Cerist Tri Earlybird Winter Aquathlon Series Race 2 - Owain Llŷr James

Second day of racing with a 5am wake up call, in order to start for Machynlleth, and the second in a series of three races in the Cerist Triathlon Winter Aquathlon series. 1½ hours later I arrived at Machynlleth. Only 35 people made the trip, less than the 1st race, perhaps the longer swim and 10kM run kept people away?


The organisers at the Cerist Triathlon Club are all very friendly, and both the aquathlons and triathlons are well organised.

All too soon it was time for my 600m swim in the Bro Dyfi Leisure centre 20m pool. The fastest time of the day saw me exiting the pool in about 7 min 30sec, and a relitavelly poor transition saw starting the 10kM run after 8 min 7 seconds. After a flat, 2Km start, the course soon turned hilly with steep road climbs. After about 5k, I Started to get blisters on my arches, as I wasn’t wearing any socks following my swim. These were getting more and more painful, but if I wanted to win, I needed to run through the pain to the finish. The hills eased off after about 6.5k, before I returned to the road and along to the finish. The official 10k was actually about 10.2kM, and I finished with cramp in my stomach in 40 minutes 2 seconds, giving me a total race time of 48:09.


My feet were bleeding after the race, testimony to the hard and hilly run. It was a great race, which saw me take my second win of the series, putting me in 1st overall position. One race to go, which I’m not sure that I’m doing yet, as there’s a clash with the local Pwllheli triathlon. I’ll keep you posted.

Results from TRI247.com can be seen here.