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{"ID":155,"SpaceID":6,"PageID":62,"HasCommentsThread":false,"SeoTags":{"OpenGraphTags":[{"ID":"og:title","Name":"Storming the Castle - Hever Castle (Not) Triathlons"},{"ID":"og:type","Name":"website"},{"ID":"og:url","Name":"https://www.petersfieldtriathlonclub.co.uk/Cms/Spaces/NA24/Storming+the+Castle++Hever+Castle+Not+Triathlons"}],"NonOpenGraphTags":[]},"Path":"Storming+the+Castle++Hever+Castle+Not+Triathlons","Title":"Storming the Castle - Hever Castle (Not) Triathlons","Author":{"ID":72,"Name":"Joshua Lahiri","CompanyName":null,"HasEmail":true},"Version":3,"IsDraft":false,"IsOldVersion":false,"PublicationDate":"24/02/2025 14:14","VersionDescription":"v3 - Joshua Lahiri","HideHeader":false,"IsFullWidth":false,"ThemeCode":null,"BackgroundColour":"rgb(182, 47, 61)","JumpLinks":[],"Blocks":[{"Columns":[{"Width":8,"WidthClasses":"col-md-8 col-sm-12 col-xs-12","Elements":[{"ID":927,"Type":"HTML","Content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eWhy\u0027s it always Hever?! Whether it\u0027s freezing cold, poor water quality, not enough water or a multitude of other dramas, there always seems to be something going on with the Hever Castle Multisport Festival. Despite this its a great venue and always a fun challenge to finish off the season! With this in mind a PTC contingent comprising of Josh Lahiri, Emma Franklin,\u0026nbsp;Jamie Mansfield, Rob Webb and Richie \u0022I don\u0027t do triathlons...\u0022\u0026nbsp;Ross took part across the weekends events, modified to duathlons due to water quality and mud! With that in mind we\u0027ll hand over to Richie, Emma and Jamie to share how they got on!\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRichie:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eThe Indian Summer turned to floods and led to high levels of overspill and run-off being discharged into Hever Lake resulting in unsafe levels of E. coli and Enterococci. So the swim was replaced by an additional 5.2km cross country run, quicker and warmer than a swim but more miles in the legs \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJosh Lahiri warned me that Saturday\u0027s event had been a mud bath and the car park was like the Somme. No different on Sunday, I couldn’t even get parked without a tow! \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe race had already been delayed by an hour due to the changes. On the day, after warming up and being called to the start line, another 30 min delay was added - competitors were still stuck in the car park. When we did eventually get to the start it seemed a little light on competitors, it turned out there were only 128 of the original 180, guess the conditions on Saturday plus the change to a Duathlon put a load off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 1st run was 5.2km around the Castle grounds including “Shite Lane” an incline up broken tarmac. The rest of the route was a mix of gravel, grass and mettled paths, much narrow but fortunately non of the deep mud of the Saturday due to a subtle reroute.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cycle course was a 2 x 45km loop, a scenic rolling route up onto the Ashdown Forrest with a total of 16 climbs and 1600m ascent. Running over an hour later than planned traffic proved an issue on the 2nd lap, getting stuck in villages behind cars or having to wait at junctions. As we got closer to the castle on Lap 2 we were joined by competitors from the later and shorter distances which resulted in a mix of experiences and speeds, including people in running shoes and some very basic bikes (one of the events ladies section was won by a girl in running shoes, flat pedals and not a speck of carbon) - so no excuse for any PTC members not giving it a go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe half marathon was 4 loops of the earlier course which did get muddier in sections but light trail shoes were fine, several people running in road shoes but they struggled in sections. Where the course started to get muddy straw was added to help. Several races were using the same course at the same time so the 2nd run was quite busy with everything up to a full marathon; on my last lap the under 16 Gravel/mountain Bike competitors were mixed in with us!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5:53:17. \u003cbr\u003eRun 1: 5km 24:11\u003cbr\u003eT1: 3:25\u003cbr\u003eCycle 90km: 3:24:59\u003cbr\u003eT2: 3:52\u003cbr\u003eRun 2: 21km 01:56:48\u003cbr\u003e26th overall. 5th out of 13 x 50 year olds; if only I’d been 6 months older I would have won the 60 year category\u003cbr\u003ebut there was only 3 of them.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eJamie:\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003e\u003cspan dir=\u0022auto\u0022\u003eSo I guess starting from the beginning it was unclear what to expect on arrival, I left giving myself 2:30 to make the 1:30 drive up there and just getting into the car park took a full hour so I felt I was arriving in the nick of time where in fact everything had been delayed by 30 minutes so all was fine.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eSimply following the crowd through the mud to sign in worked fine and milling around until everything was ready for us to drop bikes in the transition area and prep things to how you want them.\u0026nbsp;Waves were called in order to the start line for a short briefing before we were off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eThat’s actually where everything became simple. Follow the track and those in front of you all the way to the end of each section. Tho I must admit I almost started a third lap of the cycle because I didn’t spot the sign to turn in, I just recognised where I was and started asking “where’s transition?” To be pointed in the right direction. Probably due to being a little delirious from excessive cramp (also my own fault for not taking on enough electrolytes in the 24hrs leading up to the race).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eThe second run was also well signposted (if you’d paid attention to which coloured signs to follow) so got round fine if you can ignore quads calves and hamstrings all cramping at once, so crossed the line in 2:46 running like something you’d expect to see on the walking dead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan dir=\u0022auto\u0022\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\u0022auto\u0022\u003eHad to buy a hoodie (a few sizes too big) to mark the occasion and got to be honest, it’s got to be the best quality hoodie I own now. Will have to mark each new distance with some new piece of kit or souvenir to remember the pain we choose for ourselves. \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eOverall very enjoyable (if you enjoy that kind of thing) and better organised than most sporting events I’ve been to.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eIt was a shame that the swim was cancelled and replaced with a run, but I get it, health and safety takes precedence.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eEmma:\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eHever Castle was supposed to be my goal race after working out how to swim on my front at the start of June, and not being able to find an excuse to not actually do a triathlon. My plan was to do super sprint at the start of August, Sprint at the start of September and Olympic at the end of September. 3 weeks of covid put pay to that along with an apparent lack of ability to OWS (who knew it was a totally different discipline to just actually swimming?), which was evident after my eventual first ever triathlon at the start of the September (dorney super sprint in which I panicked in the water and skulled it on my back). I then did Woking Sprint Triathlon 2 weeks later with a pool swim to build back my somewhat destroyed confidence. I resigned myself to the Sprint at Hever and focused on being able to do 750m open water - somewhat neglecting my running and cycling. So... when Hever was converted to a duathlon I was \u0027at a distinct disadvantage\u0027 let\u0027s say (aka really annoyed, threw my toys out of the pram, and almost decided not to do it). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo how did it go? Swim... quite uphill, run-like and dryer than most swims I\u0027ve done. 2 laps - pretty muddy and stony. I took it slowly but steadily. Bike - also quite uphill - I don\u0027t really have the body for going uphills, but practice makes perfect and I do love the downhill that accompanies the uphill. Run - just 1 more lap and this time they had applied straw to the deepest muddy hills. Part of it was right next to the lake and looking at it I was quite happy not to be swimming in the mud bath that it was, even without the e-coli that apparently were having a great time in there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTrail shoes definitely needed - even on the walk from the car park to the site. It was obvious even as we were driving into the field we needed to park in, that there were going to be big problems getting out again. We left early afternoon on the Saturday and didn\u0027t need a tow but I can\u0027t imagine what it turned into later or on the Sunday. The roads to and from the parking field were narrow too and not really suitable for sending 100s of cars up at a time.\u003cbr\u003eRob says that the event village was pretty good (see photo). It was shocking that you had to pay to spectate - even if you had raced on the other day\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOverall it was lovely scenery and generally enjoyable but I wouldn\u0027t do it again. I have however now done my first sprint duathlon and have a time on the books to improve - which, quite frankly should not be too difficult!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eResults:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eJosh Lahiri - Sprint Plus - 2:20:33 5th Overall 2nd AG\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eEmma Franklin - Sprint - 2:04:37\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eJamie Mansfield - Olympic - 2:46:30\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eRichie Ross - Gauntlet Middle - 5:53:17 26th Overall 5th AG\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eRob Webb - Sprint - 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