Dambuster Triathlon, 22 Jun 2025

The Dambuster is a standard distance triathlon based out of Rutland Water, and this year, hosted the Army Individual and Inter Corps Championships. It was my first race of the season and my first standard distance in 3 years. I had a vague idea of what I was hoping to achieve, but the race panned out much better!

It was a deep water, mass start, something I didn’t realise I’d missed! I started off strong and settled into a comfortable pace. The first 500m or so was calm but after turning a corner, the remainder was rather choppy. I came out of the water and overtook a few people in transition, finding myself in 4th place in the Army wave at the start of the bike. I found my groove and made my way into 3rd before the end of the first lap. I managed to fight to hold on to 3rd into T2 and I made it out onto the run with a new 60 min power PB (those threshold turbo sessions are clearly paying off!).

Onto the run my legs were feeling good. I settled in, far faster than I had planned, but decided that I would stick with it for as long as I could. The pace tailed off ever so slightly over the last 2 miles but I came over the finish line with a 10km PB and a 7 minute standard distance PB - more than I ever thought I’d achieve!

I finished the race as 6th woman in the Army Champs and I won my AG in the overall Dambuster event. With some very strong performances from my teammates, we also won the team Corps competition taking home the win for the Royal Army Medical Services. Overall, I am very happy with my performance and I am looking forward to seeing what I can do over the Long Distance out in Pontevedra this coming weekend.

Chloe Simper