Isle of Wight Council and Wightlink talented athlete Jan Fletcher competed in her first-ever half ironman triathlon at the Keswick-based Lakesman Triathlon.
Jan’s previous triathlons have been sprint and standard distances and the half ironman is a long endurance event, incorporating a 1900m (1.2mike) lake swim, 90km (56 Mile bike), and 21.1km (13.1 miles) run to complete the 70.3 distance.
The race started at 06:00 and Jan opted to start in the 1st of 2 waves alongside the faster swimmers, totalling 450 competitors.
The swim was a one lap 1900m swim of Derwentwater and was a deep water mass start. Although she placed herself in clear water to start, given the sheer numbers in the wave it soon became very congested and difficult to get any space to swim in. Jan’s right hand collided extremely hard with another swimmers foot early on, bending her fingers right back and she feared that she had broken bones but when she was able to see that nothing was visibly out of place she continued despite being in pain. She completed the swim in 33 mins 35seconds and started on the long run from the lake into the transition tent.
Jan had to locate her bike kit bag which was hooked up amongst hundreds of other bags looking exactly the same so she could swap her wetsuit, cap and goggles for her bike kit, a task made more difficult due to her painful fingers. She then had to re-hook the bag in its original place. No kit was allowed to be left on the floor in transition.
Jan located her bike and made her way out onto the bike course. Not having any experience of racing at this distance before Jan settled into a comfortable pace on the bike and pushed as hard as she felt she could maintain for the required distance, knowing that there were going to be some hills to contend with. The bike leg was a one lap course heading West out of Keswick, passing Skiddaw which is one of the highest mountains in England, and Bassenthwaite Lake, heading along the A66 towards Cockermouth and Workington, then onto the A595 and visiting the pretty little villages of Branthwaite, Dean and Ullock which was offered some challenging inclines.
Jan had aimed to complete the bike leg in under 3hrs but did it in 2hrs 40mins 1sec. Jan completed a flying dismount from the bike and entered transition where she racked the bike again and entered back into the tent to locate her red run bag and swap the bike kit for her run kit before hanging the bag back up again and heading out on the last leg.
The run was a fairly flat 3 and a bit looped course around Keswick, finishing in the rugby club. Jan had no idea what position she was in and again, didn’t really know how to best pace her run so just headed out and pushed as hard a pace as she felt comfortable with and felt she could maintain to complete the course. She dug deep and continued to keep picking off people ahead. The course was a mixture of roads, grass and footpath tracks and was hugely supported by vocal spectators, cheering all of the competitors on. Each time you passed through the rugby club you collected a wrist band and once she collected the required 3 she knew she had only a short distance to go.
Having spotted a female ahead of her with 3 bands Jan was determined to get past her before the finish line which she did as they entered the rugby club for the final time. Jan crossed the finish line in a half marathon PB time of 1hr 40mins 19secs to the announcement ‘congratulations, you are a Lakesman’. There were a few tears of sheer relief and achievement at that point.
Jan’s total time was 5hrs 1minute 31seconds. She had set out with a target of finishing in under 5 and half hours so exceeded all expectations.
Jan finished as 4th placed female overall from 194; 3rd in the 45-49 age group from 35 and 2nd in the PSUK National Championships. The result will also likely give her a qualification for the GB age group for the 2024 European Championships at the half ironman distance.
Jan’s next event is in 3 weeks time at the Island Games in Guernsey, followed one week later with the World Championships sprint triathlon in Hamburg where she will represent Team GB age group.
I have attempted 4 times to post a “Very well done Jan” on this site, but for some reason known only to the Echo’s technology (or lack of it) it will not go through