Julian completes seven triathlons in just two days
Club members took to the Bloodwise Blenheim Palace Triathlon last weekend as the home of the Duke of Marlborough played host to world-class athletes, first-timers and local athletes.
The two-days event takes place within the 2,000-acre world heritage site. and the Live to Tri event, now in its 15th year, is the second-largest triathlon competition in the UK.
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Hide AdThe course consists of an open water swim in a lake formed in the River Glyme, a gently undulating bike course around the landscaped grounds designed by the world famous Capability Brown and a picturesque run route around the Queen’s Pool.
As if it was necessary to add any further to the already impressive credentials of this event the transition area is situated in the Great Court of the UNESCO World Heritage Site with Palace surrounding you on three sides.
Club chairman Julian Herriott had never planned on entering the event at all but earlier in the year a member of Boston’s triathlon family was diagnosed with Sarcoma, a soft tissue cancer.
Her husband, a founding member of the club, had already signed up to compete at Blenheim, but understandably decided to give up his place while his family fight this horrible disease.
The place in question was a renowned Weekend Warrior slot.
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Hide AdWhile the distances of each leg remain the same, when you complete the run, it’s back to the start to do it all over again, the aim being to swim as far as you can, bike as long as you can and run as hard as you can.
Julian was asked to step in and, never being one to back away from a challenge, he was determined to give it his all and raise as much money as possible for the Sarcoma UK charity at the same time.
After two days of swim, bike, run, repeat, Julian had completed an amazing seven sprint distance triathlons.
Finishing 15th overall and fourth in his age group (M45-49) with a combined time over the two days of 11:09.23.
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Hide AdIn total Julian’s weekend consisted of 5.25km of swimming, 138.6km cycling and 37.8km running before adding on the transitions between displines which alone added over another 5km of running and 168m elevation gain.
Clubmate Rachel Satchwell chose the Sprint distance (swim 750m, bike 19.8k, run 5.4km) and finished an impressive 68th out of 239 in her F40-44 category with a time of 1:43.37.