Lakesman triathlon challenge conquered by Bassetaw triathletes
The Lakesman triathlon, hosted in the beautiful town of Keswick in the Lake District, also hosted the British middle distance championships making it a very competitive field.
The 1.9km swim in the beautiful Derwentwater lake led into a cycle route of 90km winding westwards towards Cockermouth and then returning, providing great views of the world known Lake District scenery. The 21km run consisted of 4 laps around the local scenery of Keswick gave the family, friends and supporters a great opportunity to cheer al the competitors on.
For two members of the Bassetlaw Triathlon Club it was a great test of early season form. Club head coach, Gav Toulson and Tom Richardson setting off together at the back of the first wave of swimmers.
Tom returned home in a time of 5 hours and 50 minutes saying “A stormy weekend saw flood warnings and the ParkRun cancelled with very heavy rainfall (and lightning). The Sunday event (Lakesman 70.3 / Half Ironman) was able to go ahead - albeit with a deeper, colder lake full of fresh rainwater! Met a lovely gent called Steven approx half way through the run (on his first ever tri!) and we chose to spur one another along and run together. A run leg and half iron overall PB”
Gav’s finish time of 6 hours and 59 minutes was a little longer than hoped for but still he had a positive outlook commenting “The swim was the highlight for me. Set in the Derwent water we took a clockwise loop around Derwent Island. It was truly stunning. Both myself and Tom Richardson set off together at the back of the first wave.
The bike leg took out westwards from Keswick towards Cockermouth before we looped out on a mixture of narrow country lanes, wide A roads and dual carriageways. The leg was scenic but certainly not flat. Overall, I would say it was an Athlete friendly route, I have certainly done harder middle distance bike legs than this but still a challenge from some pan flat middle-distance races that are on the calendar.
The run leg consisted of 4 loops around the back of the rugby club where the event was hosted. If I had only one criticism of the race it would be on this leg. Each loop consisted of a mind-numbing circuit of a closed A road. The finish line was on the rugby club field. Personally, I used the race as a warm up and feedback session for my A race in September. Poor fueling led to a longer than anticipated day for me. A big shout out for Tom who looked comfortable at every point I saw him on the run.”
Anyone interested in triathlons should check out the clubs Facebook page at facebook.com/BassetlawTriClub