So, I decided to sign up for a virtual ride from Lands End to John O’Groats! I was a bit nervous as I was only a week post diagnosis of Covid-19!

It was a brilliant challenge, completing around 28 miles a day for 7 days alongside working full time and trying to catch up with my MSC! It was such good fun, working alongside a group of people, some of whom I have never met!

I tried to do most of my miles in the mornings, getting up at 6am and doing 20+miles before work! I really want to do this ride for real but it has just shown me how challenging it will be!

Paula.

I decided to enter the New Forest Middle distance triathlon after being inspired last year, as I watched fellow HERC triathletes.

Saturday was the day to rack bikes. I picked Dave up at 1.30pm to travel down to Sandy Balls to register and attend the race briefing. Immediately after the briefing Dave and I headed down to Ellingham lake where we racked our bikes. At this point, it all started to become very real. Bikes racked, we headed home ready for the early morning start.

Having done this race for the past few years, I knew that it would be one of the most enjoyable of the season and I wasn't wrong. Past races have been organised by various organisations from Wiggle to Portsmouth City Council, but this year the local triathlon club, Portsmouth Triathletes, took charge when the future of the race was in doubt. A huge undertaking for a club of amateur enthusiasts.

Cotswolds Classic Triathlon is a middle distance (half iron) event consisting of a 1900m swim, 90km bike and 13 mile run. There were 5 of us from Hedge End Tri and running club competing, with several being their first attempt at this longer distance.

New Forest Standard Distance Triathlon 21st August 2016

This event was organised by the excellent

Race new Forest organisation and although I had not done this race before, it covered falimiar territory from other races. There was a standard and a novice distance race on the day and myself and 2 other HERC athletes raced in the standard race.

Having done this race 7 years ago, I knew how tough the course was in what is labelled the hardest IM70.3 in Europe. The 56 mile bike course has almost 1500m of elevation and the off-road half-marathon run has a lot of climbing too….

I got into Triathlon 2 years ago, at that point the furthest distance I had ever raced was a 10km run. Once I discovered Triathlon, I had this desire to one day try and complete a long distance triathlon, often commonly called an Ironman. That day became 5^th June 2016 at Challenge Venice.

Windsor Triathlon (Windsor) 12 June 2016. Sprint (750m swim/30km bike/5km run) and Olympic (1500m swim/40km bike/10km run)

Only previous triathlon was Winchester sprint, which has a pool swim, so wanted to do a sprint distance with a reasonably straight forward open water swim to gain a bit of confidence. It's also won numerous awards (7 time BTF event of the year) and gets very good reviews.

I watched the highlights of Hever Castle triathlon on TV last year and thought it looked great. I’d already planned to try a middle distance triathlon in 2015, so when entries went on sale I entered.    I was fortunate to have an Aunty living 30 minutes from Hever Castle so I drove up with the family the day before the race, registered and spent the night there. Registering a day early provided a good opportunity to have a quick scope of the transition area and find my bearings.

This has been my A-race for the year so when asked to write the race report I was more than happy.
The Eton Dorney 10k swim is set in the most amazing venue, the Olympic Rowing lake in the grounds of Eton college. As settings go, this is as good as it gets. The long drive up the beautiful grounds quickly brought into perspective the length of the lake as it was a decent drive from one end to the other, never mind swim!

I had not done this triathlon before, but have done a number organised by the excellent Race New Forest set-up. The race was based at Moyles Court School and the swim was in the familiar Ellingham lake. I was joined at the race by two fellow Hedgies in Mike B and Pete M. It made a lovely change being dry and warm as we had the race briefing just before the 0700 start at the lake. There was a sprint and a standard race on offer and the 3 of us were in the standard distance.

This weekend we are proud to have our very own Claire Powell (ladies captain) representing team GB at the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in Sweden and also our brother and sister duo Kelly Wickens and Kevin Martin representing team GB at the ETU Aquathlon European championships in Cologne.

Club member Nick shares his experience of Fareham Triathlon.