British Sprint Triathlon Championships, 17 Aug 2024

Some races you thrive, others you survive. I am really proud of myself for completing that race because I thought about stopping more than once.

I had a good start in the swim and approached the first buoy in around 5th position, but I was consciously swimming quite wide in order to give myself space so I didn’t start to panic (even strong swimmers do!). I couldn’t inject enough speed to get in front of the pack behind me and I was pretty much swallowed up by a washing machine 200m in. The rest was pretty miserable and I was mostly focusing on staying alive and out of trouble.

I was expecting to suffer a bit on the bike because I have barely cycled in the last 3 months due to piriformis issues, but this was another level! 14 dead turns during the whole of the course and my handling atm leaves something to be desired so they definitely took it out of me. I managed to work with a group for the first 3 laps, then I got dropped but luckily so did Lucy and we worked together and kept the gap very small. Tbh I think I preferred riding with just one other person because of the accordion effect that was happening every time the group hit a corner!

Then the run. I was excited for this because my running has been going so well, but the bike had taken so much out of my legs and it was all I could do to keep moving forwards. “My legs are so dead”, I shouted to my boyfriend Alex after the first lap of four. Thankfully they loosened up and I was able to pick it up after the first (very slow!) 2k. I was glad that some life returned to my legs and I managed to pick a few people off (and stay away from fellow Catenary teamie Emily who was chasing me down 😉). Was also great to see some friendly faces on the course and after!

I ended up 6th in age group (2 seconds from 5th!) and 16th overall. Not the result I wanted but given it’s my first race in months and the British Champs, I’ll take it! Lots of positive takeaways, and lots of work to do.

Emilia Miller