Is that a name or a motto? - Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Triathlon 2024

 PROLOGUE

 After the disappointment of having to drop out of a whole host of events (the Super Series) in 2023 due to adversity I was keen to focus on just one event in 2024 and do any bonus events I pleased around it – an aspiration model that had worked well for me in previous years. I had no real idea on what this event what this would be. Luckily Martyn Lewis made the decision for me, with a suggested club outing to the Cotswolds Classic V2, I reputedly flat and fast middle (or half ironman, if you want to get me sued) distance traithlon around the scenic Cotswolds lakes. Furthermore 2024 would mark 10 years since I did my first half ironman in Fishguard – probably to this day still the best paced event I have ever done, but back in the day when I utterly winged it on training.

 For the past 3 years I have been training with 8020 training plans, which have worked pretty well for me. I had never really trained before this with a program where all 3 disciplines are in the same picture and I really saw the difference in performance. Even though I’d class 2023 as a disappointing year, I’d say a lot this was due to a higher bar I had set myself after 2021 and 2022. In short it’s nice to rock up to an event, and feel ready to race rather than participate. In training for Olympic distance the last few years, I always picked their Level 3 programs as I have the time to do so (Level 1 = turn up and participate well; Level 3 = turn up and hope to place high), so it felt natural to do a Level 3 Middle Distance programme.

 This is something I almost immediately regretted. My 15 hours a week in previous years generally comprised 9-11 hours of the training program plus a bonus long ride at weekends; now my 15 hours was solid structured training with little wiggle room. I did get into the swing of it after the intial shock of the first 3 weeks, but having to come back to it twice in later stages after taking a week or so off with with injury and illness was a real challenge, and swimming training never really got going after a shoulder niggle resurfaced in April, which is still with me now. Add to this a bout of covid 3 weeks before the race, which I felt took away a gear or two on the run and bike and I was in more of an expectation management mode than my usual Scrappy Doo mode in the lead up.

 The day after the Broadhaven Triathlon [*cough* relay winner 4th year on the bounce *cough*], where I wisely chose to to only swim to save the legs (no hole in the plan, surely?), I managed to get on my TT bike for the first time this year, only a week before raceday. Having had to do some last minute conditioning to get ready for just being on the handle bars for Ride London 2 months ago, I forgot I might have needed to do the same for the aero position too! Oops. One week left, plenty of time! The bike felt a bit foreign, but shoulder held up okay. The 30km out and back bimble to Tenby was surely representative of a raceday 90km after a swim, wasn’t it? With this and not swimming the final two weeks, and missing my 66% of my runs the last month, I was feeling ready!

 

Leading out the swim at Broadhaven Relay, resting the legs for Cotswolds... or something

I travelled up on the Friday with my mini supporters club of Carwyn and Flo (whose motorhome I was also utilising for the weekend) and settled into the campsite where most of the club members (Simon Phillips, Martyn Lewis, Jonathan Harwood and Carwyn Jones) & families were also staying (Kelly & Nathan Miles had secured air bnb’s elsewhere) and managed to get a full bike reccy of 1 lap the bike route in first thing on Saturday morning. I was quite pleased to find that, aside for a few potholey stretches with rolling but really very flat roads. If you think of the hill to Tiers Cross roundabout from Johnston on the 20km TT – that would be the most extreme climb by a stretch if it was on this course! Despite only plodding it out in high Z1/Z2 it was still just shy of a 30kmh avg. However, I could still acknowledge that holding myself in the unconditioned aero position was actually quite hard work, and wondered if I could manage to go much quicker (if at all) on the day over 2 laps after a swim. I went down at 1pm with Kelly to see the most clear thorough and considerate athlete briefing I have ever seen, got all registered and organised myself back at the campervan to be able to leave at 5am (!!!) the next morning with mininum thought or fuss.

 RACEDAY 

Somehow I managed to wake up before my alarm and I was leaving the campsite a 4.55am on what was looking to be a clear summers morning and was down and sorted in transition by about 5.15am. I was defintiely there a bit early (race start 630am) but it gave time to sort everything in at a nice pace and factor in the customary extra two loo stops. Coming into the transition area it was nice to see that

a) the racking was numbered

b) the racking also had athlete name tags

c) all the club were racked together – this would be good for tracking club relative progress during the race.

 

Slowly but surely, the fellowship of the club arrived all bright eyed and bushy tailed. Or at least that’s what I assumed – I wasn’t wearing contacts today, so had to commit to blind mode between transition set up and my prescription goggled swim. I slowly but surely took myself on my delicate feet down the gravel path to the swim start where I met Nathan Miles. I don’t think it was because I had my wetsuit on, but I was in buoyant mood. We managed to get a dip in the lake, chat about the race ahead and generally question our life choices, and before we knew it we where in chute walking towards the rolling startline. Right, I guess we have a half ironman to be getting on with!

 

Normally, off the back of a good training season the race strategy is simple – go for it and trust the training. However, with my stuttering final few weeks training I had to think very carefully about how I was going to take on this race a distance I hadn’t attmepted in 10 years. Luckily I thought about this very thoroughly in the 45 seconds before I ran into the water.

 1. The swim – I’m a swimmer! I’ll be grand, just go for a swim, don’t race it – need a working shoulder to hold myself on bike – just plod it out

2. The bike – throw all caution to the wind – fuck it – I think I’m still fit at one of these things!

3. The run – I dunno, let’s see what happens

This was a race strategy very similar to what I did at the Isoman, with appalling consequences, what could possibly go wrong?

 So that’s what I did – I pottered into the water, took 2 maybe 3 race pace strokes, then settled into a nice relaxed stroke. Passed 10 people to first buoy. Lovely stuff. Passed 20 to next buoy this is great altogether. Admired some of the underwater vegetation – lovely visibility. Some guy passed me – paced with him for a bit. I did find in my zoned out plodding state that my crappy left and strong right shoulders had me veering off left so I had to remind myself to keep an eye on surrounding swimmers. Rounded the buoy for the dog leg that was about halfway around the course and found myself plodding with two other people now – they both seemed to completely misunderstand the next turning, they went straight while I took the hairpin right. Suddenly I found myself on my own – had I passed the 630 wave and was looking at the mass start wave ahead? Hardly. Nope I had just veered left again and the people I had undercut at the hairpin had now undercut me. Oops. I could feel my wetsuit wear into the back of my neck as I rounded the penultimate buoy – I needed to wrap this up before I lost my head. I might be making this sound like a lot of jeopardy and excitement, but really this was a grand swim altogether – the last of pressure I had put on myself had made for probably one of my most relaxing triathlon starts ever!

 Swim [click for strava activity]

Getting helped out by the marshals. We wouldn't want to work too hard now, would we?

 I took the advice given at the race briefing and let the volunteers help me out of the water at the T1. The run from swim exit to transition probably wore me out more than my actual swim! This spoke volumes of both the measure of my swim effort and my level of run fitness, pleasing and ominous in that order! No other club members in yet – nice. I faffed a bit getting myself sorted out at transition, getting my bike shoes on before leaving transition on the bike rather than leaving shoes clipped on – a decision made based on the state of my shoulders and back. Both Carwyn & Simon came into transition while I was there. There was some exchanges between us, but can’t really remember what. Shit, I was going to have these guys chasing me down on the bike. I said “see you guys soon” as I left transition on the bike, feeling they would inevitably be passing me on the bike or run.

Simon Phillips, Swim Exit

Carwyn Jones, trying the unorthodox Hopping Method to T1

Nathan Miles, Swim Exit

Once I got going on the bike I quickly forgot about what was behind me and was only looking forward, quite literally, spotting the next cyclist down the road, chasing them down and passing. Rinse, repeat. My shoulder was an immediate concern, with considerable discomfort in my weak shoulder but this slowly seemed to disappear in the opening km’s. Either it was swim fatigue that had worn off, or my shoulder had gone numb. I’d worry about that later I thought! The trend seemed to be passing far more than getting passed and I was quite enjoying myself. Perhaps I was enjoying myself a bit too much, forgetting the potholey stretches I had reccied the day before and getting more than a few non consensual interactions of saddle + crotch, each one punctuated with an audible swear from me!

 After about 12km of some twists and turns, the course took a left turn onto a main road which i had identified as the fastest part of the course - not necessarily the flattest, but smoothest surface and most continuous stretch without and junctions (about 20km) to contend with - so one could just focus on getting on with it. Something I noticed here was I must have naturally been in a more aero position today than yesterday - my perfectly positioned straw yesterday was today firmly pressed against my chin! During this stretch things started to get very misty, even foggy. It made me happy I had reccied the lap the day before, knowing well in reduced visibilty that there weren't any surprise sharp corners around the end of some of these long sweeping bends. Another benefit was it was rather cooling! This was something I was starting to become aware of as I had been cycling quite enthusiastically and there was a bit of burn in the legs. Yeesh, less than halfway around the first lap, and I was starting to feel the effort, maybe it was time to cool the jets! It was at about this stage in my thought process where some familiar club colours whizzed by on the bike - Nathan Miles, he was flying!

Jets re-engaged.

 It wasn't that  I was trying to catch and re-pass Nathan - in fact he very quickly  pulled away and disappeared into the mist ahead - but it was a bit of a kick up the arse I needed. I was trying to make excuses to try less, and I quickly reminded myself that Simon and Carwyn were surely on the chase behind. Nathan was on the Aquabike and had no run to save himself for so I left him to it (and fairly sure I could not have cuaght him if I tried), but I could still try and smash a good bike leg out. I checked my bike computer to check my distance but sneaked a glance at my avg speed by accident - 33.7km/h. I set myselft a new goal: get above 34kmh, stay above 34kmh! This got me going again but I still questioned my strategy - ultimatley I took my recent Ride London experience as a confidence booster and again threw caution to the wind. By the time I reached the end of this long stretch (and definitely overcooking it on some long draggy climbs), the avg was now 34.2 kmh. Woot woot, now just to keep it for the next 2/3 of the bike course! 

 Shortly after taking the turn off I caught up to some muppet on a road bike flagrantly drafting the person in front of him. As I passed him, he shouted out to me and then I realised it was Jonathan Harwood! He then repassed me to say something to me but before we knew it we were upon a junction - I was a bit discombobulated and thought we were going left, Jon went hard on the brakes as he was waiting for the marshal to singal clear for a turn right. It all very nearly went tits up, and I ended up stopped in the middle of the road in the wrong gear. It took about a minute to catch Jon and friend again but I tried to press on - I wasn't much in the mood for conversation! This section of the course involved a few lefts and rights and it was a place where, the previous day, it seemed the lap should be ending but was in fact still 10km away. Again I was thankful for the reccy the day before as this bit flew by and before I knew it was back at the turnaround point for lap 1. Time check, 1 hour 17 minutes - yes! Now just do that again! As I came out of the turnaround area, I heard a familiar voice shout out to me. it was Simon Phillips - god he was perhaps only 1-2 minutes behind me, it was only a matter of time!

As I started the second lap one thing was clear - my body wasn't particularly happy with me! My bad shoulder was now kicking up a fuss and really didn't want to be on the aero bars anymore. My lower back was incredibly uncomfortable too and I just wanted to sit up. 43km to go, current avg 34.3kmh - keep going! Wait for the climbs to sit up, don't waste the fast roads, I said to myself on possibly one of the flattest bike courses I have ever done. This focus on staying on position and maintaining speed had me possibly hit every pothole I had nutted myself off on the previous lap - I may have been starting to get a bit grumpy now. This grumpiness was not helped by the realisation that someone (a first lapper I think) that I had earlier passed had been drafting me for the last 2km or so. He passed me and then showed his true speed. I had to freewheel for about a km to let him get 12m ahead of me as per drafting rules, during which time another person i had passed (clearly drafting the first person) passed me too. NO! No no no! Not happening! I put on the afterburners and left them behind me like farts in the wind - I wasn't having that! This then had me turn onto to the fast 20km section of the course fully charged up again on angry adrenaline.

So.... the thing about adrenaline is, it doesn't last that long. I was still chasing down people and passing more people than were passing me, but I was starting to feel hills that I hadn't felt on the first lap. Sometimes people I passed on the downhills and flats would slowly breeze past me on the 2-3% drags and it would take a few km to get out of awkward position swappery. My shoulder and back were getting louder and louder and my neck, not pleased with having to deal with this whole aero position nonsense, wanted to join the choir too. I didn't just sit up on the 'hills" - I got out of the saddle entirely and tried to wriggle out any body tension that I could. 20km left; avg 33.9kmh, come on. I got locked into another dance with someone happier on the climbs than me, eventually we got off the main road onto the smaller lanes and I managed to put him behind me on the predominantly flatter roads - this duel getting me back to 34.1kmh.

Back onto the main road and the final 8km to transition. Cars were starting to queue behind slower cyclists and the road was starting to get a bit cluttered now. I nervously looked at the avg speed hoping it would stay above this arbritary target I had set myself. I'm not ashamed to say I undertook a car that was being overly reluctant to overtake, and passed the cyclist ahead. Final km now, avg 34.0kmh - how on earth had I maintained this. Last turns into transition and bam off the bike. Avg 34.1kmh! Yes, I couldn't believe I had managed to keep that going, but at what cost?

Bike Leg [click link to see strava]

My 'run' into transition was ominous. Tight hamstrings and numb feet not a great combo. I pegged legged it in on my clippy cloppies and it did improve the mood to see the  supporters crew, of whom Katie, Vickie and Ellie on the way. I barely had the dexterity in my numb hands to take my bike shoes off. My feet and calves both cramped as I very arduously put my running shoes on. I slugged back a half bottle of dextrose and salt tablet mix before limping out onto the run, with the gait not unlike that of John McClane at the end of, well, any Die Hard movie. Right, just a half marathon now, is it? 

Simon Phillips (Top) & Nathan Miles coming into T2

The first 2 km was not great at all. Calves were twitching, left foot arch was completley solid with no spring, ...and the rest. I focussed on a high cadence short stride waddle. I immediatley regretted the half bottle in transition and needed to go to the loo. Despite it behind quite warm and close and sunny, I turned down water at the first drink station as I just needed to go - I couldn't see portaloos there which confused me. I wanted to make sure I used the race facilities and was hellbent on finding them. If women can't go off course for a quick comfort break, why should I? Plus it sets a bad exa.... Feck it - I'm running into the woods! Sorry I tried my best - when you gotta go, you gotta go!! I must admit, this put me right and I had no regrets. We were now running lakeside in tree covered trails, and while I was still wreecked, I had good sustainable rythym to my waddle now. People were passing me and I made my peace with that - I also held pace with other people and so tried to stay with them.

Starting to get into it on Lap 1

 I was surprised when we finished the lake that we stayed left and crossed over the bike turn around point and started running out away from the lake. Maybe I should have inspected the run course a bit closer! I thought this was a little out and back to make up the last bit of distance on the 7km of the lap. Not quite - more like the 2nd half of the lap! Oh my. We ran out alongside the main road for longer than I would have liked and it was here I really realised how warm and sunny a day it had become. A lady had caught up to me, her stride was heavy and I felt she was going to pass me at any second but she stayed pacing behind me which got my anxiety up. As we left the road onto trails again, I stopped to walk. I had really overheated on that stretch and just wanted that lady away from me - I needed to be zen. I did kind of kick myself that I didn't run another 200m as I rounded the corner to find the 2nd station of the lap. Thank god. I took a half banana and a cup of water and asked a volunteer to throw another over me. It was here I decided strategy for the rest of the run - walk through every feedstation, have something at every feedstation; run (waddle) everything else.

Here we were running around a second smaller lake, again on tree covered trails before running through the small town of Somerford Keynes, then back across the bike turnaround and onto the bigger lake towards transiton. Running through SK, some muppet head ran past in the middle of the road around a bend like it was a closed road event, and nearly got hit by an oncoming Porsche. Now that would have been a very Cotswoldian way to go!  The 3rd feedstation was just about 100m before the lap point / finish line. Energy drink here and a handful of something or other. A volunteer offered to shower me with a hose. Hard to refuse that! Lap 1 done. Hello supporters crew! Onto lap 2. I saw a finished Nathan Miles chatting to Jonathan Harwood in transition which had confused me - had he done the aquabike too?

Finishing Lap 1

Lap 2 actually felt pretty good. Legs had still loosened up, general cycle pain was gone and my waddle was gaining good rhythm. I was actually starting to pass people (full disclosure was still getting passed a lot too!) which kept the spirits up too. Feedstation 1, just a water and on again. Knowing where everything was now really helped motivate me to keep running between the feedstations. Having your name on your race number was a nice touch also - getting personalised cheers from the crowd really made a difference! The section by the road was no less stiflingly warm and tedious. Feedstation 2 coke and another half banana. Saw Kelly on the way back through the bike changeover - the first club member I had seen in a while. Another water and another hose down at feedstation 3. Saw Carwyn & Flo with their motivational sign as I finished Lap 2. Final Lap!!

Getting into the swing of things on Lap 2

Boogying out of the woods to start Lap 3

 

Kelly Peat (Top), Martyn Lewis (Middle) & Simon Phillips (Bottom) running passed transition to start their next lap

Almost as soon as I got away from the hubbub of transition my body seemed to decide it had had enough of this shit. Legs got heavy and time slowed a bit. Roots on the trail became big obstacles, ondulations became little hills. By the time I got to feedstation 1, I was getting funny feelings in my toes that I didn't want to think about. From feedstation 1 -2 all I wanted to do was walk, but I waddled on. I thought of Carwyn and Simon behind me on the course - surely it was just a matter of time before they passed me. They can't have been more than 4 minutes behind me after the run. I had made my peace with them passing me on lap 1 or 2, but passing me now would've been a cruel blow. Feedstation 2 and my final coke and handful of jelly beans stuffed into my face. I was really on my last legs now - I could feel the energy sap out of my calfs. The will to walk was overwhelming but I waddled on.

Someone passing me noted my kit and remarked "This must be a walk in the park for you, compared to Pembrokeshire!" I looked back at him and grimly said "At this rate, it literally will be!". Only 2 or 3 people later another person remarked on name on back of my trisuit. "B Keane, is that a name or a motto?!" "Both", I said, "I'm trying hard to live up to it!!". "You're really doing it!" he said, as he breezed away from me and left me for dust. Cheers, budday.

 Back to the main lake. Yes yes yes. I saw Carwyn and Flo about 500m out, cheering on. I got a final hosedown at feedstation 3. I tried a 'sprint' finish but nearly came a cropper on a pothole concealed by the red carpet and sheepishly stumbled across the finish line. Cotwolds Classic V2 done

 Run [click for strava link]

 

Simon Phillips came in about 10 minutes after, Carwyn another 10 minutes or so after. In the queue for the free post race massage there was time to look back on the splits. I couldn't believe I had ran only 1 minute over 2 hours on the half marathon. On a waddle, with walking feedstation stops! It had genuinely felt like a 2.5 hour effort, and my refusal to look at my watch during the run made it all the more of a surprise. Nathan had come first in Age Group in Aquabike, Jonathan unfortunately had to pull out with back issues on the run.

The total time for the day was 5 hours 16 minutes - a 30 minute half hour pb which I couldn't be anything other than delighted with. I would later find out that my swim split was in the top 10% despite going for a plod, as was my bike split which was hard fought! I hadn't come into this race in the state I had wanted to, but there was so many positives to take from the day. Like with Ride London, it was nice to look back and think there was time left out on the course to get when in better condition, but not so much that I was harbouring any disappointment. 

After the massage (the most painful bit was getting on and off the bench), we went over back to finish line and was there to cheer Kelly in what I think was her first Middle Distance triathlon.

 Even with all the post race faff and de-transitioning etc, we were still back at campsite by about 3pm. Most of the guys had to return to Pembrokeshire, but we still had a lovely few hours to chill out before pizza and pints in the pub and the small matter of watching Spain beat England in the Euros Footie Final.

 

All in all it was a great weekend. Big cheers to Martyn Lewis who organised the whole thing, and did all the thinking so we didn't have to, and thanks also to Carwyn and Flo who came up as supporting crew but also hosted me in their motorhome for the weekend, and well done Kelly on your first Half ironman!

I am hoping to organise another triathlon adventure to Ireland next year. Please stay tuned for future updates!

The absolute weapon of a medal

Robin Baker & Lee Thompson, who also joined us on the day

Mike Lawrence of Tenby, who was also part of our group, who completed the race in memory of his daughter Tash, who sadly lost her battle with cancer earlier this year. Well done, Mike!