Saturday, June 13, 2020

Littlehampton Lockdown Triathlon





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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