October update

I’m going back to monthly updates now since my last big race of the season is over, but I did have a small race in the first weekend of October.

I had entered the Craggy Island Off Road triathlon in case I didn’t end up going to European Youth Champs, which ended up happening as GB didn’t send a team due to covid. I had entered craggy as a bit of fun and to do something different (mtb and off road run). There were quite a few of my friends doing it too (and my dad) so it was a fun day. The adult race started about an hour before the kid’s one so we watched all the adults coming out of the swim. It was quite wet and slippy underfoot going into transition, since it was on grass which had turned slightly into mud. There was one section there was a bit of a slant and we watched from there since lots of people fell. No one hurt themselves as they were falling onto soft mud, so my friends and I found it hilarious when people came sprinting past and then went sliding. The best bit was when my friend Charlie’s mum came past and fell-we were in stitches!

After that it was time for our race, but it was really cold, so me and my friend Charlie waited for a few minutes after everyone had went into the water before we did, so we didn’t have to be in it for as long. It was a short swim so I went hard from the start and got about a 10 second lead to second and a further 10 seconds back to third. I took off my wetsuit and put on my shoes just after we got out as it was a long run to transition. I went onto the bike in 1st with Charlie just behind. We had 3 loops of a 2km lap, but since we were the oldest in the kids race and the adults race had just went past, we were directed onto the adult lap instead of the kid one. We kept going hard for about 2km, when we were stopped by another marshal and told what had happened. We turned back and went pretty hard until the end of the bike, but then on the run we just ran together and chatted. It was still pretty fun since it was a great day too, and I actually wasn’t really frustrated since I still had so much fun. It was an off-road run and towards the end there a stretch of waterlogged grass. As we ran through it I just decided to do a belly slide(we had tried to slide down a hill earlier but it didn’t really work) to see if it was any good-it was amazing! I slid so far. We came into the finish and then immediately went back up to the place so we could do some more sliding! Even though it wasn’t my day I still really enjoyed it and just like that my triathlon season was over.

I had a week of training after craggy and then took 2 weeks off during the school holidays for a bit of a break. I just did what I felt like and saw friends most day-it was good fun.

Since then I’ve only had a week of training and I haven’t felt too bad. I did swim time trails and got a pb in 2 events, but on the bike I’m still not feeling great. My running is OK too. I’ve been trying to get some sponsors so post an update if anything happens. I’ve now got a winter of training with a few swim races and cross countries, and also a few camps with the Scottish next generation squad which I qualified for. I really looking forward to the camps, and I also get to work with the Scottish institute of sport now I’m in that squad. Can’t wait to work with that!