European Sprint Duathlon Championships 2020, 7 Mar 2020

The Sprint Duathlon European champs was my first time racing for GB. I have been a runner since I could walk, but I only started cycling a year ago. I was really excited for the race as I went into it feeling fit and strong!

Run 1 was really good. It was a flat course which meant the race was fast. This meant that I probably went out a bit too quick but still managed to pace myself quite evenly.

Going on to the bike, I found myself in a group with some really strong cyclists, who I found it hard to keep up with as cycling is still new for me. I have only done a handful of drafting races, so it was a good experience but scary at the same time. Halfway through the bike I found myself being on my own quite a bit, which made the mental game tougher throughout the race, but I kept pushing through.

The last part of the duathlon was a 2.5km run. By this point I had lost a lot of positions on the bike and with it some of the motivation to race the last bit properly. Therefore, I took the opportunity to take in the experience, and enjoy the crowd cheering!

For my first GB race, I learnt a lot and I am excited now to work on the small errors I was making on the bike to help get my time down in future races. Tim has already started to help me up my game on the bike so I am excited to see what’s to come, and get it perfect for the World Champs in September. Overall I was happy with the race and excited to experience more on an international stage and set more PBs!

Maisie Boast