English Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships, Blithfield, 20 Aug 2023

The English sprint distance champs was being held just 20 minutes away from my parents house, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see how I fared against a spicy field. I wasn't feeling in the best shape mentally after a more stressful week than normal at work, undoubtedly triggered by those damn female hormones. I've also been experiencing some pain/discomfort in my right foot and had being playing with the idea of withdrawing after the bike leg since my A race is yet to come. But these things are out of my control, so I put them aside and set out to perform the best I could on that day.

The swim was fairly calm, I didn't really get bashed about which was nice for a change. There were quite a few women out before me, but I did a decent time and was still competitive. The start of the bike leg was carnage. Within the first couple of kms there was a village with parked cars on one side, making the road too narrow for 2 cars to pass. A few of us got caught behind an ice cream van, who was caught behind a slower cyclist. After a bit of freewheeling, we managed to get around only to have to slam on the brakes as a parked car pulled out right in front of us. This caused about 10 of us to have to unclip and put our foot down, which was really frustrating given that I was hoping to make up time on the faster swimmers. At this point I was even more seriously considering withdrawing after the bike leg, since I didn't feel like the race was going that well!

The rest of the bike leg went a bit better though and I did find my rhythm. I'd chosen my TT bike with disc cover for the race, but many others had chosen road bikes or chosen to race without the disc. I spent much of the race in a game of cat and mouse with a woman on a road bike - on any flat or downhill, I would have the advantage, but on an uphill (of which there were many), she would come flying past me again whilst I was lugging my extra weight uphill. It was an interesting experiment in bike choice and I'm not sure either had the advantage. On the last straight of the bike leg, for the first time ever, I undid and removed my feet from my shoes whilst still on the move! I’m super happy that I pulled this off - I have my new birthday tri shoes to thank. It would have been better if I hadn't got a bit lost in transition though!

In the end, I did decide to complete the run. There was some pain in my foot, but it had loosened up a bit. Stopping was still in the back of my mind, but after a sub 4 min first km and after seeing Dave, who informed me I was in 5th place overall, I decided that I couldn't stop now! I overtook another woman to get myself into 4th place and finally my race brain switched on. I knew the woman in 3rd was in my age group and if I caught her, I would become the English national champion. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late, but 4th place overall and 2nd in age group at the English national champs isn't too bad at all. Looking at my times, swim, bike and run were all within a few seconds of 3rd place, give or take. It was the transitions that were my downfall, but a big positive of today was that I got my shoes off on the move, so I'm one step closer to getting my transition times down.

Emily Young