Short Course Weekend (SCW) Handicap Triathlon kicks off this weekend and will consist of a 1,000m swim, 30km cycle and a 6.975km run.

The challenge will take place anytime a Handicap event is taking place which is usually the first Saturday of the month.

Competitors must complete the challenge over the Friday, Saturday and / or Sunday of a given Handicap weekend.

The swim will consist of 1,000m and this can be done in any pool or in open water; the cycle is 30 anti-clockwise loops (30km) of the inner circle in Regents park; and the run is the ≈7km Handicap run.

This is a Handicap event, the same as the Serpentine Handicap which the club has organised on the first Saturday of the month for more than forty years. You will be given a handicap time for each of the three legs to put us all on a roughly level playing field. So like the run Handicap, anyone can win: the more you improve, the better you will do in the SCW Handicap Triathlon.

Click here to sign up for the SCW Handicap Triathlon and then come back to the same page to post your times as you complete each of the three legs.

As this is the first SCW Triathlon Handicap, your handicap times will be based on any past triathlon races we can find in the results database. Once you have completed a SCW Triathlon Handicap, those times will be used to calculate your future start times.

We are also calculating age-graded times. Swimming age grading uses the times for elite swimmers which we found online here. The cycling age-grading uses the best peformances for each age-group from the London T100 Olympic Distance in August 2025 (using the results here). The run age-grading is the same as usual, using tables from WAVA. (If anyone has better ideas for how to age-grade the swim and bike legs, please get in touch.)

If you can’t manage all three events in the weekend then just submit one or two out of the three, this is multisport after all and we try to be as inclusive as possible.

Now onto the rules:

• Watch or recording device must be set into race mode so it will be your total time including any unforeseen stoppages
• The swim can be completed in any pool or in open water on the Friday, Saturday or Sunday
• The cycle is 30 loops of the inner circle of Regents park going anti-clockwise. Like the swim, this can be completed on the Friday, Saturday or Sunday. You can use any self-pedal bike of your choosing but no drafting.
• The run must be completed at the official Serpentine Handicap on Saturday morning. If you volunteer at the Handicap itself and cannot run the race then your time will still be accepted but you have to run the Handicap course on either the Friday, Saturday or Sunday
• Serpie kit is a must!!