I entered this as I am originally from the North West and was planning on staying with family for the event. This was, of course, derailed by Covid, meaning I ended up staying overnight in a local hotel - not ideal as they wouldn’t let me store my bike inside and I spent most of the night worrying that my bike would get stolen!

Nevertheless, I started the morning, as always on race day, with jam on toast and a cup of coffee. I then had an exceptionally short drive to the race location which was at Alderford Lake. Silver Linings!

The event was much busier than I had anticipated, with around 700 competitors attending the Sprint, Super Sprint, Pink Wave, and Kids Duathlon. Luckily, I was starting at 8:15 so I didn’t have very long to hang around!

The swim went well; I was the second woman to start and even in the TT format, managed to catch up with the competitor in front of me – who I later found out was Paralympian Claire Cashmore! The course was very wiggly around the lake to make it up to around 500m which was quite difficult to manage – there were 2 dog leg turns which really slowed me down! I came 4th overall for the swim.

Then onto the bike – this had the potential to be a brilliant course – very few bends, flatish, and a long section along the A49 and the A41. It turned out that what few junctions there were, were quite tight and on to busy roads, requiring me to stop 3 times! This was quite frustrating, but the TT format meant I was always on the hunt for the competitor in front! I came 3rd by a couple of seconds which I was very pleased with.

The run: what a disaster - I went the wrong way! The course was two grassy off-road laps of the lake. There was a filter lane to go to the finish, or to do another lap of the course. In my exhausted delirium I went the wrong way and ran to the finish instead of doing another lap. I then had to run all the way back to the filter point and desperately try and regain the time lost. I think I must have lost about a minute. I would have been in 2nd or 3rd place but due to my mistake I came 7th. On the bright side, my actual pace was very good for me and I managed a consistent 7-minute mile! I even managed to smile for the camera!

Overall it was a great day out – I was very pleased to come 1st in my age group, and 3rd overall behind the Welsh Triathlete champ Rhian Roxburgh, and the Paralympian Claire Cashmore. It was really nice to hear a northern accent again, and it was a great way to test the training has been working!

Emily Varley

North West Triathlon, 19 Sep 2020

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