May has been the busiest month for me in almost a year with a shocking two races!

The first race was a small track meet in Manchester, I was doing this for a bit of race experience as I had my first sprint distance triathlon in wales the next week. The race went well as I won but didn’t quite get the time I was looking for. Next up was the junior European tri.

We had to travel down to wales the day before the race as it was a 5-hour drive which I was not looking forward too, we packed the van with the bike and everything I would need for the weekend and set of. The drive was uncomfortable but we drove straight to the race venue so I could do a bike rekey, the course felt very technical as here was three dead turns in every lap but I was confident because I felt that suited me, after that I went down to the swim start and did a swim rekey, I made sure to practice my beach starts as that is how we were going to start when I comes to the race the next day. 

We then headed to the hotel, I had a big meal and get to bed early as I would have to be up at 6 the next morning. We got up a little late so I had to eat my breakfast on the way to the course, when we got there I heed down to registration, got my numbers and had a covid test which thankfully came back negative and then headed to the warm up zone, I made sure to warm up really well as the swim was an 800m which really didn’t suit me as the swim was me weakest of the three disciplines. The five-minute alarm sounded so I headed down to the swim start, I was the youngest person there and was ranked 8^th so I had a good spot at the start.

They started the race and everyone sprinted into the water and headed to the first buoy, I had a good start and got there in a fairly good spot but got battered around the second buoy which set me back a few places, I really struggled on the way back due to lack of swim fitness but still came out in an alright position, I had a good transition and headed out onto the bike, I found myself in the biggest chase pack about a minuet behind the lead pack, there was no crashes and the gap stayed the same for the whole bike, I made sure to do as little work as I could on the 20km bike so my legs could be fresh for the run, we all came of the bike together and I had another fast transition and headed onto the run, unfortunately my fitness wasn’t there so I struggled to hold fast pace, I caught up a few positions but ended up 17^th. I’m not too disappointed with this performance but I know I’ve got loads more to give.