Windermere Sprint Triathlon, 2 Jul 2022

I entered Windermere sprint triathlon as I love the course and wanted a race that was competitive but had no qualification riding on it so that I could race with no pressure and just enjoy it.  

The swim was a mass start with both men and women together so I positioned myself at the front but out towards the far side to hopefully avoid getting into any trouble. My plan worked and although I took a slightly longer route, the swim went well and I came out of the water 4th in the women’s race. The swim was definitely longer than 750m and was closer to 900m however, I settled into a good rhythm and found myself swimming in a small group and following the last turn I kicked hard to get out of the water first. 

T1 went smoothly and I was soon off on the bike course. It is strange to think that I now consider the bike section my strength and use it to either close down on those in front of me or put as much distance between me and athletes behind as possible. The bike course was hilly which suits me and by the half way point I had caught 3rd place and few kms further down I moved up to second. I pushed hard on the hills and tried to carry speed on the downhills reaching a top speed of over 60km/h. 

As I ran into T1 with my bike I saw the leading female running out and focussed on closing the gap. The run was also longer with my watch measuring closer to 5.5km and it was a mixture of road and trail paths. Despite my best efforts the leading female had a superb run and lengthened the gap between us. I am not disappointed with my run as I managed to pace it well and felt like I had nothing left as I finished.  

Overall, I won my age group (1/46), was second in the females (2/81) and finished 13th out of both the men and women (13/174).

Alli Coleman