After what has been a very long season I’m pleased to have competed for the first time at the British elite youth triathlon championships. It’s not been a great season for me starting off with the British performance assessment weekend back in April where after a solid swim I went onto the bike riding the race with only one shoe.
My debut at the British youth-junior superseries started off badly in Llaneli where I didn’t climatise before the swim and ran into a 12 degree dock . I went into shock and was pulled out of the water. My second race was in Leeds as part of the AJ bell world triathlon series. Lessons had been learnt after Llaneli and I found a spot to climatise in before. The pontoon start is always my favourite followed by the challenging hilly course of Roundhay Park.
I started the summer at the future outlaw event where I finished 5th and ended summer with the Team Relays (my favourite race). So my final race of the season was at Mallory Park. A stunning venue with its naturally technical course (27!!!!! 180^ turns). It was a great experience racing against the best (and some french athletes).
The swim started in the water which worked in my favour as it meant I could climatise to the freezing temperatures. I came out of the swim in the main group but had a shocking T1 which meant I was dropped from the group on the first bike lap. Therefore I rode the race solo. Onto the run and this was my best run yet. Although I didn’t catch anyone I managed to stay with various academy athletes.
All in all I’ve had a season to learn from making the leap up to the next level of racing and hope to come back even stronger next year.