WRC members Tri in Chester and the Costwolds

5 June 2017 - By James Montgomery

Lots of Triathlon action again this weekend with several WRC members travelling up to Chester to take part in the Deva standard distance triathlon and over to Glouscestershire for the Cotswold 113 middle distance.

On Sunday, Liz and Alex Stuckey, Stuart Mills and Wendy Martin all took part in the standard (“Olympic”) Distance event of 1500 mtrs swim, 40kms bike and 10kms run to the finish. The format this year meant that men and women of the same age group started in the same waves with Alex, Stuart and Liz all starting in the same wave at 8:45am and Wendy starting in the wave behind at 9am.

The swim was based in the River Dee and was 850m upstream followed by 650m downstream, although the current isn’t very strong at all but there was lots of jostling, especially for the slower swimmers. The swim times take into account a long run from the swim exit to the transition area.

Out on to the bike course, this is described as undulating, with some hills and bit of headwind to start with, but some good flat sections.

The run to the finish was 3 laps based around the river on a gravel track.

Both Liz and Alex improved their times for this distance, with Liz nearly a 6 minutes improvement and Alex by 5 minutes (and she was quicker than Alex on the run – again!).

Good effort all!

Splits:
Stuart
Swim:    00:29.07
Bike:    01.10.18
Run:     00:40.32
Overall: 02:22:38

Alex
Swim:    00:29.55
Bike:    01.12.49
Run:     00:46.07
Overall: 02.32.05

Liz
Swim:    00:33.45
Bike:    01.17.26
Run:     00:45.39
Overall: 02.39.50

Wendy
Swim:    00:27.20
Bike:    01.21.19
Run:     00:48.48
Overall: 02.40.43

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Meanwhile, also on Sunday but down in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, Rachel Pearsons was taking on her first middle distance (“half-ironman”) triathlon at the Cotswold 113 event. This comprises a 1.9kms swim, 90kms bike and 21kms run to the finish.

Waking up at 3:45am to park and rack before transition closed at 5:45am. The 1100 competitors starting off in waves, with Rachel off in the third wave on the 1-lap lake swim in water that was a pleasant 22degC and thankfully not warm enough to ban wetsuits.

Into T1 and off on the 2-lap bike route. The course is mostly flat with a only few short climbs and virtually traffic-free, however, the road surface was dreadful and badly pot-holed and not very conducive to the task in hand. But the friendly and enthusiastic marshals eased things and ensured no-one got lost!

Back into transition and out onto the 21kms run to the finish. The 3-lap course was flat and mostly off-road and very well marshalled with locals helping them through to the finsh by ringing cow-bells. Rachel made good use of the well stocked feed stations on each lap!

Rachel was very pleased with her 5hrs 45mins overall finish time, well within her target 6hrs 30mins and the “reckoned” good time of 6 hours!!

Very well done Rachel!!

Splits:
Swim:    00:39:42
Bike:    02:56:59
Run:     02:02:50
Overall: 05:45:07