Oulton Park Duathlon

25th March 2012

Having just missed out 2 weeks before on a qualifying slot for the GB TEAM to go to the World Championships in Nancy, I rocked up at Oulton Park duathlon ready to show everyone what I was made of.  I felt like I needed to prove a point that I deserved my place in the GB team, and so the expectation I put on myself made me really nervous.  When the gun went off for the start of the race I was that nervous that I bombed it off and clocked 5:30 for the first mile and 5:40 for the second. When the fast pace hit me and I struggled to maintain any sort of pace at all, a whole new wave of panic set in that I had completely ruined my race. My legs were dead! That's when I saw my Mum cheering for me and it reminded me that it didn't matter about position, and it didn't matter what anyone else did, it was my race and I was going to enjoy it. I let the other girls go and did my own thing....and it worked. Coming in off the first run in 3rd in my category, I managed to catch them on the first lap of the bike (with my Cervelo in fully working order after the rear cable snapping the night before!!!), then ran my second run at a quicker pace than my first to win my category by over 4 minutes! I was really chuffed with that.