Peter Bell and Colette Kitterhing headed down to Ashford in Kent – for Colette her second race ever and for Pete just his forth.

Based on the open water coaching sessions at Shepperton, Pete decided to “get in the mix” at the swim start – as taught by coach Yeo he set off on “2” at the countdown and loved the thrashing/kicking/hitting of all the bodies in the water and  constantly looked for other swimmers to draft off. On the second lap, Pete did a racing turn round one of the buoys and was surprised by the number of people behind him. By the end of the swim Pete was a staggering 5 mins ahead of his usual 1500m time… while Colette was still fighting with the weed that seemed to infest the lake. None the less, seeing her fellow Viceroy in the distance (well the end of the men’s wave) Colette managed to leave the bulk of the female wave behind her and was really pleased to catch up with the end of the men’s, leaving the water right in the mix with only a few ladies ahead of her. 

Biking like a pro, Pete maintained his planned pedal cadence and power output and  stayed in aero tuck (despite his back complaining), told his screaming quads to shut up and maintained visual contact with the bikes that dared pass him. Meanwhile, Colette describes, “A wonderful ride though the Kent countryside.”

Normally the run is  the strongest part of Pete’s race, but his legs were heavier than usual off the bike so there was a little bit of an “ironman shuffle” for the first km, but he took heart from the large number of shufflers he was able to cruise past around the cross-country circuit. As Pete  reached the athletics stadium for the finish, he was inspired: “ I could imagine Coach Yeoman’s track session shouts (stand tall, high knees, push off the toes, etc, etc) in my head and sprinted for the line. I stopped the watch – just over 40 mins for the 10km – reasonable for me. “ Colette too had a PB on the run and did spectacularly to finish overall 4th in the female sprint (5 mins off the leader).