Event: Bewl Water Standard (Olympic) Distance Triathlon | First Stride Events
Date: Sunday 26th May 2024

This is a lovely Olympic Distance Triathlon, with a 1.5km lake swim, 45km bike and 10km run. All set in the rolling Kent countryside with a picturesque reservoir swim.

I managed to get a free place (worth £105) as I had marshalled for First Stride at Hampton Court Tri.  I was training for a Half Ironman, so using my free ‘Willy Wonka golden ticket’ on an Olympic distance seemed like a good idea at the time…

Bewl Water has an attached campsite (£16 per night per tent), which was fab as the local hotels were expensive and still quite far away for a 6am start. The start line was a 10 minute walk from my tent door – great for maximising my (well needed) beauty sleep time.

Trying to be Olympic style organised, I rocked up early Saturday afternoon and pitched my tent. The campsite was busy with lots of nice families, good loos and showers, and a fabulous homemade pizza van. I heard the bike route ‘had a couple of bumps’ so I decided to drive it that night and found a nasty climb near the start out of the 1st village. Eeekk. But forewarned is forearmed, and all that.

Overnight, there was torrential rain, and the couple in the tent next to me were having loud and prolonged sex. Let’s just say, I don’t think the guy was doing an Olympic distance tri the next morning…

Sunday morning arrived, cold and drizzly, but Marit’s friendly face at registration brought out the sunshine, as always 😊.

The swim was twice round the buoys with an Auzzie Beach exit halfway, in a lovely lake. I’m very slow at front crawl swimming, but the benefit of being last is that you are escorted around by the VIP safety canoe. The canoeist was an old guy, very nice, and kept shouting welcomed words of encouragement, as I spluttered my way round the course. My swim involved lots of mental encouragement to myself too.. ‘you are doing great,’ ‘you’ve got this,’ ‘the marshalls won’t be angry you are slow,’ etc etc. Well needed positive thoughts to change my mindset.

T1 was slow as I decided the sun had come out and I now needed suntan lotion. Plus I couldn’t find my cycle glasses (both items were in my storage bag). I bet the Brownlee Brothers don’t have the same dilemma…

The bike course was through sweet villages and country roads, well marshalled and fairly quiet. The cycle route was lovely and undulating after the nasty hill at the beginning. I had packed cheese sandwiches in my crossbar bag which worked a treat. Marit gave me a big wave as I passed lap 1, and by the time I was finishing lap 2, I was being cheered along by the lovely people on the sweep up motorbike and ambulance.  Again the benefits of being last…

By now the weather was getting hotter, and the thought of a 10km run didn’t fill me with overriding joy. Four laps by the lake. UP a hill and then down a hill. Mmmm. I hadn’t read ‘run hills’ on the memo. Again the marshalls were great, especially at the water station. A nice benefit of a 4 lap run course, is that you can see who is still in the race. There were about 10 of us still competing. We cheered each other on as we passed, counting down the laps with each other. The hot weather was starting to destroy us all though.

We eventually got down to 3 remaining runners, a guy about 30, another lady (similar age to me (52)) and me. I had expected to finish the tri about 30 to 45 minutes behind everyone, but I finished 10 mins behind the lady so I was well pleased with that.  After chatting with her post race, it was nice to know that the lady had finished her swim 30 mins before me, but I caught up with her on the bike and run. So that was a big positive take away for me.

So the race was over and Marit was there to cheer me over the finish line and hand me my medal, which was great. I also love my finish photo 😊.

The sun was shining. It was definitely time for an ice cream and to reflect on my next race… my first ever Half Ironman, in just 6 weeks.  Eeeekkk!!!