It was time for my final triathlon of the season, on a course I know very well: Eton Dorney. This was another RunThrough event, where I’d won my entry by placing in the top 3 in a previous race (otherwise I swear I wouldn’t have chosen to race this much so late in my season!). This was a low-stakes race, but it felt important because my mum was coming to watch for the first time! She has never seen a triathlon before, and I really wanted to give her a glimpse of what I do, since she thinks I’m totally crazy every time I show up having cycled 100km over from Oxford, or when she sees me warming up for a run or taking my swim stuff to the local lake.

Much like my Wimbledon race a few weeks previously (see previous race report!), I mostly wanted to have fun, to show her why I love doing this sport, and maybe even prove that I’m not totally mental.

I drove over alone this time and got ready for the race quickly as I had been a bit delayed on my journey. Mum still hadn’t arrived by the time I got in the water to acclimatise (it was unseasonably cold), and I just hoped that she would make it on time to see the swim. As we were waiting for the start, people seemed very hesitant to position themselves close to the front, so I was actually in the first line of swimmers. The swim was uneventful, neither bad nor particularly good. I had moments where I was able to draft, and I did spend the majority of it swimming side-by-side with a man but neither of us got much drafting benefit from the other. Sometimes in a race, I feel like I get into a flow state, where the minutes pass without me realising and all I am thinking about is rhythm. This wasn’t really the case during this swim, the thought “how much further?” kept popping into my head, and though I pushed it away, I was aware of how in need of an off-season I was. I tried to push myself but felt quite mediocre, and had an average pace of 1:46/100m, which isn’t as fast as I should be!

My rather grumpy mood improved dramatically when I got out the water, immediately spotting my mum. I honestly felt like a kid in their first school play, I was so excited to see her here!

The bike was quite tough, with a strong headwind along the main straight (classic Dorney!), but on every lap, I got to go past my mum, who was shouting increasingly silly things, culminating with “you’re my hero!”. It really gave me energy during the long stretch where I had my head down and was just pushing uncomfortably into the wind. I have definitely ridden this course faster in the past, but it is very variable depending on the wind, so I wasn’t too disappointed with an average pace of 32.3km/hour over the 40km distance.

The swim and bike had both felt very mediocre, but somehow, I felt amazing on the run. I was looking forward to seeing my mum at the finish line, and this definitely helped, but my form felt so strong and my cadence was nice and quick. In fact, this would have been a 10km PB for me if the course hadn’t been 50m too short! A time of 42:42, and an average pace of 4:17/km, wrapped up this season really nicely for me. I was rewarded with 2nd place overall, 1st in age group and a nice big lunch with mum afterwards! Another fun racing experience.

Emilia Miller

Dorney Standard Distance Triathlon, 6 Aug 2023

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