European Championship Sprint Triathlon, Munich, 14 Aug 2022

This was my first international race and I was determined to give it everything, enjoy the experience and soak up all the atmosphere.  It was a 4am start on race day and getting on the team bus with all the other athletes to be transported to the start line was where the nerves started to kick in. I lined up on the swim start and I remembering standing there smiling thinking it had been two years of hard work to get me to this point. I told myself that if I did my very best, I would be happy with the race. However, that was a complete lie as I never enter a race to just finish and I was secretly aiming for a top 12 placing!

I went off hard in the swim and as I reached the first turning point I was positioned in the middle of the race and tried to settle into a good pace down the back straight. After a few minutes I started to think I was getting clear of some of the swimmers on my toes, however a quick look up told me I was swimming off course and had strayed right out towards the other side of the lake. Cursing myself I got back on track and exited the water in 23rd place.

T1 was not my finest moment, I have never experienced such a large transition and I struggled to find my bike, running down the wrong row and then up and down the right one until I finally located Roy.  

Onto the bike course and I had missed the main the bike pack so I resigned myself to doing the full 21km alone. I knuckled down and battled on against a strong wind but after a couple of km’s a small bike pack of about 6 or 7 came flying past and a fellow GB athlete shouted at me to get on the back wheel. Knowing this was probably my only chance to get in a group I stood up out of my saddle and sprinted hard until thankfully I managed to get in the draft. The rest of the bike course was an absolute dream. The group grew to about 14 and we whizzed through the streets averaging 39kph. I took my turn on the front and on one of the only hills I took my chance and went for the break away however was soon reeled back in by the Germans! 

T2 was also not smooth sailing. Nearing the end of the bike leg I moved up to the front couple of riders to hopefully have a smooth run into transition. I took my feet out of my shoes and prepared to jump off my bike and as my foot touched the floor the rider in front of me came crashing down. I am not 100% sure what happened, all I can say is her shoes went flying, she was the floor and her bike was in the air coming towards me. Thankfully I managed to jump sideways with her bike only hitting my left foot.  

Now I just had the run left. I was extremely nervous for this as I had been ill with covid only 10 days prior to the race and had struggled to run at all since then. I set off and tried to run at a steady pace but at the 2km mark there was a steep hill that made my lungs scream and my legs burn. I saw other athletes struggling up the hill and this gave me the incentive to push hard and take a few more places. The run is usually something I look forward to and one of my strong points however, I struggled throughout the race to maintain any sort of pace and felt myself fading in the last km.  

I crossed the finish line in 18th place out of 36. Despite missing my target of top 12 I cannot be disappointed with this result as only 10 days before when suffering with covid I was questioning if I would race at all. The crowds on the course were absolutely incredible and this experience has only made me more determined to train hard. I am already looking ahead to 2023!

Alli Coleman