Littlehampton Lockdown Triathlon June 13th
On this weekend in June for
almost every year since we became totally besotted with the sport of triathlon
my Coach-Hubby and I have spent three nights in Windsor
to compete in our favourite UK
race. On the first occasion we camped in the back of our old Land Rover on the lawn
beside the town Swimming Pool by the river, where the race was based in the
early days. Triathlon was a super fun Weekend Warrior’s sport back then, and
all big races had a pasta party the night before and a goody bag filled with
free samples from race sponsors and stores in the main shopping street in
central Windsor.
The sport gradually got to be a little bit more expensive to do over the years,
entry fees went up and goody bag contents when down.
It was always good fun though,
well presented and brilliantly marshalled. The swim course has changed a
handful of times but a mile swim in the River Thames was always a challenge.
The bike course is much the
same, just a few changes close to the race venue. At first the run was on the north side of the
river in farmland and on riverside paths but then it moved into the realms of
the spectacle and there were laps going up the high Street by that amazing
castle making a turn at Queen Victoria’s
Statue then down hill to the Eton
Bridge and up Eton High
Street. On some years some of the smartly dressed young gentlemen of Eton College
even helped out at the aid station just before the turn point to run back in
the town centre or to the finish gantry. The run now also includes The Long
Walk in the Great
Park. The Windsor triathlon has always
had a story book venue. On one occasion
the awards were held in the Guildhall right by the castle.
This year would have been the
30th Anniversary and Steve and I had been invited to be included in
an extra publicity event called Legends of Triathlon. What an honour to include
me.
For many years, Steve and I
stayed in the Copthorne Hotel in Slough which
for a number of years was the race hotel. There was always a really good deal
for the three nights and breakfast and there was safe parking under the hotel.
Having got to this weekend,
that has been a highlight of every race season for us, we decide that we could
not let it go unmarked. The race has been postponed until 2021 when it will
still be the 30th anniversary of the presentation of that great
race.
Steve set about planning a
way that we could still do a triathlon this weekend during lockdown. He has
been studying the tide time tables and watching the weather forecast and left
it to the last moment to decide which of the weekend days for us to embark on a
Do-It-Yourself-Triathlon. Of course it would not be the same without the most
stunning Windsor Castle
as a back drop, but let us not forget that we have the most excellent Arundel Castle just a few miles from our home. We
do not have the River Thames but we have the second fastest river in the UK the River Arun running beside the town of Littlehampton. We also
have the English Channel at our towns
promenade.
So The Littlehampton Lockdown Triathlon was
born.
We got up at 4.30 am not
feeling as though we were in the first flush of youth with Steve at 70 years
old and me at 80 years and 10 months but a short strong coffee had us wake our
ideas up and we slipped into a swim suit, slathered ourselves in HUUB LUUB and
slithered into our wetsuits before we left home in our VW Caddy van. We parked
in the Littlehampton Wave car park and walked over Sea Road to the beach.
It had rained pretty hard in
the night and the beach was wet, but the sky was blue it was high tide but tide
levels have been low just lately. We walked to the waters edge and threw our
flip flops back up the beach a little way. There were a couple of early Anglers
settled a bit further along the beach. It was 5.30 am and the water was not as
still and calm as it had been when we had taken a dip last. There was a strong
east wind and it was quite cold and there was a bit of a swell running. On
entering the water we wondered why the sea was colder that on our last swim,
“How can that be”, we asked each other even if it had rained hard in the night.
It was cold though and it hurt your head when you got your face in the water.
Ice Cream Head; that’s what we call it.
After our swim, we headed
back to T1 which was our van. We stripped off our wetties and put them in the
back and changed into our bike clobber before driving to a quite spot where we
go to practice Hill Reps. We used that section of side road in a village nearby
and did a set of ups and downs and ups and downs. We were happy with the bike
section of our home spun event because we could feel a distinct improvement in
our form since we last did the set and that is because we have worked really
hard every other day during lockdown but on our turbo trainers. Our legs felt
fine and we knew that we would have been very satisfied with our Windsor bike ride.
Then we piled the bikes in
the back of the van and drove the short distance to our most often used run
course. Still in our bike kit we arrived at T2 and set out on our substitute Windsor run course in Angmering Park.
There were not any crowds to
shout words of encouragement but still from some points in our run we had a
great view on a super sunny day of Arundel
Castle then back the
Start/Finish line and The Littlehampton Lockdown Triathlon was completed. No
medal though. No event Tee Shirt. No Award Ceremony with the Mayor presenting
prizes and the commentator announcing the age group winners.
We felt like winners though
and we had winner’s smiles on our faces.
We went home and ate a
celebration breakfast feeling good and pleased with ourselves.
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