The World Triathlon Championships Grand Final...and little old me.

What an incredible weekend in London!

This weekend saw Hyde Park showcase the best of the best triathletes from all over the world at the World Triathlon Championship Grand Final.  There is nothing quite like watching a top class triathlete in full flow blasting through a 1.5k swim, a 42k bike and a 10k run. Truly amazing, especially in real life!

I was of course hoping to have been racing in the Age group World Triathlon Championships myself, but my qualification race at Liverpool didn't quite go to plan. It was far too hot, I'd somehow forgotten how to race the swim section and the clip on tri bars on my bike had come loose which meant me having to hold them in position for the the majority of the 40k bike section. Never mind, I did my best on the day and it was time to focus on my training again.

A few weeks later I took part in the Birmingham Triathlon where I had my best race ever! A personal best time of 2hr 18mins - I just couldn't believe it! And a 3rd place overall lady to top it off! All the hard run training was starting to pay off. Yes!!!! :D

Anyway, back to Hyde Park, London...

The plan was to always go watch the elites race in Hyde Park, whether or not I got a race slot myself, so when a few spaces came up in the open race I snapped one up. It was a sprint race slot but I was happy with that, especially with a standard distance European Champs qualifier the following weekend.

I had never raced an open water sprint triathlon before so I was keen to see what I could do with a 750m swim, 22.5k bike and 5k run ahead of me.

The swim was in the Serpentine and it was bloody freezing!

The bike was great fun - apart from the speed bumps - not so fun, especially at high speed.

The run was amazing - supporters lined the route, cheering everyone on. Great feeling!

I finished in a time of 1hr 24min. I had no idea how I'd done until I met up with my sister and her boyfriend who had been supporting me all the way round the course.

Turns out I came 1st in my age group out of 58 other women, and 11th woman overall out of 259.

What?!

I'm still smiling :D

It was just the boost I needed before the Euro qualifier at Cambridge this coming weekend.

It also reminded me, and made me appreciate that fitness and strength does not come easy, it does not come overnight, but with patience, dedication and focused training it will come.

Keep your fingers crossed for me this weekend at Cambridge.

Bye for now.

Kat X