Viceroy Deon headed to Ely for the ECF Monster Middle Triathlon (1.9km swim; 83km bike; 21km run)- a tri with a great name, but did it live up to expectations? The fact that Deon came and amazing 24th over all, surely can’t have made it too terrible an experience…
‘A very nice course which I would recommend for beginners and seasoned veterans alike. The place is pretty and the event has a good vibe. The swim was lovely in the river and was super fast. I was very surprised with my swim split just under 24min for 1900m, then onto the bike course which was flat and would have been super fast but for the howling wind in every direction. Still, I aimed for a fairly conservative bike split of 2h30 as I hadn’t raced the distance before and hit it pretty much on target, but for the last bit with no signage or Marshall so a little delay. ]

Then onto the run which was advertised as flat and fast but flat she was not! With 2 decent hills on each lap of 4 it was a challenging but very scenic around Ely cathedral. I managed to tag onto the 2nd lady and we ran a good pace for the first 2.5 laps and then I developed stomach spasms, probably from the gel I used handed out on the course. I don’t think my stomach quite liked it but I had no alternative as my gel had gone missing in transition, so had to slow and walk a bit on the last lap but still managed to hit my split of 1h30 for the run. So well happy with that. All round a good result for me 4h27min total. With the body not feeling too bad. ‘