GOWER PLAY

Helping to close out the 2023 UK tri season in style was the Mumbles Triathlon. Battling the cut-offs, climbs and cows of the Gower was 220's Matt Baird. Here's his tale...

- MATT BAIRD

The sun is rising behind us, illuminating the high-rise windows of Swansea across the bay, while the Port Talbot industries beyond that are already puffing away into the Saturday morning sky. Both sprint- and middle-distance athletes depart together, creating a genuinely epic feel as 400 triathletes descend en mass down the slipway into the warm-ish late September waters of Swansea Bay for 2023's Mumbles Triathlon.

Us green-hatted 113km racers are clearly outnumbered by the mix of speedsters and beginners populating the sprint race, many of whom are from the local Porthcawl and Swansea Vale clubs of the buoyant South Wales tri scene. We swim as one shoal to the second buoy, where the sprint-distance racers take a sharp right back to the shore. The middle-distance racers have no such joy, venturing northwards to a distant green buoy like a team of undercover crack commandos. Or, if they're like me, DIY-shy triathletes wanting an extra-long day out to avoid fixing the leaky bathroom tap.

So far, so serene. That is, until we turn around that green buoy and head back to shore for the second 950m lap. The sun and swell combine to make sighting incredibly difficult, and I'm forced to remove my goggles just to gain a glimpse of the distant Mumbles seafront. The paddleboarders gently guide us into the right direction, but I'm soon burning up both time and energy.

I eventually reach the slipway's Aussie exit for the start of lap two... but a swift glance at my watch reveals that I've swum 400m more than I should have and taken 27 minutes to do so. The cut-off is an hour, so I need to get a shift on. And, given the majority of racers have already left the water, I'm now without the benefit of drafting on the feet of anyone.