It was a weekend of highs and lows for King’s Lynn Triathlon Club. Ian and Esmie Kidman were in the Lake district with Alistair Doig for Helvellyn Tri and its chilly 1.6km swim in Ullswater, epic 64km extended bike around some of the steepest roads in the country and the punishing 10mile run over Helvellyn via a wet and slippy Swirral Edge. Kidman had pre-empted the cold, wet conditions and arranged for his prodigiously tallented 12yr old daughter to do the swim for him, which she dominated by setting the 6th fastest time of the entire field and 2nd fastest female in a time of 20min35. Doig had a decent swim too and crossed the timing mat in 28min37 but withdrew from the race in T1 due to bike problems from a recce a few days before the race. Meanwhile, Kidman was well on his way towards “The Struggle” and its 25% uphill fun, completing the bike in 2hr33 before heading out on the “run” over England’s 3rd highest mountain, which he duly completed in 2hrs35 with a total finish time of 5hrs30. Doig also completed the run, achieving a 20min PB with a time of 1hr59.

Closer to home in St Neots, there were a range of race formats to choose from in part2 of the triathlon series. John Edwards, Alison Pentland and Victoria Dunthorne opted for the sprint distance involving a 750m river swim, 24km bike and 5km run. Edwards was the first of the three to finish in 1hr32 (15min33/49min/23min54), followed by Pentland in 2hrs17 (27min32/1hr10/35min12) and Dunthorne in 2hrs28(32min30/1hr13/36min53). Janey Edwards completed the sprint Aquabike (swim/bike) event in 1hr15min (19min11/53min). Geraldine Jordan was racing the Standard Distance 1500m swim, 45km bike and 10km run and, despite her chain coming off during the bike, still managed to win her age group with a total time of 2hrs51 (30min09/1hr29/48min23). More importantly however, she beat her brother yet again.

Members were also out an about away from the tri scene, with Nigel Banyard completing his first half marathon in 2hrs10 at the Wissey Half, and Jemma Redhead finishing the Bedford Half marathon with a PB time of 2hrs01:31. Adrian Ebbs was up in the Lake District for the annual Conniston end-to-end swim, completing the 5.25miles in 3hrs30mins. There was some fell run fun for juniors too, with Lola Kidman and Olivia Doig coming 1st and 3rd in their AG respectively at the Dufton Show. Alistair Doig raced the adult 8km race and its 460m of climbing in 45mins.