My Triathlon Journey

As I near the end of my cross country season I have just raced UK Inter Counties at Loughborough and the final East Sussex League race.

UK Inter Counties XC

On Saturday, I raced the UK Inter Counties at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough. I ran for Sussex with counties in England, Scotland and Wales competing. Before the race I had said I wanted to finish in the top 20, in the end I came 34th.

The start of my race didn’t go that well. There were no pens like there were meant to be, so it was a mega free-for-all at the start. The start was not that wide, but then it narrowed a lot in the first 200m, before ridiculously narrowing again through a wooded section to about 3m wide with 200+ boys. I got shoved and within a few seconds people fell right in front of me at least three times. I was between 80th and 100th and had to make up a lot of places during the rest of the race. The course was hilly for the first 2kms then downhill and flat, with one last hill 500m before the finish.

I finished 34th, in the end, 14 places outside where I wanted and I was second Sussex in. I think I was a bit unlucky with the start, but at least I didn’t fall. I did well to make up places but I have things to work on, learn from and improve on for my final cross country of the season (English Schools) next weekend.

East Sussex League Final Round

This was the last race of the series at Pett, near Rye. I had won all the races I’d ran in the East Sussex League so far, running for Hastings Runners, so if I won today I would win the overall. The race ended up being just over 3km and I finished with around a minute lead. I won the series overall with 4 wins out of 4 races, so I was pretty happy and pleased.

Going Forward

The weekend has been a good experience and fun to race, but I’m really looking forward to the English Schools Cross Country at the Hop Farm, where I’m racing the best Year 8 and 9 boys in England, for team Sussex.