Another beautiful day in the UK greeted us on the morning of the event, with ambient air temperature around 12 degrees and water temperature around 14 degrees. The reservoir looked a little choppy but nothing compared to the washing machine of last year! The volunteer marshal team from Castle Tri and the staff from Wild Deer Events and Timing Up North were already set up ready to welcome participants from 6AM at the revised start position. Instead of being hosted at the boat club, this year a change of location to one end of the dam wall, which was a great change other than the steep hill up from the car park – maybe this could be the final sprint home next year!

The usual packet collection was smooth and the transition area was well laid out and everyone was in good spirits with a great combination of first-timers as well as those competing at a national standard, which is one of the great aspects of triathlon events to see all these people together.

The swim briefing was brief and there was some initial uncertainty around the route, the buoys just going out slightly ahead of the swimmers gathering, but the cloudy day didn’t help with that. After a brief acclimatisation few minutes getting out to the standing start line we had the countdown and were off. The water was cool and a bit choppy for me, but others found it absolutely fine and it certainly felt like a nice clean place to swim without any weeds or mud under the fingers!

The transition area was incredibly close to the swim exit and on with a bit of extra clothing and out on the bike course. And what a beautiful course it is – undulating without being punishing and views for days. Lots of people on the course were enjoying the challenge and at this point the standard competitors started whizzing past!

Back to the transition area for some more cheer from the marshals and off on the run course which was a nice balance of tarmac and a little bit of country park path. The course was mainly flat with a few undulations, but a really enjoyable part of the day as the drizzle had gone away and the general temperature had warmed up a few degrees.

Over the finish line to collect some much needed nutrition and a thoughtful selection of goodies for finishers from the organisers and catch up with team mates. Huge congratulations to the organisers and massive thanks to the volunteer marshals for keeping the Castle Tri event going – a great fixture on the calendar and already looking forward to beating my times next year!

You can find the standard bike and run courses and sprint bike and run courses online, pictures from the event here, and the Results here