, but significantly quicker than some of the other athletes due to the TT start. It rained quite heavily for the last hour or so but it didn’t stop the party.

Now run by the Brownlee Foundation, Ripon Triathlon takes place on Ripon race course. I have raced here before in 2022 when I did Dalesman but this was my first time back.

We decided to make a day of it, which meant getting up at the eye watering time of 4:30 to get on the road by 5:30 and there by 6:30. In the end, they did not close transition at 7:30 so I could have comfortably arrived at least 30 minutes later. Lesson for next time.

They did not announce the water temperature until just before the race so we were all nervously waiting to find out if we could wear wetsuits or not. In the end, we could. Which was great because I was pretty anxious anyway during the swim. I did some breaststroke and then felt more confident coming up to the first buoy. I then felt panicked again on the way back before finally getting into it and finishing strong.

The lake was less weedy than I remembered. But the last time I swam here it was possibly the weediest swim I’ve ever done, so the bar was pretty high.

The bike course was lovely. Very flat. Which again, contrasted with the 2,000 metres of elevation gain I had to take on last time I raced here. The course was about 24 km long and I couldn’t remember the exact distance so I wasn’t too sure when it was going to end.

Finally, onto the run. It takes a lot of the same route as Dalesman did, but without the long out-and-back stretch. I paused half way through to watch a baby hedgehog cross the road. Time well wasted in my opinion. And then it was into the finish.

My time was:

1:36:24

And my splits were:

I couldn’t quite keep up with the race winner, Alistair Brownlee, who finished in 1:01:35.

It finally happened. Six-ish years ago, we started tossing the idea of doing a mixed team relay triathlon as a family. Then someone put a wedding in the middle of triathlon season. Then someone got pregnant. Then someone moved to Ireland for three years. Finally, in 2026, everyone was in the same country.

Cholmondeley Castle is located in Cheshire and the mixed team relay event starts at the very civilised time of 3pm. It is part of the Castle Triathlon Series, of which I’ve previously done Castle Howard and Lough Cutra. My dad has some special team t-shirts made up ahead of the race. 214 represents our combined age.

Pre-race was a little stressful. The water got too warm in the afternoon and they declared it would be a non-wetsuit swim for under 60s. This was my 67th triathlon and the first time ever an event organiser has enforced no wetsuits. Not ideal as I was still rebuilding my confidence in open water: the Wednesday before was the first time I had swam with a wetsuit rather than a wetsuit and tow float.

However, there were only 13 teams in the race and the field spread out on the first leg so by the time I picked up the second leg, I had the entire water safety crew to myself. The swim out to the fist buoy was scary, the second was okay, and the third one was reedy.

The bike course is a 4.2km lap around the castle with some flat and straight roads on the first half where you can get down into the aero position, before a few mild hills and some slightly more technical corners. The run is more challenging, being mostly trail straight up the hill to the castle, around the back, and then zigzagging back to the start.

A big well done to everyone who raced and thank you to everyone at Castle Race Series for organising the event.

Stokesley Leisure Centre is a pool-based sprint triathlon based at Stokesley Leisure Centre in Yorkshire, run by Cleveland Triathlon Club. The pool was wide enough and there were only 3-4 of us in each lane with participants starting every three minutes. The bike course is absolutely beautiful: it just enters the North York Moors National Park so you get panoramic views without any hills being involved. The run is a road-based out-and-back. The only thing I was surprised at was they didn’t check bikes in and out of transition, but maybe that’s the joy of living in a town of 6,000 people. Would do this race again.

First triathlon of 2026 is in the bag. Tadcaster is a lovely chill race and always a pleasure to take part in. It is part of the HPH club championships, and with only four of us competing, myself and three women, I only had to finish to take the championship lead after one races.

Setup was fine, including a pre-race brownie from the coffee van. I went for a complicated three-shoe setup so that I had one pair from pool to T1, then bike and run shoes. It’s a lot of shoes to bring, but a 600m run from the pool to T1, along multiple roads, so the extra pair of shoes was well worth it.

I felt good in the swim. There were only three of us in our lane and I was the first out, although that probably says more about how accurate my 400m prediction time was. I clocked my swim at just over nine minutes, which isn’t my fastest ever, but consistent with previous efforts but something I thought I was taking quite steady.

It was a beautiful day for cycling. Clear, cool, and no wind. I haven’t done any work in the aero position all year but I got down on the bars for several sections of the course and felt pretty quick. The only slight panic was when the guy in front of me missed the turn back into transition and I had a split-second question about whether it was me that was wrong. But no.

Out onto the run. This felt quite weird because someone started catching me. This isn’t how these things work. People overtake me in the swim and the bike and then I catch people on the run. But with zero overtakes so far, someone was breathing down my neck until the water station. They backed off and then caught me on the trail section at the bridge. Not for too long, though, and I managed to take the place back. Up the steps and across the finish line for a well-earned pork pie.

My overall time was:

1:14:35

My splits are below. It should be noted that in 2021 the river flooded and the run course was changed to a shorter out-and-back on the road, hence why we all have amazing run splits for that year.

New fastest T2 time, and not bad for my first race in the 40-44 age group. Thank you to all of the volunteers and marshals, and to Elina and Venla for keeping me company.

What better way to end the triathlon season than with a tip in the Atlantic Ocean?

There was no accommodation available in Westport itself so we ended up staying outside of the town in rural County Mayo. The internet download speed was 500 mb/s. This is what happens when a country invests in infrastructure.

The weather wasn’t particularly kind and it rained heavily overnight but eased off to on-and-off showers. But thankfully I had my support team with me so I had a robe to wear until just before the race.

The swim

The swim was in the harbour and a chilly 12 degrees C in the water. I was nervous about drowning and freezing to death and had a rocky first third of the course as we wam the first side of a triangle. Then we turned and swam across the bay with the second third going face on into the waves. The final side was easier but seemed to take forever so I was pleased to get out of the water.

A big thank you to the water safety crew for looking after us. The water temperature was unpleasant but I have definitely had worse and the group warm-up before the race really helped.

The cycle

it is a fantastic bike course. It is an out-and-back along the Wild Atlantic Way. Relatively flat and I never felt like I was going into a headwind, but did feel like I had a tailwind on the way back. The view was beautiful across the bay with Croagh Patrick on the other side.

The run

The run goes up the greenway out of Westport. That means it is uphill but only gently so you can still run a comfortable pace both ways. There was an aid station at the turn around point and despite the poor weather, I was so warm by this point I went for the old cup of water over the head before making the return journey.

The result

My overall time was:

1:26:53

And my splits were:

That was good enough for second place overall! With the important caveat that there were only 19 of us in the try-a-try distance. They did have prizes for the top three men and women, though, so I came home with a prize!

It’s a lovely event if you don’t mind a sea swim and want some fantastic views packed into a sprint distance.

Lough Ree is a lake in the middle of Ireland. It is where I did the Two Provinces Triathlon in July. But where that took place in Lanesboro at the north of Lough Ree, this took place at the opposite end, as Coosan Point just north of Athlone. Which is great because there is a motorway all the way to Athlone.

I think the water temperature was higher than the air temperature. Nice to get it in before the autumnal days bring the water temperature back down.

Lake swims are usually the easy option compared to sea swims but the weather is not always kind on the far side of the Irish sea. There was a real chop on the water. Not as bad as Lough Cutra, but comparable to a calm day on the sea. This was my second weekend in a row racing, after Lough Key last weekend, so I was hoping for some confidence and an ability to go for it in the swim.

Alas, no. The chop really took me out of my front crawl and it made it feel like hard work. Hard work reminds me that if I stop swimming I will drown, which leads to a bit of panic. It did not stop me, though, and towards the end i did get into some front crawl. We then turned back directly into the waves, though, and that was that.

As we got out of the water, the rain started to come down. Most of the cycle was in the rain which made it difficult to see through my sunglasses. But otherwise a nice ride: a few lumps but no real hills. Three loops of the same course, so once you had completed one lap you knew what to expect. The rain eased off as I came into T2.

The run was an out-and-back along the same road that the cycle course initially went out on. I felt good on the run: I was maintaining a strong pace without feeling it too much. That said, it is always hard work and I was delighted to see the finish line. Which came with a well-stocked array of water, milk, biscuits, buns and crisps, as well as a voucher for a complementary burger from the burger van.

My overall time was:

1:16:16

And my spits were:

Transition was fully neutralised so my leisurely T1 cost me nothing. The bike course was 17-18 kilometres which is why I was so snappy there. My watch had the run a little short, too, but maybe that was just the trees.

We were well loved after the whole way and there were loads of marshals on the course. Thank you to everyone at Athlone Tri Club, and to
Derek Fox and Toine Siebelink for the photos!

In addition to the support, I really liked that they had our names on the bibs, and that all of the stickers were bright yellow. It is the club’s colour and makes the stickers look much more interesting than the plain white ones.