Considered to be one of the toughest triathlons in the world!
Consists of a 1 mile swim in Ullswater, a 60km bike ride up & down massive hills (including a 2.5 mile hill up Ambleside appropriately called “the struggle” which I had to walk the last mile) then finally a 9 mile run/hike up Helvellyn which is a mountain in the Lake District.
This was my second triathlon and my first mass start. Someone swam over me, I took on a load of water, freaked out and spent the next 5 minutes holding on to a canoe whilst I talked myself in to not giving up 😂 I waited for the back of the swim pack where the swimmers were less aggressive and rejoined. SO glad I did because the rest of the event was awesome.
I don’t really cycle and didn’t train anywhere near as much as I should have done so I kept my cycling pace really steady with the aim of just getting round and having enough left in the tank for the run at the end. The views seen on the cycle were some of the best in the world and I wish I had taken my phone to capture them.
Bike finished. Ate loads of snacks during. Absolutely buzzing. Knocked back a can of coke and set off on the run. WHAT A RUN ROUTE! A good 3-4 miles of it was unrunnable. It was so steep and there was even an amazing scramble over boulders to get to the top. Going down was equally as precarious and very technical but luckily all of the hill running I have done in the past year really paid off and I was overtaking lots of people. Helvellyn was absolutely beautiful and possibly my favourite hill run ever.
Finished. Downed a can of redbull and a punnet of flapjack then on to the pub for a well deserved wine + beer!
Can’t wait to go back next year :)
