Winter League

Take part in the Serpentine Handicap in Hyde Park on Saturday 6 December (link here).  If you cannot take part, please volunteer instead.   If you cannot make it to the Handicap, then please do a 'virtual' Handicap by running the distance (6.975km) one day during the week, and record your time. Race points are allocated in finishing order (not net time). Virtual runners score lower than real-life participants in the Handicap.

Swim 400m in a pool or in open water.

Cycle ten laps of the inner circle of Regent's Park, anticlockwise (each lap is almost exactly 1km) on a Santander bike, wearing a Serpentine top. If you can't get to Regent's Park, you can do a bike ride of 10km - preferably on a (non-electric) hire bike or some other clunker if there are no city hire bikes near you - and tick the 'virtual' option when you save your result. Photos please! (Of you and your bike, not your Garmin.)

Our take on the famous Rapha 500. Clock up as many hours of exercise as you can from Monday morning to Sunday night. This can be running, cycling, swimming, Pilates, yoga, Hyrox, Zwift, spinning, or whatever gets you moving or working. Your race position points and age-graded points are given in order of the total amount of time you log. You will also get bonus points on top of position points: 1 bonus point for every four hours of exercise or for every 100km covered.

Swim 1000m on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Cycle 30 loops of the inner circle of Regent's Park, anticlockwise, on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. (You do not have to do this on a Santander bike - but you can if you want to!) And take part (or volunteer for) in the Serpentine Handicap on Saturday 3 January 2026. If you cannot get to the Handicap, or you cannot get to Regent's Park, you can take part in these legs 'virtually' by cycling 30km and running 6.975km instead.  You can do virtual legs any day this week (Mon-Sun) but you should mark them as virtual when you enter your time: you will score lower points than the Short Course Weekend participants who swim 1km, run the Handicap and cycle 30 laps of Regents Park over Fri-Sun.  Each leg is scored separately so you could do some but not all legs virtually (eg if you do the Handicap but don't cycle in Regents Park, the cycling leg is scored as virtual).  And you can get points for doing one or two legs - you don't have to do all three (but you will get more points if you do more legs). This is a handicap race so your Winter League points are based on your handicapped finish times in each of the three sports.

Take part in the Met League Cross Country at Welwyn Garden City on Saturday 10th January. (Details here).  If you cannot make it to Welwyn, you can be a virtual participant by running a trail run of the same distance (but you will score below runners who come for the cross country race itself).

Add up the cumulative swimming time for a 10 x 50m swim. Your time is your total swimming time, excluding rests. Do not include the rest time in your total.

Do the Zwift "Waisted 8" route (32km) on a Time Trial bike on Zwift https://zwiftinsider.com/route/waisted-8/ You can do this on your own in your own time, or you can join a Serpie meet up (for example at 7pm on Wednesday)

Come to Battersea Park parkrun on Saturday 31 January, wearing Serpie kit.  If you are doing the parkrun, you must register your predicted time before 9am on Saturday 31st January.  Run without a watch (or with your watch face hidden).  Points are awarded based on proximity to your estimated time. Come for brunch with the Serpies afterwards at Grethe and Owen's place near Battersea Park. (Non-running supporters, family and Ruby-the-dog also welcome). If you cannot run, you can volunteer at the designated parkrun.  And if you cannot come at all you can run either another parkrun, or a 5km run during the week, without your watch being visible, to score as a virtual participant. In this case you need to register your predicted time in advance (and before 9am on Saturday) and then record your finish time afterwards.  

Swim 1250m in a pool or in open water.

NW Tri Take over or 16.1km on the Volcano circuit for Zwifters, and 16.1km cycling for non-Zwifters.

Do a 1,500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run in your own time.  Record your times here as you go along.  Points are awarded for the swim, bike and the run separately - so you could earn 90 points if you top every discipline, and you could get 180 points in the age-grading competition.