September 2013

WOW, WOW AND WOW!! That's all I can say at the moment. One week ago I won a silver medal at the World championships and I'm still coming back down to earth! Last year I won a bronze in Auckland and a lot of people thought I should do well again this year. I totally understand that and thank them for their confidence in me but it doesn't always work out like that. The World Champs is a funny event where you just can't know who your opposition is - people come and go and each venue attracts different nations. I was hopeful but by no means confident that I would get another medal this time. My training had gone really well over the last few weeks, with help from Sam,Graham and my lovely Tuesday night run group. I wasn't ill, had no major injuries and felt good - all I had to do was get to the line without messing anything up! We set off to London on the Wednesday with Sam and Chris so we could watch the Aquathon as a lot of my friends including TRiKS member Anna, were competing. It was a great event and really got us in the mood. We visited the GB tent, signed our names on the roll of honour and picked up our free banana. Sam and I even blagged an early registration so things were going well. What didn't go so well was the event merchandise and race T-shirt. I ask this at almost every race but why don't race organisers cater for the smaller triathlete? We pay the same money as everyone else and I rarely get a T-shirt that fits. This year we had even pre-ordered our sizes (or so we thought) and I still ended up with a mens size medium that went down to my knees! Even worse, when I tried to buy some kit at the Chain Reaction store, they had sold out of all the small sizes - and this was on day 1! Anyway back to the race......Thursday was spent attending the team briefing where we had to endure the usual crazy questions such as 'when do we get on the bike?') Some people sound like they have never done a triathlon before but maybe they are just nervous! Dawn is SO patient. It was so nice to meet all the friends that I have met over the years in the GB team and have a good chat with them. Then it was a steady jog round the run route to loosen the legs and on to rack the bike. The 45-49 GB girls are all really lovely and it was great to meet up with them in transition. So many of them wished me luck and that was really nice - Maria, Kim, Sarah, Jan - thank you so much! and I hope you all enjoyed the race. Then it was back to the apartment to get ready and relax (yeah, right cos that happened!) I didn't sleep much that night as I just wanted to get out there! The morning of the race was warm but wet. A very fine drizzle made sure that the cycle would be pretty lethal but at least it wasn't windy aswell! I wasn't off until 10.25am so I managed to watch Tony and Sam race first - Sam was going really well on the bike and looking pretty confident on the wet corners. I had everything crossed for her to have a good result. There were a lot of people falling off though and Mark and Chris were soon calling part of the course 'crash corner'. Then is was my turn. The worst part of the whole race is when they hold you in a pen near the pontoon for up to 20 minutes. That's when the nerves really kick in until you almost can't breathe. I was looking in the Grandstand and managed to see my Mum and Dad who had travelled from France to come and see me. Their big smiles and waves really picked me up. And then we were off......I actually had a good swim, with nothing to report. Not too much bumping and barging at the start and I managed to get on the feet of someone by the first bouy so felt that I'd done OK. When I got out of the water I was met with so much cheering and shouting I couldn't believe it. Loads of my friends had come down to watch it was fabulous - unfortunately they were telling me that I was in 15th place - 2 minutes down on the leader. Oh dear I was going to have to have a bloody good bike ride! The bike ride was absolutely lethal! On the first corner I felt my back wheel go and thought I'd have to be really careful. I do like challenging bike courses though and was soon passing some very nervous looking competitors. Unfortunately none of them were in my age group. After 2 laps I finally caught 3/4 45-49 ers (including an American who had just fallen off) but I was still quite far down. Then I suddenly came across quite a few all together and as we flew in to transition we caught another American - I realised that I must be in 3rd/4th place. So a quick transition was needed and as I ran out I saw Bridget McMahon from Switzerland in front of me. I knew she was good as she had won the Sydney Olympics as an elite so I got on her tail. No-one else came past me so I knew that it would be between the two of us. At the first turn I passed Suzanne Hedges who had had an amazing swim and bike. Then I saw my friends shouting their heads off -"You are in second place, get the Swiss girl!". I tried, I really tried and the whole crowd seemed to be shouting for me. She was just too fast though and although I did a PB of 19:20 (in a triathlon) thanks to my fabulous On Cloudracers and came to within 7 seconds of her, I faded a little on the second lap and she eventually finished 20 secs in front. I managed to grab my GB flag and ran down the finish Shute with a huge smile on my face. I hadn't managed to win but silver wasn't bad. I couldn't have raced any faster. Suzanne then ran in to win the bronze with Anke from Germany in 4th and the American in 5th all coming in together. we hugged and said well done, it had been such a close race and they are all amazing ladies. There has been a lot said about whether Bridget McMahon should have been racing that day. Her history is not perfect and many believe that an ex-drugs cheat shouldn't be allowed back. She didn't break any rules though (although maybe the rules need changing?) but at the end of the day she was the fastest there and deserved to win. I am disappointed that I can't say I am World Champion but I am no different to anyone else in that I had a great race and was just beaten by someone who was faster. What I will never forget though is that Bridget didn't shake my hand at the finish or give me the chance to say well done. She just walked off although she must have known I was right behind her. She also didn't bother to come to the medal ceremony to pick up both her Golds (she also won the standard distance). That seems to be a bit disrespectful to me but may be she still thinks she is an elite and a bit too good for us real age-groupers! My family and friends were amazing and their support made such a difference. Mum, Dad, Chris, Caroline, Mark, Sharon, Simon, Jacqui, Lenka, Hilary and especially my team mate Sam. A soon as I had finished she hugged me and I found out that she had had an awful race as she got stomach cramps on the run. She still came 7th though! She was so upset but so happy for me. That's a true friend. She suffers so badly when the cramps start but she always battles on and she has had some amazing results this year. I know that if she keeps training as she does, she will get that World medal. Thank you also to everyone else who supported me via text/Facebook etc. Even though the medal ceremony was 2 days later and it was pouring down, Mum, Dad, Sam, Chris and Bill all stayed to cheer me on. It was fab and we were made to feel really special. I was on the podium with a man from Gibralter who was the only medallist ever from that country. He was so proud and it was great to share it with all the other athletes. This year has been amazing and I am very proud of my results - a National Gold, 2 European Golds and a World Silver. It's time for a rest now and then to plan 2014. I do quite fancy Canada in August though........

August 2013

A very late entry this month - I am not sure why I just don't seem to have had any spare time to sit down and write recently. Anyway I very much doubt that there are many who are sitting on the edge of their seats just waiting for my latest triathlon ramblings! But if you have been, I apologise. August has been quiet in terms of racing as much of my time is now taken with training leading up to the World Champs in September. My training partner Sam has been a big help, joining me for some hard run intervals and dragging me round some very fast TT rides. I am not totally convinced that training with someone so much younger is a brilliant idea (oh, do I ache!) but it has been fun! My first race back after my holidays was Blithfield Sprint and I think I must have still been in holiday mode as I made a complete mess of it. It is the England Triathlon sprint championships and faily local so I thought it would be a good one to get back into the swing of things. Everything started quite well - the swim was cold and choppy which I don't like but I seemed to be out of the water quite well up so that was good. The bike also went well - I felt strong and came into T2 just in front of Emily Whitmore (very young) and Maria Powell (my age) and felt good. I was hopeful of maybe winning my age group as I know that Maria normally does the standard distance so I was banking on her not having a sprint in her. Anyway we flew into T2 together and I could see her in the corner of my eye as I took my helmet off .......only it wouldn't come off! Maria ran off and I still couldn't get my helmet off. Maria was now a speck in the distance and I still couldn't get it off! I even thought about running in it for a second and got a bit panicky but eventually I found the clasp and finally got my trainers on. By this time I was a good 30 seconds behind Maria and even though I tried to catch her I just ran out of time. I have to admit I gave up with about a kilometre to go and just resigned myself to silver. I was so cross with myself but put it down to being out of race practice. Mark and Tony met me at the finish line and they had really funny looks on their faces. I complained about 'my bloody helmet' and they just fell about laughing. Then Mark told me (really nervously) that I had done the whole bike ride with my helmet on back to front! I could have died - he even showed me a photo and I look a complete muppet! Looking back, I thought that some of the marshalls looked at me a bit funny. I looked ridiculous! It just shows though that it doesn't matter how experienced you are, you can still make big mistakes! At least I can see the funny side of things now. My next race was the National Relays, which I love as our club always get lots of teams together and we all camp and generally have a good time. Its so nice not to have to stress too much about where you finish and of course, given my last race, no transitions!! I was in the TRiKS ladies team (the TriKettes) with Sam, Caroline and Lenka and we were all up for racing hard and enjoying it. Sam got us off to a flying start with a 7 min swim and we managed to stay well placed with us all having strong bike legs, despite it getting windier and windier as the day went on. I was last off in the run and I think we were about 10th female team. I normally dread the run at Holme Pierrepoint as it seems to be at least 5 miles each way up and back down that lake. But I felt good so the training is obviously paying off. All our club mates were on the finish straight and we high fived all the way down. What a great feeling - I am really starting to like that finish straight and once again I finished with a big smile on my face. We later found out that we were 7th female team so were over the moon with that. We didn't quite get on the podium but decided to have a team photo on it anyway. We'll do it next year! Then it was back to the campsite for a club BBQ and a round up of the day. All our teams had done well, with everyone racing hard and really enjoying it. A nice end to August but now the pressure is really on as its only 2 weeks to the Worlds!