It’s that time of year again - the season of our big BUCS events. UoNTri fielded the biggest team out of all the other universities in the UK, and our biggest cohort ever, of 47 keen triathletes at the sprint triathlon this year. A 400m pool swim, 22km bike and 5km run lay between us and that post-race feeling.
The day began with an outrageous coach departure time of 5.15am. The streets of Lenton were dead except for the last stragglers walking home from a big Saturday night and some weary-eyed triathletes cycling to Portland Building. What a contrast but both arguably equally as unsafe to drive. Thank you Tiger European for getting us there safely, most of us managed to sleep despite the intense stench of urine but please sort this out we beg you.
We arrived and set up camp at the extremely bougie Westonbirt School with our unrivalled gazebo, thinking we were armed for anything. The weather disagreed with persistent rainfall all morning soaking many of us through but we wouldn’t let it dampen our spirits, or the vibes.
The girls were first up and we had some excellent performances, with the big block of training and transition practice from Jo and our other coaches clearly paying off. The transition practice clearly really stuck with Naomi as she was preaching to the others the importance of not forgetting to put your helmet. However it seems she may need to focus on herself some more as she was at the mount line before it was kindly pointed out to her that she did not have her helmet. Big thanks to the three marshals that she passed in the process who failed to mention this to her. A loud extremity, a near crash and a minute later she was back on her way. But wait, it doesn’t end there. T2 starts swimmingly and then a wild Naomi is seen leaving transition with her helmet still on her head. Another trip back to the bike rack and finally she is on the final straight. Luomi 2 status reinstated.
Fastest girl home was Christie Durbin (41st) with solid efforts across all three disciplines, closely followed by Anna Smail (44th) with a mind blowing swim and then Hannah Stewart (52nd) coming home as our 3rd fastest girl. All others smashed it too with lots of triathlon virginities lost and smiles all round.
It was finally the turn of the boys around lunchtime after hours of anticipation and pasta consumption. With a very strong field and some close races it was great to watch. Again we had lots of first timers and everyone did fabulously. B-Rice decided the join the chaos and have a puncture that required swapping wheels with Naomi but we made it in the end. Our top boys in the leaderboard were: Simon Davis (20th), Charlie Harding (31st) and James Kadziak (36th).
After recovering from the trauma of finding out there were no beers at the finish this year, everyone got their playerlayers back on for a compulsory photo in front of the posh school backdrop and then headed to the coach to head back home. The 30 minute trek with all our stuff to where the coach was finished a few of us off and there were lots of sleeping triathletes on the coach home, despite the epic tunes blasting out the little UE Boom. Sheaves we are coming for you xx
We just want to say a big shoutout to our sponsors, Active Training World and OZ Bar for all their support this year too!