Oliver Caldwell and Mike Reys both participated and won their respective age groups in the annual Banana Triathlon, named after its “bananas” atmosphere, at Dorney Lake on 2 July. For Ollie, this was not his first experience and a rehearsal for world qualifiers later this year. However, Mike considered it his “try-athlon”. When lockdown hit us, he bought his first road bike since the turn of the century and fellow Otters convinced him this year that I should give it a “tri”.

Both started with an easy swim to save energy for the bike and run. Nonetheless, that seemed to be enough for them to come out first and second in the 40+ wave and stay well ahead of most of the other competitors. Cycling was tough with a crosswind that they had to fight when going down the lake. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t help much on the way back where the trees sheltered them from the wind. Aerodynamics were clearly key to a good bike ride there. The first lesson learnt!

Ollie finished very strongly in the 6th fastest time (39:21 for 10.2K) overall and really solidified his advantage over the competition in his age group. All things considered, especially how Mike felt after the cycling, he was very pleased to run his 10.2K in just under 45 minutes, a time he could barely make 4-5 years ago fresh from the start.

All in all, it was a very pleasant day with a lot of lessons learnt. Transitions could be a lot quicker for both of them, Mike wants to get the aerodynamics and nutrition right for himself, but more important: doing a try-athlon/triathlon is a lot of fun.

Best of luck to Ollie in the world qualifiers.