My Triathlon Journey

I qualified for Southern Counties at Oxford after two wins in the Sussex Cross Country League. The cross country was at Horspath Athletics Ground in Oxford and I represented Sussex against majority of counties in south of England. Last year the race was at Croydon and I was a lower year where I came 32nd. I didn’t have my best race and new I wanted better. I felt I progressed over the last season as it went on and learnt a lot too. Croydon’s race had a couple short hills but Oxford’s was basically flat for me.

This race was my first semi-national (or bigger than county) race this winter. I was at the start a good time before in order to be at the front. We waited behind a tape and were called forward to a further line afterwards. When we were called to the front line, the gun went almost immediately and I got pushed and had a small stumble but luckily got up pretty quickly and I just tried to go really hard early so I had less catch-up to do later. I was trying to weave through people and avoid spikes for a small bit but then just swung out far left and ran round to the front end and was able to go at a more comfortable pace. My course was through field and along the edge of woodland and was two (nearly) 2km laps with two ditches towards the end. The ground was hard and icy from the night and the air temperature was 0 degrees or below, so it was really cold.

After 2/3 of a lap I was still with the front and the pace was high. Going onto the second lap one person broke off on their own and got a gap. I was with three or four others for mostly the rest of last lap and was in 4th most of the way round. I was first in the group over the second to last ditch and after the last one onto the final 200-300m I managed to get through and finish 3rd. I was 5 seconds off 1st and 2 seconds off 2nd so the gap closed a bit towards the end. Getting top 3 was really good and I was happy with a strong race. Sussex had some really strong finishes and some unlucky people with the start who battled on but everyone did really well and we finished 4th as a county so it was a good day in cold and frozen conditions.

Credit (top photo) – ac_phots