Jenson Button, Allesley Festival & Gloucester Race Series

Well my rather varied race season continues! It may not have been a season that's gone to plan, but it's certainly been adventurous! Last weekend I won a free race entry into the Jenson Button Triathlon. It was a fabulous day, a really great event and loads of fun to mix with some celebs - I was super happy to get my photo taken with Double Ironman World Champion, Chris McCormack (especially as at the time I didn't have a clue who he was)!

I also got interviewed by Tri 247 which was fun (I think I just chatted on about having a burger?!?) and the post-race party was fabulous!

I didn't have the best of races, I completely forgot to take my cycling legs with me and was rather disappointed with my splits. In fact, I am yet to have a half decent race against the elite girls, but that said  I had the biggest smile of the day and met some fab people. You can read my full blog on the event here:

It was great catching up with Katie Hewison who finished 2nd in the final

The next day was my mum's village festival day; it's a 2 week festival which culminates in a Kids 2K run, an adults 10K race, garden walks and home made wine and pimms! Due to my ongoing dodgy hip (yes, it has returned!) I had  not entered the 10K so instead paced my nephew George and niece Issy round the 2K. They were both brilliant and loved every minute, maybe we have the next Helen Jenkins and Alister Brownlee in the making? As my hip felt fine, I then decided to run the 10k course with my sister Helen who really wanted to break the 55 minute barrier; she did it easily in 53:27 (Well done Helen, although you've got to beat that hubby of yours next time!)

With my nephew George, neice Issy and sister Helen

A pic from Henry's swimming Gala.
And a pic of Arthur's poem which reads:
'Three green dinosaurs went to get a tatoo,
one needed the loo, then there were two!' 

The talent in our family doesn't end there. My other nephew Henry is now the 5th fastest butterfly swimmer in the whole of Leeds, 8th fastest in freestyle and seems to be dominating all his school swimming galas! His younger brother Arthur is also a budding poet!

Following the 10k, we enjoyed the garden walks, home made alcohol and cakes. Quite a few of the residents had entered the scarecrow competition which was themed 'Countries of the World'. My mum and neighbour Leanne had a pretty good go with Great Britain, creating the Queen and her Corgi, unfortunately she couldn't sit up right for too long so they didn't make the top 3!

Last night I raced in the third race of the Gloucester Triathlon Series. I first did this in May when I was pretty ill, had missed the British Champs, not trained for weeks and felt like I had to do something to keep myself sane! Returning back 4 weeks later in June I felt much stronger and then last night, despite my wetsuit completely splitting down the side and a stone in my trainer for the whole of the run, it was probably the first time all season that I've been happy with my performance! The field each month has got stronger and stronger and there's been some great competition from the girls with fellow GBR Age Grouper Sarah Smith keeping me on my toes and Nicole Walters taking the win in both the June and July races. There's one more race in August which I'm not sure I can make at this stage, although a promise of a post-race BBQ from the organisers might tempt me! The table below shows my steady improvement in the right direction.

	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Total	Gender	Overall
Race 1 – May	09:07	0:56	34:31	1:01	17:31	1:03:18	1st	9th
Race 2 – June	09:03	0:42	32:27	1:04	16:49	1:00:06	2nd	6th
Race 3 - July	08:55	0:54	31:35	1:04	16:39	59:08	2nd	9th

So with 6 weeks to go until the World Championships in Canada I'm trying to take a step back from the expectations I had put on myself at the start of the season, and enjoy the adventures to come. I have some more races planned to help me to sharpen up, have lots of time booked in with friends and family and, to keep the theme of racing celebs this year, have the small task of taking on Gwen Jorgensen at the Liverpool Triathlon.

Happy Summer and Happy Training :-)