Cotswold Classic 70.3, 9 Jul 2023
This was a chance to see how the training has been going in the run up to Barcelona IM and my first triathlon of the year! I went into this race with a few targets in mind - I knew I could definitely improve on my previous times but thought I’d be happy hitting at least one of my very arbitrary ‘target’ times.
It was a very early wake-up at 4.30am ready to shovel down some porridge. Racking closed at 6.30 and I wanted to have plenty of time to get everything set up. The forecast was predicting a mix of sun/cloud and thunderstorms which sounded interesting..!
I was there along with 25 other women as part of 10Ironwomen (we’re all preparing for Barcelona together) and we were all in a start wave together. I had a quick dip in the 21 degree lake to make sure my wetsuit was fitting correctly and then lined up ready to start. Thankfully our start was rolling rather than mass so I didn’t have to worry about being kicked in the face quite as much! The swim course was a single lap and the buoys were fairly spread which definitely challenged my sighting. I swam a little wide between some of them but on the other hand this meant I had a very clear path and wasn’t battling other swimmers too much. The lake was very murky which meant I couldn’t see my watch very clearly and had no idea what pace I was doing. I focused on counting off the buoys and trying to maintain my pace. A few kicks in the stomach around the 4th buoy stopped me for a few moments but otherwise it was a fairly smooth swim. I came to the end expecting I’d be around 42mins and were pleasantly surprised to see I’d completed it in 38:08 (under my 40min target).
T1 was pretty straightforward with no major issues/forgotten items and I was off on the bike. I enjoyed the bike far more than expected – it was 2 undulating loops around the Cotswolds with some lovely scenery along the way. The roads were very quiet for the first loop but there was more traffic in the 2nd loop – thankfully the cars were all very respectful and didn’t cause many issues for me/my pace. I focused on getting solid fuel in on the first loop so I had time to digest before mainly using gels in the 2nd lap. I spent a large amount of the bike on my aero bars - certainly more than I had used them before and was surprised by the difference they made, especially in the headwinds. Thankfully it stayed pretty cloudy for the bike which meant I stayed cool but without any rain. I could have drunk more water on the bike which is definitely a point to take going forwards. I completed the first loop in just under 1hr30 and wasn’t sure If I’d be able to maintain for the 2nd loop, but I finished the bike in 2hr58 (Target ~3hrs) and felt good throughout – thanks to all the bike training sessions recently!
Coming off the bike, it was a quick run to transition then a change into my run shoes. Dry feet meant no change of socks required but the sun had just come out so I did spend a few seconds applying some suncream. The run was 3 laps of 4.36 miles with a mix of trail and tarmac. The trail was lovely and shaded but narrow in parts with lots of tree roots that slowed me a little. I was able to comfortably pick up the pace on the tarmac with the legs still feeling good. Unfortunately, I did feel a bit nauseous on the run which may have been down to not drinking enough on the bike. The run loop took you past the finish line – a little depressing on laps 1 and 2 but good motivation and the laps went by much faster than I expected. There were a few out and back sections and it was nice seeing some friends along the way for a bit of motivation. The rain did appear during my final lap but thankfully a light shower which was quite welcome by that point! I managed to take on 2 gels despite the nausea - not as much as I’d like but enough to get me round. I think I could knock off a few more minutes on the run in the future but was happy to come in at 1hr54 (including a toilet stop!) (target <2hrs). Apparently I’m terrible at maths: going round I thought I was going to be finishing in around 5hr45 (still well under my 6hr target!) because my watch had unhelpfully auto-paused on a couple of occasions on the run, so I couldn’t quite believe it when I crossed the line in a time of 5hr36 – over 40mins faster than my previous 70.3 time and finishing 5th out of 29 women in my category!
Overall a fantastic event, very friendly and low key but still very smooth organisation and enthusiastic volunteers/event staff. A relatively flat course helped with the faster times too!
Millie Rhead