Aix en Provence 70.3, 17 May 2026

Let’s start by setting the scene - everyone would love a quiet, calm few days before race day - but I made sure I injected a small side of chaos, just to keep things interesting.

First off, my bike was going down to the south of France with my brother, on the roof of his car. This doughnut left her TT arm rests on the bike, and one became a victim to some savage winds in Normandy - no matter, I had not left the UK yet and had some old pads I could use, with a bit of superglue - brand new!

Next up, getting to the airport Friday morning. Leaving plenty of time as usual, getting there with just shy of two hours to spare and only hand luggage - wonderful, delicious breakfast coming my way! Wrong - the meet and greet car park service I had chosen, seemed a bit sketchy (with multiple customers complaining at the guy who was collecting cars) - I made the executive decision to rebook some alternative parking - but this meant a car park off site and the bus drive in. Getting to the airport at about 06:45 with a 07:30 gate closure, was a little tighter than I would have liked, especially with the security lines - but we made it (just) and were not the last people on the plane!

A smoother day on arrival in France, the next fun bit was the split T1 and T2 bag drop - bike drop out of town, run drop in town. Run drop was closing at 18:00 and bike drops closing at 19:00. Having the bikes on the roof of the car meant that we wanted to do bike drop first. 20 minutes from the house, we left at 15:30 - loads of time! We arrived to drop the bikes and I realised I did not have my helmet sticker - doh! So I quickly jumped in the car with mum and dad for the 40 minute round trip. At the house I picked up my forgotten stickers and asked my brother if he needed anything, ‘nope, all good’. Made it back to bike transition and had racked my bike and bag by 17:00. A 25 minute drive to town, and a 10 minute walk from the car park to transition, meant we had time before T2 closure. We make it to the car park and my brother has picked up his white (end of day) bag not his red run bag - uh oh! I headed to transition to ask them to keep it open and explain (in my best French) that Nick would be late, whilst Nick drove and got his back. My phone battery then died, but not before I had dropped a pin in transition - I then held the fort and made sure I didn’t leave until he made it - 18:20 he arrived, red bag in tow!

With the above, maybe we had had our three bits of ‘bad luck’ but race morning; the gods wanted to make sure my adrenaline was peaked before the start! Aiming to arrive at swim start just after 06:00 for a 07:10 start, this would leave me plenty of time to sort my bottles/nutrition etc and get in a swim warm up. The traffic would have other ideas - I made it to transition at 06:50, with transition closing at 07:00… shoved everything on my bike and joined the ever joyous portaloo queue. Getting out of transition just gone 07:00 - pulled on my wetsuit, hat and goggles and ran to the start, hopped a fence to get in to my swim wave and waited all of 2 minutes before I entered the water. At least I didn’t have time to dwell too much and get more nervous!

A race report in itself above, but now for the actual race…

Post race feedback has said that the swim could have been close to being cancelled as the air temperature (~3 degrees Celsius) relative to the water temperature (~17 degrees) was too low. Fortunately for me, with the swim being my best, it was kept at the full 1.9k. It was lovely getting in to the water with it being that much warmer than outside. I started off trying to follow the groups in front of me, but did not enjoy it, so decided to swim wide - to many hands flying, slam dunks for me. Swimming wide meant I didn’t have any feet to follow, but did have clear water - lovely. Swimming in to the sun was tricky, but I was able to relatively follow the buoy line - albeit a bit wide. The turn point came at the half way mark and with the sun behind - sighting was significantly improved! A nice swim back to shore. I got out the water feeling good, and learned post race that I had the 12th fastest female swim time of the day - mad!

A long-ish run to the bike, but seeing your support crew always gives you a lift. I sat down in transition to put all my bits and bobs on, unintentionally maybe doing my shoes a bit too tight as it was cold and I couldn’t feel my feet, but nothing major!

I started off on the bike and there was a relatively flat 10k - fortunately the Mistral wind had decided not to make an appearance today, so it would make the riding much better than I had initially expected. After 10k the volume of cyclists passing me began to increase, but I knew to stick to my plan. The first climb was around the 17k mark and I held good power, not going crazy as there were a few more climbs to come, but pushing well. I also had to make a real conscious effort to drink, it was quite chilly, so I wasn’t nearly as thirsty as normal but knew the temperatures would pick up. The first climb didn’t have a technical descent and I was still able to hold good speed. The next climb came at 42km, this was less significant and my legs were still happy and no signs of fatigue - good news! This one did have a technical descent and I felt more confident than usual (having been in Mallorca 10 days before) but still had quite a few people overtake me - definitely room for improvement. There was then a lovely fast and flat section leading into the final, and biggest climb. The start of the climb got quite steep, but the crowd support was amazing, and gave you the boost you needed. I managed to pick a fair few people off (whilst some strong riders also passed me). Getting to the top the legs felt good and I was feeling comfortable, where I wanted to be. Another technical descent had more people overtaking me, but I have definitely improved in recent months. The last bit in totown was relatively flat, and I came off the bike into transition feeling relatively (as much as you can for a 70.3) fresh.

A quick T2, I decided to forego my usual wee stop, as I didn’t need it. I tried to run steady, knowing I always set off a little hot off the bike. Looking at my watch, I really had to ease off as it was far too fast, and not sustainable for a half marathon! A three loop, lumpy course meant I wanted to pace it and ensure I had the legs for the whole run. I began to feel a little off at 3km, not quite managing to place my finger on what it was. I walked one of the hills through the woods, as it was quite steep and I knew would take more out of me than necessary if I ran it. The other two climbs on the run I did keep running (well maybe shuffling) up. At around 7.5km at one of the aid stations, I decided to go for a wee, and this made me feel significantly better - who knew! From there, I was able to settle in to a metronomic rhythm for the rest of the course. I then finished out the third lap and was able to cross the line of my fifth 70.3. In a time of 5:46:33 - not my best time, but I think my best performance relative to the course profile! And most importantly, the fire is still lit to do more and improve! All of this wouldn’t have been possible without Tim’s expert guidance and training plan - which got me to the race, fit, healthy and ready to give it everything I had.

Lottie Lindsley