3 Mid Sussex Tri Club members competed in Hever Castle’s Triathlon on Sunday, 27th September, which was the first time they have held such an event. Competitors were Rupert Robinson, Trevor Moore and I, Samantha Anderson who all opted for the Henry VIII distance, which consisted of an 800m open water swim, 40km undulating cycle and 8km run.
The swim took place in the lake which was cold enough to warrant a wet suit, but more to the point was exceptionally shallow in places, only 3 foot deep. This made the last 50 metres or so interesting, as you were not only trying to pulling through the water but the bottom of the lake too. But complaints aside, due to there only being 33 people in each wave there was plenty of space to avoid being kicked, pulled and nearly drowned.
You then exited the water up a small grassy hill into the transition area which was engulfed in small pebbles, which made getting to your bike with any sort of speed quite difficult.
The cycle route was a 2 lap circuit through the High Weald of Kent which made for a scenic race around this area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The only slight snag with the route being in and around these shaded country lanes was that it did make for some bumpy cycling as well as interesting traffic dodging. Other than that with the sun shining, spectators and supporters yelling words of encouragement as you sped by, it was extremely pleasant.
The run route was a 2 lap circuit which circumnavigated the castle’s estate and led you pass their lakes, through their woodland and beautiful gardens. Although the scenery was great you had to keep your wits about you, as you had to dodge those visiting the castle for the day and avoid misplacing you foot on the sometimes uneven ground.
The star of the day was Rupert whose results were as follows:
Swim: 16:28 Cycle: 1:15:25 Run: 47:53
Placed: 91 out of 414.
My results were as follows:
Swim: 14:42 Cycle: 1:28:09 Run: 44:39
Placed: 171 out of 414.
Trevor’s results were as follows:
Swim: 18:08 Cycle: 1:33:45 Run: 48:25
Placed 292 out of 414.
Congratulations to all.
By Samantha Anderson
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3 comments:
Right! I enjoyed it (afterwards!) but found it pretty hard, harder than I thought it would be. I really need to get some cycling miles into my legs as they were pretty useless about 3/4 way round the bike and my run suffered afterwards because of that. When I saw my time was 2:40hr I was pretty gutted as I did 2:48 at MK which was full Olympic and this was 800m , 40km, 8km.
But looking at all the results now I'm a lot further up the field than at MK so I think it was just tough for everyone. I'm hoping that's the case and not that there were more first timers present as it was a new event, but then I think they would have done the sprint?
Swim was a bit cold, head freeze time, and on the way out I someone swam head first into me after they had rounded the buoy and strayed across the route. Good thing was that we could both stand up as it was about 4 feet deep!
Milton Keynes is a pretty flat cycle and this was up, down , up , down, not the steepest hills but still not flat, and it was pretty twisty so sometimes even on the downs you weren't quite sure what was round the corner, so it was hard to take it flat out although some bits I just hoped and went for it. Couldn't really get on the tri bars for more than a couple of minutes at a time though. The hills got my legs eventually.
Can't believe I did 48 mins for 8km but then it was quite rough in places and my legs were shot as I said.
The strangest thing was how nervous I was beforehand, I think I knew I hadn't prepared properly what with Rose being ill but I think it was also that Rose wasn't doing it. Usually before a race I have to calm her nerves down with positive thoughts and I didnt have to do that this time so ended up thinking about myself and getting more nervous! Maybe the postive thoughts were rubbing off on me too before:)
Anyway it was a lovely sunny day afterwards for lazing around by the lake and looking back on it now I've forgotten the pain ofcourse and can even say I enjoyed it.
Oh and I don't seem to have died from the huge amount of silt and goo I swam through which is a bonus!
HI Sam
Dave Jones won the sprint event in 1.07 soemthing and Andy Jaylor was ninth with a 1.09 something out of 500 entrants.
Sprint results
Long Results
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