THE ONLY WAY IS UP

Just one week after a taste of victory at the National Breca Swimrun Championships, 220’s Kate Milsom headed to Wiltshire for the inaugural Outlaw Half Bowood. Could she take the tape again… or would the hills have something to say about that?

- KATE MILSOM

The steep gravel path scatters beneath my feet and for a moment I’m running on the spot. My tired muscles strain at the effort of yet another hill. Everyone around me is walking, heads down, but I know that if I follow suit, I’ll be done for. We’re only six kilometres into the final run leg of the inaugural Outlaw Bowood middle-distance triathlon, but not even the lush green views across the estate can distract me from the lactic burn.

I’ve been pushing hard for four and a half hours, swimming with the sunrise and cycling for hours along undulating country lanes under the September sun. I’d assumed the run would be a flat, lakeside jolly to the finish line. Turns out, I was very much mistaken. It’s the third big climb on the course and this is only the first lap! Gritting my teeth, I make it to the summit and wheeze back down the following grassy slope, which takes us alongside the estate’s mile-long trout lake. Then, before I can catch my breath, we start to ascend again…

NOT NORMAL PROCEDURE

Thinking back to this time last week, I was on a sandy beach in Jersey with the sun beating down. Not on holiday, but rather competing in the National Breca Swimrun Championships along Jersey’s rocky coastline and choppy seas. It’d been a hectic summer of last-minute race entries and a foray into swimrun, which had surprisingly proven quite successful and gained me two winner’s glass tankards, along with the title of national pairs champion.