Bronze at the British Sprint Championships

Waking up at 5am on Sunday 10th, the last thing I wanted to do was get in a 13 degree river. With my mind taken off the magnitude of the race whilst battling my inner demons putting me off it, I didn't feel too nervous. That's until we arrived at the venue when the butterflies hit me and they hit me hard. I definitely was extremely nervous.

Set up and warm up all went smoothly though, despite the ridiculously long toilet queue, and before long I was pulling on my wetsuit kind of listening to the briefing but predominantly freaking out internally. I was in the second wave at 8:05 and getting in the river wasn't nice. But the sooner I got in the more time I could spend paddling around and controlling my hyperventilation. Admittedly this was probably the worst swim I've had for feeling panicky but I found some feet for the last half and tried to relax on the way back for T1.

I'm stood up on the far left

Emerging from T1 and pushing the pedals I felt loads of resistance, initially making me think my legs were shot for some reason. But a glance back at my rear brake reminded me that I'd forgotten to clear it of cut grass after racking and it was running against the wheel. Fortunately it dislodged itself before long and I didn't need to stop. Settling in I began overtaking numbers lower than mine telling me they were in my age group and motivating me to keep pushing. It was quite breezy out on the course but it was nice to pick up the speed with any tailwinds. I came in off the bike clocking the 3rd fastest time in my age group.

T2 was pretty shabby but setting off on the 5km run I felt good. Relaxing somewhat after a couple of hundred meters I started picking off a few people. Unbeknownst to me I was managing to kick my left calf, leaving it slightly bloody and extremely bruised a few days later! Being totally unaware at the time though I kept the pressure on throughout the run and was hanging on for the last lap. With the finish line coming ever closer I kind of picked up the pace and clocked the second fastest run of my age group.

It wasn't till I'd printed off my timing slip and actually waited for the results that I could believe I'd come third. I was and still am totally over the moon with that result, getting on a British Triathlon podium and receiving that medal was really special. And congratulations to Rosie Lindsey and Rosie Weston for coming 2nd and 1st respectively.

In addition to this results I gained a Q2 for the 2015 World Champs in Chicago and a Q3 for the 2016 Europeans in the above age group. So this race had great outcomes in many respects, and this takes the pressure off for Nottingham where I was aiming for Q spots.

Tomorrow I am racing the Xtra Mile Wilmslow sprint, where I placed 3rd last year. My coach and I have just worked this race into a weeks training so I'm not expecting to feel super fresh but it will be good to see what I can do. A race report will follow in the next week.

Until next time, stay motivated,

Lucy