OK, so when I left off last time, I had just told you guys
about my selection for the European Youth Olympic games qualifier.
This was a big race and many great athletes were there
racing. It was a completely new experience for me, firstly it was a scorching
day in Weert,Holland, which is very different to normal English weather, so
that was one challenge to start with. The second thing was that it was my first
sprint triathlon, so this meant twice the distance to what I have been doing
and what I’m used to. To start with I’ll tell you about the swim; to describe
it in one word.... BRUTAL. In the words of Olivia Mathias “I didn’t think girls
could be that violent!” I managed to end
the swim as I’d started it, next to Sian Rainsley, so I was pleased with this.
Olivia, Sian and I got in the second bike group and managed to go round the
course still very fast but doing near to no work, which was, now we look back
to it, a good decision. We still managed to catch the lead group which included
Elizabeth Hood, so 4/5 British girls went out onto the run pretty much
together, all fighting for the one spot in the Youth Olympic games. I was
chuffed with my run and managed to finish second Brit girl home, just under a
minute behind Sian Rainsley who had an amazing run and ran her place into 6th
place, bagging the spot for China. I finished 19th overall and I was
aiming for top 30 so I was ever so happy. As I finished I got pulled over to
one side for an interview which was great experience at public talking,
although i couldn’t hear a thing the man was saying due to loud music and
screaming crowds!! I’m so happy for Sian and well done to all the other British
girls; Olivia Mathias, Elizabeth Hood and Philippa Chambers.
The next weekend was followed by another hard and important
race; European Youth relays qualifier! It was back to good ole’ English weather
with the North standing up to its reputation of having the worst weather in
England. It didn’t stop raining ALL day.
The race was held at Hetton le Hole, a course where the IRC’s was held a couple
years ago when I was still racing in Tristar 3. It was a solid swim with Sian
Rainsley leading it out. With a strong T1 it just left me and Sian as the lead
2 cyclist. We had a good pace for 2 laps, but going onto the 3rd as
I took the front, next thing I knew I looked back to find I’d dropped Sian. I
think I must have panicked more than anything, thinking I’d gone wrong. I kept
going and tried to just keep a head of new strong bike pack just formed
containing Olivia, Sian and Kate Waugh. Going out onto the run I had a roughly
10 second head start on the other girls and I knew I would have to run my heart
out if I wanted to stay ahead of Sian looking back on the previous weeks run
times. There were 2 laps on the run, for the first lap it just felt wrong; I
felt like Bambi! But then once Sian caught me, I managed to settle into her rhythm
and in the end had a reasonably strong run, finished 2nd just under
10seconds behind Sian and then Olivia and Kate, who sprinted for 3rd
and 4th, just under 10 seconds behind me. So the race team for
Russia, European Youth relays will be Olivia, Kate and I (Sian isn’t coming due
to selection for European champs in Austria!)
The weekend after that, again another race. This wasn’t as
bad as it was only an Aquathon, although in some ways it was 10x harder as I
had a battle for 2nd the whole run course with Emer Winch. Kate
Waugh had to catch for the first lap and a half but then went with roughly 400m
to go and I was shattered. I was happy to get 2nd and that gave me
my first points into the British Youth super series, after the race that shall
not be named (duathlon). The elites were
racing later in the day and as us girls had our presentation, the elites were
setting up transition. It was a bit surreal just walking by Alistair Brownlee
and Gomez as they set up their trainers. Kate did blush, just a little, as
Gomez had a look over to us on our way off the podium.
The day after Hyde Park aquathon, my family and fellow Eastern
region athlete and England talent squad member Oliver Swallow and his family
had a lovely walk around Hyde park and visited many great stalls that were set
up for race day. Here we met the great “Sunwise” glasses people, who gave Ollie
and I a fab pair of sunglasses each with 4 changeable lenses, ready for summer
racing.
3 weekends down and only 1 to go, but it was going to be one
of the hardest: Blenheim Palace Triathlon. After doing this course last year
and thinking I enjoyed it, this year could not have gone more different. My
swim was ok, not as good as I was hoping for but not terrible. I made the
decision to take my wetsuit off at the bottom of the hill before the vertical
400m run to T1 after doing some research. There was quite a big bike pack formed
including Hoodie, Mathias, and Waugh. I
felt awful at this point. Going up one of the hills I started thinking “I’m
going to get dropped, it’s ok though any position is great” My head started to
drop and my lungs were burning. The pace started to drop slightly (or it may
have been the fact that there hills subsided for a few minutes) which made me
feel better as I could start to regain a normal breathing pattern once again. I
was delighted to get off the bike! Onto the run, Lizzy Hood and I started
running together. I seriously can’t remember much of the run but one
conversation I can recall went a bit like this:
Me: “Water, I need water so thirs....”
Liz:”SSHHHHHHHHHHHH”
After getting the 2 cups of water I desperately needed I
felt like a new woman. I made a kick from Hoodie and ran with Emma Clapton for
a bit, until she dropped me for the last 800m. I was so pleased with 3rd at the
end of the race, especially as I had a bit of a wobbly on the bike. So that was
my second lot of points onto the British super series.
Off the sport subject, I have now finished school for good,
well until September anyway when I start 6tth form. All exams done and
dust, I’m now looking forward to a hard
summers training and I may even try get a part time job to fill up the 13 weeks
I have off. I will update you guys again after Russia.
P.s Thanks to Carl Goose from ‘Carl Goose sports therapy’
for the great sports massage which helped me keep going for 4 weekends on the
trot. Also Human performance Unit at Essex university for having me on their excellent race team and for their support!
