Cotswold Classic 70.3, 9 Jul 2023

While on placement I set myself the challenge of completing a half ironman as an introduction into long distance and set my sights on the Cotswold classic. This was a good course for my first half as the run was virtually flat and the bike had very little elevation over the 44km lap.

Race prep started the day before with a quick dip in the lake to check out the water quality and what the temp of the lake felt like. There was also a briefing which had some key information for the race ahead.

Race day started at 4am with some overnight oats and a short drive over to the race. I got there nice and early as I was a bit nervous due to it being my first half. I also wanted to make sure I had the layout of transition and the race well engrained in my brain. It was a very straight forward layout but felt very crowded with so many people participating. I wasn’t used to so many people being in such a small transition area!

With the lake temperature at 21 degrees it was sat within the wetsuit optional range. I opted for my wetsuit as I like the extra buoyancy. I was in wave 2 so had a few waves go off before me which gave me a bit of confidence and helped with the nerves. Then it was my time to start. I started with a friend I knew which gave me a boost while swimming. I had no idea what time I was doing and was going completely off feel but came out of the swim feeling fresh and was happy with the time that I did.  

Onto the bike after a quick transition. It was a two lap course with a few gentle hills near the end of each lap. I powered through the first lap feeling good, everything was going well. It wasn’t until the start of the second lap that I began to get bad back pain having been on the aero bars for so long. I hadn’t done much practise with them and paid the price. This gave me a significantly slower second lap. However I was still happy with the time of just under 3 hours for the course.

T2 was time for a quick toilet pitstop and to get my running shoes on. My legs felt ok once I got off my bike. I had done a lot of practise brick sessions and glad that it paid off on race day.

Onto the run and I was feeling good. My goal for the run was to keep it under 2 hours and make sure that I finished the race. It was a three lap course through the water park with lots of support from family and friends that kept me going! I found that I was a bit dehydrated on the run and stopped at all the aid stations for water. My stomach was sick of gels after the bike and I was a little under fuelled for the last lap of the run but I kept pushing. I finished in a total time of 5:37 - way below my target of 6 hours and felt good finishing. I was the second 20-24 female to finish and 39thoverall female which felt like a huge achievement for my first half.

It’s safe to say that I have caught the bug of the longer stuff and will definitely be doing another half ironman in the future!

Ceri Davies