Mitre Tri by Caroline Barter

 

What does one do on the hottest weekend of the year so far? Do what is possibly the hilliest triathlon in the south of England - the Winchester to Salisbury Mitre Tri.

I was attracted the to Mitre for several reasons:
The bike and run sections are classic standard distances, but the swim is only 600m in a pool (great if you can't swim)
The novelty of doing an A to B event
A little nostalgia as my first student digs were in Winchester when I was at Art College there

So the morning of 13th July finally came. Due to the A to B nature of the event it made sense for Ian to come. Although buses were ferrying people, bikes and kit back and forth, they had to be pre-booked. So when Leah proudly announced she'd been sick just an hour before the off, and continued to be poorly, I thought the worst. Would she be fit to travel, could I do it alone, should I cancel?

Fortunately Leah perked up and we finally set off. I did, however, arrive too late to have my running kit transported to Salisbury. This was not too great a problem, as I tend to keep transitions to a minimum, and it's amazing what one can carry on a bike if you have to.

The swim was slow as usual (joint last split). However I did feel it was my best ever swim as it was rhythmic and I was calm. I did then get lost trying to find my way outside to T1, loosing 22 sec. T1 was longer than usual, as I slapped on the sun lotion to protect against the blazing sun which was now high in the sky with it being noon!

Finally I mounted the bike and looked forward to the 25 mile ride to Salisbury. I knew that it would be hilly to start with (the first mile of the route was on my old bike route to college) but something strange had happened over the last 20 years. Maybe, as a geologist, Eric could explain how the hills had increased to such a size in a relatively short space of time. There were NO flats, the whole route was up, up and down, with the first 10 miles being like the Alps. As we neared Salisbury the gradients reduced but still no flats were to be seen (where was Salisbury plain). Finally the spire of Salisbury Cathedral came into view, and after 1:29:40, which I felt was quite respectable under the circumstances (fastest womens' split 1:19:42) I entered T2.

Wouldn't a nice flat fast 6 miles be nice to finish with? Yes it would, but instead we had more hills. The first 3 miles were 'undulating', before we hit the mile long hairpin climb. Fortunately there were water stations at both the bottom and top of this monster. And finally what I had cycled 25 miles and run 4 miles for, a 2 mile down hill stretch to the finish after 2:43:35 of heat and hills.

It didn't break world records, but I was pleased with my time. It was not just the hilliest and hottest event I've done but also the longest. It was a great experience which I thoroughly enjoyed, and certainly a personal high point on which to take a short break from Triathlon. I will miss the sport greatly as they haven't hit Cyprus yet. Once we've sorted ourselves out we will look to see what is around and hopefully start competing again, although we will have to travel. We will also be leaving a bike here, so that we can take in the odd event when we're back in the UK. Although I've done my last Tri for a while, I do have one last Du @ Castlecoombe to look forward to. Hope to see you there.

Regards Caroline