Northumberland Festival of Sport - Standard Triathlon English Championships, 31 May 2026

My first standard triathlon since 2023, but I was returning to a familiar venue: Druridge Bay Country Park where I have raced duathlon multiple times.

It was the English Championships and I knew I wanted that gold medal. Training had been going well, swim times were improving, run times were starting to show signs of my former pre-pregnancy self. So, I was eager to see what this race would be like.

Having dodged a case of hand, foot and mouth from my toddler the week before, I joined the start line feeling refreshed and excited. After a slightly rushed set up and warm up, we were crowded by the edge of the lake ready to go.

Swim: thoroughly enjoyable, but definitely average! In just a ‘younger’ female only wave, it wasn’t crowded and I managed to get a clear part of the start line. In hindsight this was the wrong decision because I soon was swimming largely alone (and slowly). But soon enough(ish) I was out and onto the bike.

Bike: the bike was the same course as the duathlon I raced here 2 months ago, so I was keen to see how much difference an extra bit of training and a different bike would make. The 38k were delightful, and very pleased to be way more comfortable pushing good pace in aero position, and 3 minutes quicker than before.

Run: the course was 4 laps around the lake, and a ‘long’ 10k to finish the morning. I was 5 min off the leader at the start of the run which was decreasing every lap. The run was hard, but I felt relatively comfortable and ran my way into 2nd overall and 1 minute off the leader.

Overall, winning my age group and being English Champion, and 2nd overall, was a good day out. But more pleasing was having the fastest bike and run split of the day :)

Now 4 weeks to go until my next race, and I’m very excited to see everything (finally) starting to come together. A big thank you for Tim, and for trusting the process.

Sarah Harding