AG Win at Challenge Roth

Challenge Roth is truly incredible! The support and event are completely out of this world and I would 100% recommend this race to anyone.

Leading into the race I didn’t have many aspirations other than to just enjoy it. I had a couple of issues which meant my training in the lead up was far from ideal. The first happened four weeks prior when I did something to my glutes and couldn’t even walk on some days. I saw Fiona (a physio at Cheshire Physioactive) and Haley (a sport massage therapist based in Warrington) to assist as much as possible. They managed to get me on the start line for The Lakesman Half two weeks ago but sadly I had to hobble/walk round the run with bigger fish to fry at Roth. After the Lakesman and speaking to Paul, we agreed it’d be good to get a better understanding of my situation since there was no end in sight. MRI results on the Friday before the race confirmed there was no stress fracture (thank god) but it was gluteal medial tendinopathy (most likely caused by excessive overload - quite plausible when pushing your limits close to your A race). Anyway, at least that meant I could start the race and I’d just have to see how bad the pain was on the run. I did actually go for a shuffle run on the Friday to just test my glutes but soon realised that it didn’t look promising. I’m in no way condoning racing whilst injured but knowing I wasn’t going to cause anymore serious damage to myself I thought it was okay to race but as always, listen to your body.

The second issue also happened four weeks prior (safe to say I was a bit miserable that everything was falling apart at the same time). Unfortunately, I went over a very small pothole which caused a crack in my base bar on my Canyon Speedmax. Canyon informed me it could take 2-4 weeks to get a replacement to me and with Roth looming in under 4 weeks I knew it would be a tight turnaround. Thankfully, Canyon were able to get my base bar to me a few days before flying so I was able to test ride it before leaving. In the end, it all worked out fine but I was pretty stressed in the lead up!

Back to the event anyway… I arrived with my mum and Paul on the Wednesday giving enough time to sort the bikes out and establish our surroundings. It’s safe to say the lead up and anticipation for the race is awesome, the expo is by far the best I’ve ever been to and the atmosphere was great.

Race morning soon approached and after topping up my tyres, sorting out my nutrition and popping some painkillers I was in the water raring to go.

Starting in the sub9 wave, my tactic was to just get on the feet of swimmers. I knew I wasn’t going to be the best swimmer by any means but hopefully I could reduce the deficit as much as possible. The swim is essentially an out and back, initially going into the current then getting the help on the way back. I tried to keep myself close to the bank where there was less of a current and then go more centrally on the way back. I think it worked anyway as I was out the water in 59:10, a new PB over that distance and my first time going under the hour mark.

Transition 1 was pretty uneventful, in a good way, and I was soon out on my bike.

A lot of us came out together so I knew the roads would be quite busy for the first 15kms. I tried to be patient and not bust a gut chasing people and instead focused on my fuelling and hydration (especially with the swim being around 23 degrees).

After about 20kms I passed fellow GBR triathlete Ross and a pack started to form. Things started to work well with some athletes taking turns on the front but others choosing to take up the draft and not doing a lot to help. I did have a few words with some triathletes after being on the front for a good portion of time and them literally sticking to my back wheel, so much for 12 meters!

Just before Solar hill, we caught a large pack and it very much felt like we were team Joe Skipper from the sub7 passing Blummenfelt’s team but no dog barks this time 😂

This led us into Solar hill and what an incredible atmosphere! It’s something everyone should try to experience at some point. When you see the barrier section you slowly turn right and there’s just a mass of people screaming with no clear path through, just like you see on the Tour de France. You’ve just got to soak it all up and hope you don’t push too many watts from all the adrenaline!

Soon afterwards, I was on the second lap and the group had slowly diminished. Safe to say, I felt like I did my fair share of work at the front and others certainly didn’t but that’s racing sometimes. I still felt good and no doubt it was down to my nutrition plan which was to consume 90g of PH carb gels every hour followed by a bottle of water at every feed station, adding a 1500mg PH tablet as required. Every feed station was situated on a hill which made fuelling a lot easier and by the midway point I decided to take off my visor and spray water in my face to help cool me down - worked like a dream in those hot conditions.

Soon it was time to head for T2 with the pack now about 4 of us. Looking down I was astonished to see I’d managed to go sub 4:30 for the bike arriving in T2 in 4:28:50, a new PB. Handing my precious bike to a volunteer and getting my transition bag, I could feel the heat baring down on me now I’d taken my helmet off. This was the moment I’d been dreading all day, the run!

One foot in front of the other and there was no pain! What was going on? Either the painkillers had worked (after topping up 1 hour before the end of the bike) or the long warm up of a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike had done the trick! Whatever had happened I didn’t feel any pain and I actually felt good.

Had it not been for my injury putting me out of running for a month, I was hoping to run a sub 3 marathon and aim for 4min/km pace. Instead I just went purely off feel and barely looked at my watch.

By the time I got to the canal, I could work out my positioning. From the look of it, I was around 10th in the age groupers and not too far off the pros given they started 20 minutes beforehand. I saw Fenella in the lead for the women and she looked super strong! A quick high 5 from a class athlete goes a long way to spur you on.

By around 10km I could see Neil Eddy about 200m up the road. I tried everything I could to try and close the gap but my lack of recent running was starting to take it’s toll. It soon became evident that I wasn’t going to catch him and it was a battle to stay cool and hydrated.

Every feed station comprised of pouring as much water as I could on me whilst trying to consume a bit too! My original plan for the run was to consume 90g of PH carb gels every hour, finishing with the new caffeine gels in the last hour. As for hydration, I was hoping they’d hand out bottles of water which I could top up with 1500mg PH tablets but it was just plastic cups. Thankfully, I had some PH salt tablets with me which went down great.

I actually felt great for the whole run. Mentally I was all there and the heat didn’t get to me one bit. I stuck to my plan and adapted well I think. The last 10km were physically tough (as the dreaded wall always hits then) but, just to add to it, the course has a nice hill to drain your legs more. A couple of close calls with cramp (I’d run out of salt tablets by this point) in the last few kms held me back - it’s a long way to the finish when you have to walk (I know all about that after my miserable run in kona).

It was all behind me as I was soon approaching the finish, essentially completing a lap of honour in the stadium which was truly incredible. Joy and relief rushed through me as I crossed the finish line in 8:37, a new long distance triathlon PB.

I had actually managed to run 3:05:14 for the marathon which far exceeded my expectations (realistically I was expecting a 3:30 marathon given my injury). The long training runs and consistency beforehand must have helped thanks to coach Paul.

After all my doubts with my injury and bike, everything came together on the day! I’m now very sore and my glute is definitely feeling it but a relaxing holiday in Croatia will hopefully ease it off.

Thank you to my amazing support crew as always, my mum was always there cheering me on (a difficult task with timings and the different locations) and Paul had a solid race too - always good to see him on the run!

Now for some downtime and hopefully I can get this glute injury sorted asap! The next target now has got to be sub 8:30!