28th November marked the KWCC 2024 annual general meeting and took place in The Royal Pug, Leamington Spa.
It was great to see 30% of the club in attendance with members covering the full range of cycling and social interests across the club. Along with the usual celebrations of 2024 activity, committee elections and discussions around plans for 2025 we also held our annual awards ceremony.
Over the weekend of 27/28th July 2024 a group of four Wheelers completed the Kemble Round. This is a 160km / 3000m largely off-road route around the South & West Cotswolds. The route was designed by a Kemble local during lockdown, and published here: https://thekembleround.uk. It is free to use, but a donation to Great Western Air Ambulance is requested.
The route nominally starts and ends in Kemble, but we opted to start and finish in Winchcombe, being the nearest point to home, with an overnight stay at the Bear of Rodborough on Minchinhampton Common, roughly half way round (very roughly as it turned out).
The four of us, Chairman Adam Witchell, Kris Turner, John Allies and myself (Jim Palmer) set off from Wincombe, and started with a tough climb up onto Cleeve Common to join the route. We had a brief delay whilst waiting for a group of Morris Dancers to clear the lane, and stopped for coffee at Rencomb village stores, and lunch at a pub in Cirencester. We then continued through Kemble and on to our overnight stop. The first day had been relatively easy, with around 80km and 1100m of climbing.
The first half of day 2 in contrast was brutal. A succession of super-steep climbs, mostly tarmac, and long challenging off-road descents meant that the first 60km took us over 6 hours. We had a brief coffee stop at a bakery in Wotton-under-edge, and a luxury lunch (Co-Op meal deal!) in Stroud. The views over the Severn Valley to the Forest of Dean and later on to the Malverns were amazing as we worked our way up the western edge of the Cotswolds through a succession of beautiful woods. Viewpoints at Nibley Knoll and Birdlip were stunning. Fortunately the second 40km was easier going, after the long climb out of Stroud, eventually we were climbing back up onto Cleeve Common (familiar from a number of HONCs) for a final long descent into Winchcombe. Day 2 figures were 100km, 1970m, and moving time 6hr47m (elapsed 9hr). To put this into context, the ‘Fastest Known Time’ for the whole round (i.e. both days of our trip) is a scarcely believable 6hr 55m!
Overall, a fantastically well designed route, but my attempt at splitting into two roughly equal days needs some work! We were super lucky with the weather which was warm and sunny throughout, without being too hot, and the going was mostly excellent, with a few short muddy sections, and a some small stretches a bit overgrown.
Overall a very enjoyable weekend in great company, thanks for coming guys!
In 2023 Dawn had a DNF at IM Switzerland due to getting heatstroke as a result of the 38-degree temperatures throughout the day. Determined to finish this race Dawn went back in 2024 to get the job done. Luckily the forecast was very favourable to the Brits racing, a high of 19 degrees but with rain, cloud and light winds actually felt quite cool. Perfect!
See Dawn’s account of the race below.
The Swim
I was worried that the swim was going to be cancelled as the Swiss Federation are quite strict about the water temperatures and often cancel or shorten the swim section if the water is below 14.5 degrees. The day before the race it was measured at 14.5 degrees but miraculously over night it had warmed up to a toasty 16 degrees so the full 3.8km swim was permitted.
Because it was still considered quite cold, neoprene boots were allowed so I decided to wear mine as knew from the previous year that getting into the water there were lots of sharp rocks/stones and knew the boots would help with this. I also knew it was going to be a slower swim than normal as I’ve had a shoulder injury since February and every training session has been miserable for me due to the pain.
When you are swimming with 2,000 other people at the same time it can usually get a bit frenetic and you often get hit in the face by flailing arms. I’m usually prepared for this and find you sometimes have to give a bit of a dig back to those in your way. What I wasn’t expecting was some idiot to be backstroking (an instant DQ if spotted by officials). I couldn’t get past him for ages but eventually managed to get around him. I did hear the race official whistle blowing about 5 minutes later, so really hoping that he got pulled up for it, as it was so dangerous. Also, I can’t quite put my finger on why but IM Switzerland is a very tough swim course. On paper, as a lake swim it shouldn’t be but it’s quite choppy and looking at the swim times (even those first out of the water) the times are much slower in comparison to other races. So, whilst I was still disappointed with a 1.24 hr swim it was kind of what I expected.
The Bike
Getting into transition it was raining quite hard and I was surrounded by lots of men with very low body fat literally shaking with cold whilst trying to get their bike kit sorted. No such problems for me! I decided to opt for a gilet over my tri suit and was chuckling at lots of the Europeans who were putting full tights and warm jackets on, but I guess they probably laughed at me getting too hot last year.
The bike is tough, no steep hills but lots of long steady ones. Due to the heavy rain I was very cautious to start with, but it eased off after an hour and I started to find my rhythm and stuck to my nutrition plan. I knew I needed to leave something in the tank for the marathon so rode conservatively for the whole 112 miles. That said with 7,200ft of climbing it was hard work but some of the descents made up for it, as did spotting an Alpine Eagle soaring above my head for part of the course – just stunning.
Finished the bike in about 7hrs 50 which was fine by me. I had finally (after 7 previous Ironman races) nailed my nutrition and was not feeling sick as a dog at the end of the bike. So knew I just had to get that run done and I would be ok.
The Run
It was a novelty starting a run and being able to take food and drink onboard, so I started a plan of running between the feed stations (which were roughly a mile apart) and walking through them to pick up more nutrition. I then alternated between drinking water, coke or electrolytes and eating ‘salty snack’ plus some brioche I had stuffed in my back pocket.
Now my running is even worse than my cycling, so I amazed myself for being able to run solidly up to the 20-mile mark. However not long after the wheels came off but I knew I was easily within the time cut off and had 3 hours to walk the last 6 miles if needed. The support from the other competitors on the last lap was great and as usual I found lots of people to chat with, which helped me get through those last few miles.
I think my marathon time was about 5hr 20. Crossed the finish line in 15hrs 10 although it’s a bit of a blur but there is photographic evidence of it and they gave me a medal so it clearly happened!
Job done
Happy to have finally ticked IM Switzerland off my list. I’d initially signed up to race it in 2020 but Covid put paid to that and again in 2021, and then with my DNF in 2023 this race had been hanging over me for 4 years. Usually in the aftermath of my races I say never again but I didn’t even bother this time as earlier in the year I’d already signed up for to Ironman Ottawa in 2025!
