BRITISH U20 STANDARD DISTANCE CHAMPION!

Before I start building up my training again for hopefully a successful winter of training ahead of my 2017 season, I thought it was time for a review of 2016 as well as my British Standard Distance Championships race report.

British Standard Distance Championships

I hadn’t intended on doing a standard distance race this season but in June I was scrolling through my twitter feed while eating a late breakfast after swimming with Angus at the Loughborough Town pool when I saw a tweet from British Triathlon saying there was only 5 places left for the Standard distance event at Liverpool, knowing we were already going as Angus had registered for it at the start of the year I made the spare of the moment decision to enter it.

Early August it only really hit me that I’d entered my first standard distance race (1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run) and my main worry was that I’d never run as far as 10km. So with just over a week to go I needed to prove to myself that I could run 10km so dad offered to cycle next to me as I ran to help motivate me along the way, I ended up running just over 10km in 48 minutes and was quite happy with that having not pushed myself too much. Even with my very limited training I now felt more confident leading up to British Champs.

On Saturday 13^th August, Angus and I drove to Liverpool and went to register before making our way to the bed and breakfast a few miles away from the race start. That evening we went out for tea at a Pizza Hut not far from where we were staying and absolutely stuffed ourselves ahead of the race in the morning.

Early Saturday morning we ate our usual porridge pots before heading to the Arena, which was where transition was, and set everything up for the race. Having not done a standard distance race before I was unsure of what nutrition to use so I decided to tape two High5 energy gels onto my bike, fill two high5 500ml bottles, one with a zero tab in and another with energy powder in, I then had an Isogel Xtreme before the swim start.

Angus was off before me so I put my wetsuit on halfway and watched him swim and then go out on the bike, completely losing track of time I ended up running to the start as my wave was in the water ready to go and I only had my wetsuit halfway and hadn’t even put my hat and goggles on. Massive thank you to Clive (friend of Angus who came to support us) for helping me get ready before my race, for supporting us and for being the bag carrier/photographer for the morning.

Luckily I was in the water and ready in time for the start and actually managed to get quite a good start. The swim went well despite going off course and swimming into a canoe at one point, must sight more! I had a good swim exit and my Zone3 Vanquish wetsuit came off with ease to put into a bag to take into the Arena. It was quite a long/slippery run through the Arena to get to transition so I took it easy and when I arrived at my bike I quickly put my cycling shoes on, helmet on and sunglasses on before being stuck in a single file line of people who were walking with there bikes to get out of the Arena, this made me a bit agitated but at soon as I could get on my bike I was fine and my legs felt good.

I pushed hard throughout the whole bike as I knew I was in the lead having beat everyone out of my age group in the swim so now I knew it was up to me to keep pushing my lead. I was very pleased with my bike, even if my cornering was so slow my Garmin auto paused on each dead turn on the 4 lap bike course, I know this is an area of weakness but couldn’t be helped as most of the time I was stuck behind someone round the bend and couldn’t overtake until I was all the way round.

When I came in off the bike I was stuck behind two slow people walking with their bikes into transition and with no room to overtake I had to keep calm until I could get round. When I reached my place I transition I took my cycling shoes off, my helmet off, put on my visor and trainers as the girl who was second in my age group came into transition. I was being chased down….

I started running hard as I knew I had to try and extend my lead on the run as I’m not very good at sprinting so I didn’t want it to come to a sprint finish. I ran the first 5km very hard and the girl in second was nowhere to be seen but I was now exhausted and I still had another 5k to run. Some support from Angus helped as I started on my second lap and I knew I needed to keep pushing, I kept repeating to myself “you’re almost there” even though I knew I wasn’t but it was the “You’re winning” that helped me keep pushing.

1km to go and I was starting to feel very dizzy, I kept continuously blinking to try and keep my vision clear enough to see where I was going and as soon as I saw the finish line I gave everything I had left to get to it and was greeted by the ground when I crossed the line. I was so happy to finish.

It took me a while to get back on my feet to go and see Angus, who I think was even more excited about me winning than I was.

I was very happy to come away with my first British Championship medal and even happier that it was a gold one. British Standard Distance U20s Champion in my first standard distance race is probably my best achievement so far.

My time for the race was 2hrs24mins which was faster than double my fastest sprint distance time, I think I’m definitely a long distance athlete and I am looking forward to racing even more standard distance races next year!

End of Season Review

Looking back over my season I am very happy with what I’ve managed to achieve. It was a hard start to the year and at that time I didn’t know if I’d even be able to race at all this season but it’s turned out to be my most successful season yet!

A big thanks to all my sponsors –

• ·      Threo for supplying me with the comfiest cycling kit ever to help me train in style
• ·      High5 Nutrition for keeping me fuelled while training and racing
• ·      Zone3 for helping me afford a super speedy Vanquish Wetsuit.
• ·      Swimzi for keeping me warm pre and post race with my cosy XK
• ·      Bounce Foods for keeping me energised with your yummy bites and balls

My best achievement for 2016 is winning my age group at British Standard Distance Championships, it was a great way to end my season and a good positive to go into my 2017 season training with. But my favourite race of the season was Clumber Park Duathlon in March. After being so ill over winter I had never been so happy to be back doing what I love and I had the biggest smile on the face for the whole race. Check out my blog post – http://emilypatchtri.blogspot.co.uk/2016_03_01_archive.html

2017 Season

I have just finished my first week studying Chemistry at Nottingham Trent University, it’s a VERY intense course but I am enjoyed it. For the next few months I am going to try to balance my time between renovating a house (while living in it), doing a Chemistry degree, working as a lifeguard/level one swim coach, training, racing, as well as cooking, cleaning and shopping for myself and maybe having a bit of time for some socialising. Balancing my time is going to be very difficult but I’m not one to say no to a challenge!

I am currently still planning my 2017 triathlon season but will reveal my plans soon.

Thanks for reading!

Emily