one of my occasional lengthy reports!

As voted for by the club, as in 2017, Cotswold Classic 113 was chosen as the venue for the Middle Distance club champs.

And, of course, being Windrush, the obligatory WhatsApp was set up early on. Our first concern / topic of debate was the lake temperature – which at T-10 days was a balmy (barmy) 27Deg meaning of course mandatory non-wetsuit. Thankfully the rain the weekend helped it fall to ~22 and despite a warm week [and the organisers not being able to say for sure until Sunday morning] it ended up at a wetsuit optional 22.8.

Still more debate on the morning from the team. Wetsuit on – faster but maybe create dehydration / overheating issues later in the race. I desperately need that buoyancy so it was one – but I kept my cap tucked above my ears to let some water move round my head – worked perfectly. I think everyone was happy with their decision after the event.

We were all in the 7:00 wave (well organised Ellie) meaning the usual early start to eat a decent breakfast and get to transition. It was great for those of us camping literally next door, a 10 minute walk away. No car park, no queuing, straight in to rack.

The usual pre-race faffing; nerves, toilet queues, wetsuit on, need the toilet again, wetsuit off, team hug, toilet again and finally in the water waiting for the hooter.

The lake is by far the nicest lake I’ve ever raced in. the water was clear, clean, deep enough, and featured only the briefest section that smelled a little bovine…

I hung back at the start of the swim and eased my way through the field. Objective one done – 39:00 PB swim. tick! First out of the water was David with a stunning 28:12 swim.

A quick transition and out on the bike, saying hi to Ellie and Lawrence in T1. Oli was our fastest T1’er on the day – top 5 kudos for how quickly he can get undressed!

It was great to see so many of the team out there and sporting club colours. Being so much a better cyclist than swimmer means I get to say hi to various people on the way round – including Fran, Gesine, Ben, David, and of course we all waved a hello to others on the out-and-back sections of the course. 

The cycle is great. almost all pancake flat, not much traffic and featuring a single tiny hill mid-lap, some lovely views off the top of the hill and only a few broken surfaces. there is one major road to cross where the police were holding people to alternate the traffic flow so David and I lost a minute there at the start of lap 2. The bike was “Helpfully Measured” at around 88K - short enough to help but not so short to not be able to claim full 113 bragging rights.

Oli was incredibly unlucky on the bike and got a 5;00 drafting penalty while overtaking someone else!

Then, T2 and out on the run. Our very own Hugh Stobart set the quickest T2 on the day (61.0s) with your scribe also making the top 10. Maybe that Transition training paid off.. no more cereal-eating for me!

The run is also great. it’s a tiny bit narrow in a couple of places but the surface is good underfoot, it’s pancake flat, there’s loads of shade, and 3 well-stocked aid stations on each of the 3 laps. also ever so slightly helpfully measured at 400m short.

Personally, I got in a good groove with a girl from Bustinskin tri (great name, horrible kit) and we worked well together through the middle of the run, keeping the pace constant. the legs fell off a little the last 3m but I finished strongly with a decent overall time and my first ever top 10 in AG in a big event.

Perhaps best of all was the fact that the finish line was 20m from that lovely clean lake so every single one of us crossed the line, took our shoes off, and jumped straight in!

Captain’s award of the day goes to Paul Warren who finally completed his first ever triathlon despite turning up so late he missed the briefing and not having given himself time to walk or visualise transition. Paul completed strongly despite a stomach-cramp interrupted bike/run [don’t drink the whole lake next time maybe!] and finished the day a #113 legend. Lady Captain’s award goes to Alicja Frumanczyk who completed her first open water tri.

Worthy Club Champs winners were Ben Hudson [5th overall despite being the only person in the top 20 without a ££££ TT bike] and our very own cycle Captain Gesine Junker.

As we waited for the other team members to finish we all agreed what a lovely race, wonderful organisers and how much we all wanted to come back next year.

Followed of course by a swift dash home along the M4 and the traditional Windrush debriefing beers in Herne Hill Sunday night.

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Thanks Lloyd :-)  !! It was a top day, it went very quickly & one I shan't forget.

It certainly made a difference racing with everyone, id still be in transition if it wasn't for you guys. Cant wait for next year.

Sounds great! Well done all xx

Nice race report Lloyd. I agree, this was a really good event, well organised and good courses for all 3 legs. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to take on the challenge of this distance next year. 

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