7:40am in the morning the first of the team members lubed up and got into their wetsuits ready for the mass start at 8am. The lake was fairly shallow and had retained some warmth from the sunny day before. There was some confusion about who would start the stopwatch and this meant our budding swimmers, who were merely a mass of swimming caps, would be waiting in the water for a bit longer than expected. Eventually the claxon went and off they all went. Andy Matthews was first out of the water for CWTC with an impressive time of 7:02. A bike and run later and it was time for the first handover. I was 2nd in my team and waited nervously for Mike Pillans to complete the handover. Once in the handover box, Mike removed the timing chip off his ankle and pass it to me. The nerves and adrenalin made fastening the chip a bit of a fiddle. Then it was into the lake for my own swim.

Approaching the end of the swim I was pleased I had managed to stay on course for the exit ramp. As soon as the water was too shallow to swim I stood up and suddenly there were two hands to haul me out! Slightly disorientated from the swim I struggled to release the Velcro flap from my wetsuit. Luckily, a reasonably long run to T1 meant I could regain my dry land legs and managed to get the suit off as I approached my bike. Some baby oil action before the swim meant the wetsuit came off quickly. On with the helmet, grab the bike and off we go.

The bike was a mixture of fast rolling open roads, narrow twisty roads and short sharp climbs. It wasn’t the most technical route but was enough to keep you on your guard. A little bit of drizzle added to the fun of the route which was over quite quickly. Andy Matthews managed the fastest bike split of CWTC with 29:23 for the 18km course.

The run was mostly on gravel tracks which went around the lake. With some short, sharp climbs and descents the run was quite demanding. The run route left transition and went past the cheering crowds. This was great motivation! With two laps to do we would all be shouted at lots! On the approach to the end of the first lap the smell of bacon and burgers filled the air. Then it was passed the crowds again for another dose of motivational cheering and onto the 2nd, final lap. All I had to do now was pass the chip onto Mark, our last team member, which was a lot easier than putting it on! Levi managed to prevent Andy Matthews making it a hat-trick and put down the fastest run of CWTC with 14:26!

Overall the race was great and the atmosphere was outstanding. It’s a great way to finish the season with a smile. The relay element makes it very interesting to watch as well as take part in.

Report by Gareth

Unfortunately Del’s timing chip came off during the swim. This means there are currently no timings for him at the moment. Tracey, being on the same team as Del, managed to get a new chip before she raced. I’m not sure why her times are not complete.

A commendable 13 CWTC members took part in the Soton Tri on Sunday. It all started on a bit of a downer as many members were hoping to compare this year’s time with last years, only to find the organisers had decreased the cycle from 18 miles to 13, although some were actually glad about that!!

The CWTC produced some good results with 5 club member’s picking up awards (See Below):

A few incidents to report (which, let’s face it is what we really want to hear!!!)

Firstly Matt Sturman had two new prospective club members as his son and daughter participated in the race as a birthday present to him, what happened to socks and hankies??

It has become apparent that transition training is still a club need as highlighted by Diana and Tracy having a chat in T1 & T2 respectively, causing Diana to run past her bike and losing some of those pesky seconds!! It was also noted that Persephone nearly lost her cycling shoes on T2, hope they are not scuffed too much!

Chan nearly came off her bike coming out of the Leisure Centre as 1 marshal told her to stop and another told her to go, luckily the result was her foot coming out of her shoes in a mad panic!!

Steve had his new T6 running shoes which apparently made him float over the finish line!! Levitation is a new concept to the club but it could catch on!!

I never knew this but there are cows as well as ponies in the New Forest, a hazard Becci & Steve encountered.

All told the event was enjoyed by all, even though the weather could have been more in tune with the month of August! Wait a minute it was!!! (in the UK)

Finally on the run in I couldn’t help giggling to myself as I knew I had some grouting to do in the afternoon, and visions of the Weetabix advert flashed through my mind!

PS: I finished the grouting Sunday night!

Del

CWTC Prize Winners (L to R) Steve, Liz, Chan, Persephone & Matt

Myself, Jason and Patrick decided to put ourselves up against the best age groupers in Britain and travelled up to Bedford to take part in the Autoglass Bedford British Championships. This comprised of a 1500meter swim in the river, a 42.5km bike and 10km run.

The day started grey but warm and we hoped that it was not going to rain as we wanted a fast race. The swim was a 1500m out and back course in the River Great Ouse. The first 800m is upstream to the main town bridge (St Marys). Then go around the 3rd large buoy and swim downstream to the exit just after the Suspension Bridge.

We had checked the course the day before and had noted some weed floating in the river, however we saw piles of weed on the river bank so thought the river had been cleared. How wrong we were!

Jason has never been very keen on swimming in dark or weedy water, actually he hated it. After this swim he no longer hates weed as we are sure we will never encounter as much weed as we did on that day. With every stroke we encountered armfuls of weed and I thought it would never end and I would never get out of the water as I thought the killer weed would drag me down.

I am pleased to say I got out after a slow swim (as usual) and onto the bike which took us though the country side of Bedford on a fast and long bike which we all enjoyed as the roads were quiet.

So after a fast and trouble free ride we all set of on the run. This was around the riverside in Bedford and we had to do three laps and the only hills in the course were the bridges we had to run over which was not hard so a fast run was achieved by us all.

We enjoyed the race and even though we had to swim in the weed because the bike was fast and flat we would go back and do the race again.

Report by Mike Cooper.

Position is overall. Result in brackets is within age group.

Report by Dan Bailey