End of the season

 So with Nottingham being the last race of the season, I really wanted to end it on a good race. I'd prepared well and had 

inspected the course so I had no doubts about where I as going .My race was quite late in the day, being the second to last race, starting at 2.35pm. It was quite a weird day on the weather side: one minute it would be very cold and raining, then the next minute it would be beaming sunshine and boiling hot! I got there just in time to watch the ETU junior girls cup race. It was a great race to watch with such a strong field. I knew pretty much everyone in the race as the Italian girls who I’d been on camp with earlier in the year were also competing. I also got to see the tristar 3 race, boys and girls, which was good to see and cheer for Eastern region.

After 4 hours of waiting around, it was finally my time to go. On the way down to the start a thunder storm took over the sky. It was raining so hard, but luckily we saw no lighting. I quickly put my wetsuit on to avoid getting cold and kept jumping around. I was a bit worried about the pontoon start due to the fact that the previous night during registration, I found that I wasn’t on the start list. They missed the top few so the A’s and B’s were not there. So I happened to have to highest and last possible number in my race. I wasn’t use to this, normally being at the front with Alden! But in the end they drew numbers out of a hat, so I ended up being in the first third of people getting on. I lined myself up directly with the buoy and Livvy Mathias managed to find herself next to me!

Boom boom, boom boom. The heart beat started, but it was hard to get nervous when Livvy just kept saying how she hated the heart beat. They blew the horn so quickly after “On your marks”, I’m pretty sure I was the last to dive in. It was ok as I think I came up just on Livvy’s shoulder. Liv and I swam next to each other until the first buoy, breathing in time looking at each other for some f it. At the first buoy I had the inside line so Liv just dropped back onto my hip. The swim was so cold. I led out of the water and was really pleased with my transition, again leading out. For the first time this season I actually had a decent mount! It was just Emer and I for the first 400m but there was a large group of 5 or 6 that it was inevitable we were going to get caught. The bike was tough with a very unstable pace. So many surges occurred and also many drops in pace. But we still managed to gain over 1 minute on the chase group. Going into T2 me and Kate had a little collision due to a very tight corner. My T2 was terrible. My wetsuit was on top of my trainers, making it very difficult to find them. I went out of T2 in 5^th. I was roughly 10 seconds down on Kate, Liv and Lizzy. With Georgia Hannam roughly 5 seconds ahead. The first half was agony. They just kept running further away. I was still in 5^th at half way. Just after this point I caught Lizzy up. We ran together for a while but in the end she told me to go and gave me words of encouragement. Liv kept looking behind and I could tell the gap was getting smaller.  Only at 400m to go did I catch her and that’s when she asked “can we finish together?” I must admit I just kept running through, having no energy to speak.

So I was so happy with 3^rd, after having to run myself into the position. Normally my placing would go the other way on the run, so it’s showing how much my running is improving by which gives me great confidence and motivation for a hard winters training and cross country season.  1^st was Kate and 2^nd was Georgia.

Overall in the series I secured 2^nd, with Kate 1^st and Emma Clapton 3^rd.

On top of this season I also had exams and GCSE’s to think about. I waited until I got home Friday night, rather than receive them on the Thursday like most people. I was happy enough Friday with the race but to come home and find I got; 6xA*’s, an A and a B: put me on such a high.

Overall its been such a great season and hopefully next season when I move into junior, it will be just as good. I’m especially looking forward to the longer distance!