Cotswolds Lake 62 Triathlon
Outlaw Nottingham Triathlon
Bedford Triathlon Team Relays
Taking advantage of visiting friends in the vicinity, Helen Melville took on her first Olympic distance event in the Cotswold Triathlon. The 1500 m swim was warm with wetsuits optional, a 40 km rolling bike through pretty villages and a 9 km cross country run to the finish. Melville was aiming for a time around 3 hours, so came away happy with 2.52.52 and fourth in her age group.
Arthur Sargeant and Pat Cooke-Rogers took on the Outlaw full, widely considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world.
Situated around the national water sports centre Nottingham, they completed a 2.4 miles swim, 112mile bike ride, finishing with a marathon distance run of 26.2miles. Sergeant finishing in 13:11:43. Sargeant previously completed the 2019 Ironman Wales in 15:26:52.
Although Sargeant felt totally exhausted, while in transition collecting his equipment, a lady collapsed and had a seizure. Thankfully with some first aid training gained from his local running club TCRC, Sergeant came to the ladies aid and stayed until paramedics arrived.
Cooke-Rogers took on her 16th long-distance triathlon finishing in 16:49:31. She explains,
“It was a painful experience far too reminiscent of a race several years ago where I tore my Achilles tendon 6 miles into the run. This time I got a severe cramp during the swim (which at least stopped me from lapsing into breaststroke every now and again!) and had to be helped from the water because I couldn’t stand up - very embarrassing! The calf muscles keep twitching on the bike just to remind me they had the potential to ruin my race. My bike Garmin failed without warning so I only had the time of day and my rough guess as to mileage to work out how I was doing.
My training for the run was done as an 8 minutes run, 2 minutes walk. But the run wasn’t possible - every time I tried the calf muscles cramped badly. So the run became a power walk. I knew If I could maintain a 15 minute mile pace I’d get around with about 15 mins to spare, but power walking uses different muscles and I’d not trained for it so it was a very long and painful “run”! There were 3 ladies in my age group. I passed one on the run who was struggling and later DNF, so I eventually crossed the line in 2nd (and last) place.
Every race is a learning experience. This time I learnt that it’s not a good idea to start a long race so soon after severe food poisoning - in retrospect I think this was the reason for the cramps.
There was good news though. Because I have osteoarthritis I have to ride a bike with modified handlebars. I’d only ridden it 3 times before the race but it was brilliant- my hands didn’t hurt at all. And somehow I got through the entire race with my severely arthritic knees pain free. That was definitely a miracle! And as always I got to the start line and the finish line by the grace of God.
I’m proud to be a member of King’s Lynn Tri Club - and very grateful for the friendship and support”.
Cooke-Rogers next race would have been Ironman Wales which has been canceled. So, God willing and Covid restrictions permitting, She hopes her next adventure will be an ice mile in December or January, and the 300 mile Yukon Arctic Ultra in February.
Over the borders, a dull and rainy start awaited the teams representing KLTC at the Bedford team relay. Competing within teams of three, Using the timing chip bracelet as a relay baton we had four club teams present.
Starting the day swimming in Box End lake, it was officially a non wetsuit event as the water temperature was measured at a tropical 23 degrees. The swim navigated from bouy to bouy amongst the ski jump ramps for 750 m. This followed by 20 k of cycling action (actually 23 K) on surprisingly roller coaster undulating, rough surfaced roads. Culminating with the 5 k run, which was 100% pure trail, again with some surprising short sharp hill climbs. All KLTC teams made sure to cross the finish line with their last runner in full team spirit.
During the longer relay transitions, there was important refueling going on with a variety of goodies from cake to tortilla chips, the smell of many team BBQs was also flowing through the air causing the tummy to rumble.
During the event, we loaned out our very own Alistair Doig to team Freedom Tri8, who competed with teammates Rob Evans and John Beel in 04:34:04.
First KLTC Team home, team tango - Mark Fountain, Maureen Wolfe, Ian Kidman in 04:42:20.
Team Charlie - Ian Webster, Debbie James, Ashish Rastogi 04:47:50.
A strong performance from Rastogi, in what was his first triathlon-related event. Quoting " Really loved it! It was a good starting point for me.
Team Kilo - Andrea Campbell, Esmie Kidman, Sophie Doig 04:58:29.
Team Lima - Stephen Pentland, Daniel Clarkson, Adrian ebbs 05:17:23.
