A Rocky Road to The Rockies

My favourite triathlon memory to date

1st June 2013  was a day that proved to me that dreams really do come true. Not only did I win the British Championships on that day, not only was I  first to qualify for the 2013 World Champs later that year in London, but it also allowed me to pre-qualify for the 2014 World Champs in Canada. Triple whammy or what! As I have never been out of Europe – well apart from Israel but that was for the European Champs so that doesn't really count (plus everyone was propelling rockets and bombs at us) – Canada was a place that I very much wanted to go to, and with it being the last time I could compete in the 25-29 Age Group, it was very much the only race I cared about for the whole of the 2014 season.

I set one goal and one goal only for the whole of the season – to win in Canada! Now I have met some fairly deluded triathletes in my time, and I very much know where I stand in the pecking order, so to win would be a tall order, and would require lots of super talented people to not turn up (it would be great actually if no-one turned up!), but it was certainly a possibility! To put it in perspective, I raced poorly in London World Champs and despite coming out of the water in 18th place, I cycled up to the bronze medal position. The 5k run was short and flat, which should have suited me, but crippling stomach pains meant I dropped down the field and finished in 7th. I was convinced that with smart training, determination and a whole host of passion, the gold medal in Canada could be mine.

I missed the medals in London, but the support of my friends was amazing!

With 14 months to train for the Worlds in Edmonton, I set to work.  But a little thing called life got in the way. And life can have a whole host of things planned for you that you don't plan for! So my rocky road to The Rockies goes a little something like this:

My winter months were fantastic, and I had the best winter's training that I have ever had.  This was not difficult given that in 2011 I had a kidney infection and was hospitalised for weeks and in 2012 I collapsed a couple of times with crippling stomach pains.  But this winter I was enjoying it, I had upped my swimming which saw huge success and my cycling was going well. I was running really well and I couldn't believe how fit I was getting.  From the end of November I suffered from a hip injury whilst half marathon training and that was the first of many things to go wrong. I aimed to run the Watford Half Marathon in a sub 1:30 at the start of February.  In training this proved to be something I was definitely capable of doing. But my hip didn’t want to play ball, I couldn’t even manage a jog and although I didn’t run for 5 weeks in the lead up to the event I still decided to go and see what I could do. I came away with a 1:36, bitterly disappointed but not the end of the world. It was still 7 months to go until Canada, plenty of time for things to change.

4 weeks later and I raced against the legend that is Dame Kelly Holmes at the Maxifuel Duathlon.  She was absolutely wonderful and gave everyone all the time in the world to chat, encourage, sign autographs and take photos. Despite a lack of running, and no speed work on the bike I was super pleased to finish on the podium.  Natalie Seymour took the win and as both 5ks were long Eloise Du Luart used her run speed to pip me to second place.  But bottom step of the podium and I was confident that I was right where I needed to be at this time of year.

Another 3 weeks later and I was racing at Oulton Park Duathlon which I won last year. The goal this time was to retain my title. My hip was still a little sore but I was able to train on it within reason and I was feeling strong on the bike. This race for me was, in the end, a real confidence blow. I felt dreadful on both runs and, to my surprise, even worse on the bike. I slipped back to 5th place, finishing 3 minutes slower than last year and crossing the line feeling like something wasn't right. I had no oomph or drive.  2 days later and my body felt completely awful. Thinking I maybe had a virus I went to the doctor. Also a GB Age Group athlete my doctor said I was overtraining and sent me away with the instruction of resting. Now I was completely exasperated by this. I train 8-12 hours per week. I take a rest day every week and I have easy weeks. As a young, fit athlete this should be completely manageable. I have trained far more in the past, and know others train far more than me, so I did not believe overtraining to be the cause of feeling like this. I have also done triathlon for 5 years now so I know what works for me and what doesn't. But I followed her instructions and rested.  I just kept thinking, best to get this out the way now and be better for Canada! But the rest didn't help and I developed a sore throat that was agony. I've always been prone to throat infections, hence why I had my tonsils out a few years ago.

Smiling at the finish with wonderful team mates
but feeling a little disappointed with my race

Back to the docs and they decided I had probably had a couple of viruses and post viral fatigue and they would give me antibiotics to shift the bacterial infection in my throat. 5 and a half weeks later and I was still on antibiotics. During that time I raced in the European Duathlon in Holland and somehow came away with a silver medal and raced in Lisboa Triathlon, finishing again in the runner up position, but completely disappointed with my performance.  I know its probably not wise to race on antibiotics but I'd worked hard to save up for these trips and as it transpires if I didnt race when i was on these antibiotics, I literally wouldnt have raced all season! In between racing I barely did anything. Except feel a little bit depleted and exasperated by this mystery illness.

So thankful I was well enough to race here, finishing in the Runner Up position

Another race, another Runner Up position, losing out to team mate and good friend Jacqui,
who has been an absolute rock for me this season

Before I knew it we were in May and my only other goal, apart from Canada was upon us – the British Sprint Championships. I really wanted to have a crack at defending my title from last year. Being at Eton Dorney the race venue was absolutely perfect for me, flat, fast and frantic. But as much as my mind was willing, my body wasn't, and it was another DNS for me. I went to watch, and put on a brave face and cheered for everyone else, but I started to wonder why I was investing so much time, energy and effort into a sport that was beginning to make me quite miserable.

I couldn't be disappointed for long, it was great to see my
lovely friend Suzy win silver
in our Age Group (25-29)

Accompanied with this is seeing every single training session that friends are doing, and every improvement that they are making on Twitter and Facebook. Now don't get me wrong, I would never want other people to not do well and I love how much passion these girls have, it's great to see them doing so well – I just wanted to join them! Girls I used to beat were 100% excelling, some had even taken career breaks to train full time, the gaps they were building between them and myself were completely unbridgeable.

I continued backwards and forwards to the docs with a husky voice that I had had for so long now that I couldn't remember what I actually sounded like. They tried me on some different medication, did some more tests for glandular fever and other allergy tests and sent me on my way. I went off to Germany with Mum for a girlie weekend and praise the Lord, I finally started to pick up. It was too little too late to have a great performance at the European Aquathlon, but It was good enough for a bronze medal; something a few years ago I could only have dreamed of.

Finally a race where I wasn't ill, I really enjoyed competing in this!
I made new friends, raced in a new place, and gave it my all.

A pretty mild shot of my eye that I text to my Mum
to ask her if I looked run down!

Back in the UK and the doctor confirmed I had a chlorine allergy which had been aggravating my throat and chest for all this time. So there was me thinking "I'll just do an easy swim to get back into it" and all that time it was knocking me back to square one! It had also completely wrecked my skin and gave me pretty bad eczama and swelling around the eye. I had also developed seborrhaic dermatitis on my scalp. The long and short of it was swimming was making me fall apart!

Not the best news in the world but I was happy to start feeling like my old self. Despite not planning on doing any Elite Super Series races this year, I somehow found myself on the start line of Blenheim feeling completely out of my depth. I absolutely think I could be good enough to race at this level, but you have to be on top form. And here I was rather unfit from not being able to train and rather demotivated from what felt like constant disappointment. I enjoyed seeing friends at the race but a shocking race saw me all the way down in 25th place, a world away from where I wanted to be. BUT, at least I was racing! And it was still 3 months to Canada.

Not sure I deserved my place at Blenheim Elite,
but I was so thankful for the opportunity to race!

Made so many friends along the way,
Suzie and Hannah kicked ass here!

Then it was onto Dambuster, the National Age Group Champs. Being a standard distance race I knew this wasn't my strength but now that I was beginning to feel better I was going to work my socks off to get a Tri England National medal.  I had a good swim, my bike was pretty average, my run was disappointing. I got overtaken with half a km to go to finish 17 seconds outside the medals and be first of the non-medallists in any age group. I tried really hard not to be disappointed, I'm sure it could be viewed as a good result off the back of 5 hours a week training and god knows how many antibiotics. I just had to try and keep positive, my health was back, that's the main thing!

Clowning around with good old Suze & Natalie,
They have become good friends through the racing scene!

It was during this month that I read that the lovely Natalie Seymour who I have raced with a few times had fallen off her bike at Windsor Triathlon and broken her collar bone. I knew she had been working hard all winter, I also knew that she had a huge amount of talent and had great prospects for the season. My heart sank for her and I vowed to stop feeling sorry for myself. There are always people worse off out there than yourself.

Not quite our year, but I will always cherish
sharing this podium with Nat back in 2013

Fun Times on the Tandem

I finally got a whole heap of enjoyment back for the sport when I did the Tandem Triathlon with good friend Ali Moult at the end of June.  It was so different, so fun and was what sport should be about – spending time with others, enjoying a challenge and feeling good about yourself. The fact that we won and by default crowned ourselves British, European and World Tandem Triathlon Champs is neither here nor there!


So with my health back and a new sense of mojo I trundled on with racing. I went from strength to strength, improving my times in a regular Gloucester Triathlon Race series, and felt generally upbeat about everything.  I won a free entry into the Jenson Button Triathlon and mixed with the stars. I didn't have the best of races there, but I did match some of the girls on their swim and run splits, so that was promising. I never thought I would be so far behind on the bike but with 6 weeks to go until Canada I knew I could get my bike form back quickly. Then it was off to Chester to race in the Deva Sprint race and it was great to take the win there out of 350 athletes and clock the fastest bike split by quite a margin.

 I treated myself to some new cycle kit and even braved going out cycling with Chris, despite him being a speed demon. We clocked a 22:48 in an undulating 10 2 up and things were finally looking up.   I was testing myself on some new running sets, and although swimming was a complete no go because of avoiding the pool and having no open water venue to train at, the lovely Sue Pugh had sent me some bands to do some dryland work so I was hopeful for what the next few weeks would bring. (Thanks Sue!!)

Unfortunately the next few weeks brought more illness. Despite a 6 week block of feeling brilliant, I woke up one morning completely unable to breathe. The back of my throat was on fire and I couldn't swallow. Oh and the good old sexy, husky voice was back. Another visit to the GPs' and they were at a loss of what to do with me. The tests they did just showed inflammation but other than that all my bloods were normal. I happened to mention I did triathlon and it was the same diagnosis given as before "oh well you must be overtraining!" At this point I burst into tears; feeling a little annoyed and quite frankly, a little fobbed off. A referral was then done to an ENT specialist and yet another course of antibiotics was prescribed;  8 a day for 10 days.

Needless to say my next race at Blithfield Sprint last weekend was another DNS . Although I didn't get to race, I did get to spend a weekend with a fantastic group of triathlete friends who all came to visit and it was great fun to catch up. Unfortunately I gave Holly Grundon and Kate Scotter a near death experience twice…..once when I spun the car on some wet roads and we ended up on a grass verge pretty close to a lamppost, and another when I took them to the rickety rides of Stourport Fun Fair and they got dangled and shook upside down! Sorry about that girls! Suzy Robinson popped in on her way back from a great performance at the National 25 TT and gave Snowy a manicure and friends Ali Moult and Laura Fuller also joined us for a good old natter and catch up. When I asked them how they all knew each other and they said "through you" I felt like the Cilla Black of triathlon, bringing people together!

The excitement I felt last month of racing Gwen Jorgensen later in August at Liverpool Elite is now a distant memory as I emailed to withdraw my entry and instead will just focus on getting back to full health for Canada with a last minute opportunity to blow off the cobwebs at the National Relays thanks to the lovely Claire Shea-Simmonds.

Despite the obstacles and adversities that have come my way the support of my friends, family and fellow competitors has been amazing. I've also had phenomenal support from Chris Janzen of Triathlete Mind who has given me the mental strength to keep going when perhaps I would have given up a long time ago. He has taught me skills and tools that I can apply to all areas of life and (despite what may seem like a pretty negative blog) I can still take away a whole host of enjoyment and sense of adventure from my experiences. He is the most incredible person I have ever worked with and I wish I could bottle him up and put him in my handbag and sprinkle his positivity like fairy dust wherever life may take me. And although there are still many uncertainties over the next few weeks, there are a few things im sure of:

My flights are booked, my accommodation is ready and there are probably tons of black bears lurking in the national parks of Canada waiting to greet me. My new goal is to go and make the most of this experience. To make some new friends, meet some new people, see some new places and create some new memories. My road to the Rockies may have been Rocky, but I'll be on that start line knowing anything can happen on race day! Others haven't written me off just yet and neither have I - here's to mental toughness, never giving up......and praying for a miracle!