Woodhorn Museum Sprint Triathlon AG Qualifier, 8 Jul 2023

The race had an unusual start time of 4:30pm, which I didn't much enjoy as all we could do was laze about and wait for the start, something we're not especially accustomed to! Then there was the added frustration of it being sunny all morning, but absolutely bucketing it down just as we were about to leave for the race. It was going to be a soggy one, my poor TT bike.

This was a qualifying event for next year's European sprint distance championships, so naturally I had stalked all my competition online beforehand. I reasoned that I had a pretty good shot for the overall podium, so I set myself that pretty ambitious target. The swim went quite well and I managed to get into a small pack of 5 women which meant I did a decent pace for minimal effort. I had a relatively slow T1 because I decided to put socks on given the wet conditions, which I knew would accelerate blisters that my feet are prone to. Based on what marshalls were calling, I knew I was somewhere between 10th and 15th position, so I needed to get a move on if I was going to achieve my target podium.

So onto the bike and I went hunting for positions. I easily overtook about 10 people within the first 2 kms of the bike. I did have the advantage of a TT bike, but I noticed that a lot of people weren't getting into an aero position regardless of what bike they were on, I suppose because the conditions weren't great. I decided to use this to my advantage and felt like I absolutely flew on the bike. It was a relatively lonely affair as the women's race had started before the men's and I assumed by the lack of other competitors I was in a good position. I overtook one more at about 13km and then didn't see anyone else.

Arriving into T2 and I could see only 1 girl ahead of me, who was leaving T2 as I was racking my bike, about a 40 second lead. Other than that there was no one else in sight, even as I left transition there was no one else about - I'd cycled myself into a solid 2nd place. It was very difficult to hunt down 1st place on the run because the course was twisty and through trees, so I just never saw her again. Mentally, this didn't do me any favours and I kind of gave up pushing and because I knew the 2nd place was comfortable, I ended up going a bit easier than I otherwise might have. On reflection, I wish I'd given it a bit more just to see what I'm capable of, but I still finished in 2nd place overall with nearly a minute on 3rd place, so it's hard to be too disappointed! Anyway, it's left me hungry for more, constantly wanting to push myself that bit further.

Emily Young