Cotswolds 113 Middle Distance Triathlon, 7th Jun 2026

This was my first time doing this distance, having done about 9 Sprint/Olympic distance triathlons over the past two years. It was a culmination of 6 months of hard work and plenty of training sessions. I was both nervous but excited to take on this new challenge to see what I was both physically and mentally capable of.

I headed up the Saturday before to be hit with pretty terrible weather. Whilst scoping out the bike course on a short ride I was hit with rain and sideways wind. Fortunately, when looking at the forecast race day looked a lot more promising- around 16 degrees and dry.

Cue the early start on the Sunday. I woke up bleary eyed at 4.30am to eat some pre-race breakfast and make sure I had everything packed. I made a strong coffee whilst packing and planned out how I hoped my race would go.

Fortunately, I was staying only 10 minutes away from the race venue, (Lake 32 near Cirencester) so it was a short drive over. I nervously racked by bike alongside around 1,000 other competitors and laid out all my kit. They were very hot on the new British Triathlon towel rule (no larger than a flannel pretty much!) and a technical official was walking around inspecting towels to ensure no-one was breaking this rule.

Around 6.15am I put on my wetsuit, hat and goggles and made my way down to the swim start, which was a funnel that led into a 3-person wide sand chute into the lake. The lake temperature was 19 degrees which only felt a bit warmer than my last race where it was a chilly 14 degrees. It was definitely a wetsuit swim! I didn’t quite find my rhythm in the swim and ended up going a little slower than I planned. There were plans for extra large buoys to go out but because there was a strong wind that morning the race organiser decided to default to much smaller buoys, and I found some of them quite tricky to sight. The sediment in the lake seemed to get quite churned up so visibility was poor and with the wind the water was a lot choppier than I am used to. I made it round the 1.9km course in 43:35, I was aiming for sub 40 so a little disappointed but not too far off my goal.

Wetsuit, goggles and swim hat off, helmet and bike shoes and glasses on. I ran up to the mount line and all went smoothly. However about 200m out from the line, my legs started spinning and I realised my chain had come off! A very kind competitor helped me get it back on, but by this time I had got my hands covered it oil trying to sort it out myself. Fortunately with the adrenaline on race day I managed to get back on track and not let it bother me for the remaining 89k or so.

The course was flat and pretty fast, although road conditions were typical British roads with a lot of uneven surfaces and potholes. There were a lot of turn backs and it was two loops so sometimes you got a bit out of rhythm. However, I stuck well to my nutrition plan, aiming for an electrolyte drink every 15 minutes and an energy gel every 30. I was aiming for a rough speed of 25km/h average to save myself for the inevitable 21km run later, however I was feeling good and the flat course helped me average about 27km/h overall, with a total time of 3 hours and 19 minutes.

I made it back to transition, quickly re-racked my bike (I did get shouted at for removing my helmet too soon – must remember this for future races!), swapped my shoes and was out onto the run. It had started to warm up slightly by this point and the sun was making an appearance through the clouds. The route was a 3 lap course of 7k each lap, with the first 2 laps running past the red carpet of the finish line. It was a generally pleasant course, with it mainly being a hard-packed track looping around a lake and about 1km or so through a quaint Cotswold village. The first 2 laps I felt really good, I made sure to hydrate at all the aid stations and picked up some cake on the one aid station offering food rather than gels. However, the heat and the distance started to take a toll approaching my third and final lap. Running past the finish line and seeing other athletes finishing did make motivation very challenging when my legs started to feel it! At about the 15km mark my legs started to become really heavy. Fortunately there were some very encouraging marshals and spectators on course cheering me on, which definitely does make a difference when you’re at the end of a race and feeling both mentally and physically exhausted. There were times in the final 5k where I wanted to give up and just walk, but I kept pushing myself to run to certain points on the course – for example the tree I could see 200m up the road, or the next aid station. This helped me get through those tough final few kilometres.

The final 500 or so meters was past the transition, and I felt relief when I could see the red carpet of the finish line approaching. Luckily my partner had managed to time it so that he had arrived to see me cross the line about 10 minutes before finishing. The organiser (113 Events) are very encouraging and let you run with either your kids/supporters/even dogs through the finish line, so I grabbed my dog Cookie from my partner and they let me cross the finish line with her! They even gave her a spectator’s medal!

Overall, I am happy with how my first middle distance race went. The 113 event is definitely a good one for first timers at this level. There were lots of things I could improve on (my transitions were a bit slow, I probably went off a bit too fast in the first part of the run) and lots of learnings for future races. I was aiming for around 7 hours so was happy with a time of 6 hours 44 mins. I feel like I prepared well with my training and I felt good the day after so I know that my approach was fairly sensible and all my training and preparation paid off. Thank you Tim for the coaching help over the past 6 months!

Sarah Fisher