The event is held in the stunning surroundings of Windsor Castle and the Long Walk.
Paling (M40-44) had previously completed this race in 2016 in two hours 38 minutes and was determined to break 150 minutes.
He started the swim strongly and used the current well. He followed up with a bike ride that was four minutes quicker than his previous attempt and a run that was eight minutes faster.
Paling was astounded to see that he had finished in a time of 2hr 12min 23sec, coming first in his age group.
He had doubts about the accuracy of the swim time but given the improvements in the other disciplines he is confident that he would have still broken the 2:30 barrier.
Suzanna Kinsella (F45-49) also took part and put together a consistent race, recording a time of 2:57.08 to finish eighth in her section despite forgetting where she had put her run shoes in the second transition.
At last weekend’s Eastbourne triathlon there were four club athletes competing in the sprint distance (750m swim, 18.3km bike, 5km run).
Starting from the lifeguard’s beach, the triathletes took on an iconic route, swimming against the backdrop of the historic Eastbourne pier, cycling the roads through the South Downs National Park via Beachy Head and running on the promenade to Holywell, before finishing on the Western Lawns.
In the sprint distance, first home for the club was Richard Bysouth (M40+) in 1:12.40, finishing an impressive 15th out of 134 competitors and fourth in his age group.
Nik Austen produced a superb sprint finish to take ninth in age group (M40+) in 1:19.19, narrowly missing a photographer and barrier.
Graham Hubbard (M40+) managed a time of 1:24.37 followed shortly afterwards by Mark Poulton (M40+) in 1:26.58.
Julian Ward (M40+) took on the longer Olympic distance (1500m swim, 41.5km bike, 10km run)and finished in 3:00.23, 25th in the age group.
The following day, two Tunbridge Wells triathletes were competing in the Sussex Sprint Triathlon held at Ashburnham Place in Battle.
This race consists of a 750m lake swim, 20km challenging rural bike course and 5km run within the grounds of Ashburham Place.
Matthew Usher (M45-49) came fourth overall and first in his age group in 1:15.38, just three seconds off a podium place. George Woodhouse (M40-44) was third in his category in 1:28.08.
