So this is quite an exciting blog post. I actually wrote it on Monday but due to a busy week at work I haven’t had the chance to post it. Since then I have received some rather exciting news so I have amended it slightly. After my result at Staffordshire I applied for my Pro Licence, why not?! I met the criteria they were asking for but thought they might want me to wait a bit longer. On Thursday evening I received a letter from the British Triathlon Federation (BTF) confirming my status as a Pro Triathlete. Wow!

There are two very pleasing outcomes from my result last Sunday:

Race debrief:

Staffordshire was the first time I’d competed at an Ironman branded event.  Transition was split into two areas. T1 was located where we swam at Chasewater and began the bike course. This was a 30min drive away from T2, which was where we re-racked our bikes and started the run at Shrugborough Estate. I completely underestimated the amount of time it would take to drive backwards and forwards between the two places on Saturday.  We arrived at 9am and didn’t finish until after the race briefing at 6pm, but we managed to salvage the day a bit with a nice pub lunch.

One thing I did manage to do well was sort out accommodation relatively close to Chasewater so we didn’t have far to drive to the race start.  However, it still meant a 4.30am alarm call in the morning.  This was made worse by the fact that the windows in our hotel room didn’t open so even without moving we were sweating and the pub next door had a (very noisy) outside DJ and BBQ. I expect not to sleep the night before a race but I at least like to have the choice….

Race morning :

The 4.30am alarm went off and it was already hot! I had to apply sun cream which was a pleasant change to being freezing on race morning. We headed to the swim start which was a rolling wave start after the Pros had gone off. This was strange as there was no bustling, no pushing and a lot of space in the pens which I wasn’t expecting. We then walked along the jetty and onto the pontoon which ramped down into the water and you could only get two people down at a time, very civilised compared to normal. So I half dived, half belly flopped into the water and off we went.

One lap of Chasewater (1900m) turns out to be rather a long way (another thing I’m not quite used to yet). I seemed to manage to follow someone who swam twice as far as me as they were zig zagging all over the place which was rather irritating as they kept swimming into me. So I was relieved when I went around the final buoy.

The run to transition was about 1-2mins on concrete road, so I was huffing and puffing in my wetsuit. I managed to find my racked bag, stuffed my wetsuit in it and rather satisfyingly threw it at someone to collect haha. Picked up my bike and headed out over a lot of speed bumps. Ouch!

The first part of the bike was quite technical, with twisty, uneven, hilly and narrow roads on gravel. It took me until almost 90km to trust that the roads were actually closed and not break coming up to junctions, which was another welcome difference from most races. The middle section was relatively fast but it still contained rolling hills.  One pleasant part of the bike course was that there was barely any wind which is a rarity in the U.K. at the moment. The last section was extremely hilly, and I was completing this part at around 10am and by this point it was pretty hot! My lovely aerodynamic helmet acts like a nice little oven! Thank goodness for my speedsuit keeping me cool and out of the sun.

Needless to say I was very happy to arrive at Shrugborugh and start the run. As I came into T2 I saw Lucy Gossage flying along the run route so it was great to be running at the same time as the Pros. The run was 3 laps around the estate and through a local village called Little Haywood. I have to say a massive thank you to the crowd at the pub, I’ve never seen anything like it. They had a PA system and the streets were packed with cheering and music. I’m buzzing thinking about it. There is no denying that the run was hot but a lot of water went over my head (no sticky gatorade this time) which my speedsuit held really well to keep me cool. By the third lap it was boiling – hotter than Mexico, approximately 30degC .

Running down ‘Victory Alley’ was amazing. I was so relieved to finish and completed my first Ironman event! I didn’t know where I had come at this point because of the rolling waves. For about an hour it said I was 1st in my Age group and 4th women overall.  By the time everyone had finished, it was confirmed that I’d finished 2nd in my age group and 5th overall. We then realised the presentation ceremony was at 6pm… a 6 hour wait for a prize giving ceremony is a little ridiculous. We were trying to find shade and keep hydrated but it was worth it. I couldn’t miss out on my first Ironman podium. They also confirmed I had the 3rd fastest run time of the day which I was over the moon with!

I know I’ve only completed one event but at least now I’ve got a pretty good idea of my strengths and weaknesses at this distance.

Now a new chapter of my triathlon careers starts… as Pro!!

I can’t thank you sponsors enough for their continued support along my journey. Thank you to; DP World London Gateway, Hireco, Everyone Active and Yonda Racing; Ed Kirby Physiotherapy, Takley Chiropractic, iambodywise, Copper88 UK and Massage Tech for keeping my body functioning and able to perform. Trustartcoffee and Kate Percy’s Go Faster Foods for fuelling my workouts. Fenland Runner for my Ronhill sports clothing and Alphawoolfe trainers, AkashaWellness,  Funkita and Paddock Cycles.