Blog: Beautiful views, warm water and three personal bests at Helvellyn Triathlon
Age-group winner Thomas Phillips shares his experience from racing in the beautiful Lake District for the tenth time last weekend
My minor (?) addiction to triathlon started with Helvellyn Triathlon 11 years ago, and this year was my tenth go at it.
The swim was a joy with the early mist clearing to leave perfect conditions. The lake was by far the warmest I have swum in, and I completed this section in 29:59mins.
The bike is always fun with its mixture of challenging climbs and fast descents. Dry roads and zero wind made it good going, with a bonus of two Lancaster bombers flying past at Thirlmere.
I completed the bike in 1:51:34 and the sixth fastest ride of the day at a shade over 32kph average speed.
The run is tough. Too steep to run up the big climbs, then the main descent is hard — also too steep to let rip but not steep enough to be a ‘proper’ fell runners’ descent.
The run course has stunning views in all directions. My legs gave me grief though, cramps in the quads going up and calves coming down was a new and unpleasant experience for me. Perhaps just the pace I was trying to hold?
To add to this, I got a stitch on the final descent (wasn’t I suffering enough?), but managed to finish the run in 1:40:45.
Overall time: 4:05:36. I realised my ambition of winning the V50 category (by a slim 45 seconds!) and a got personal best in all three disciplines. There was amazing support all the way around (especially if you are a member of COLT tri club), that really is appreciated and spurs you on.
Were you racing in Helvellyn? How did you get on? Let us know in the comments below!
Niamh Lewis
