British middle distance champs – Jacqui Thomson

This race wasn’t in my agenda after I came back from Kitzbuhel but after I heard Ali and Jennifer were going down, I decided to tag along.

After a long 6 hour journey down, it was straight to registration and then off to bed. 4:30am rise, not much sleep but that didn’t affect me too much.

The race started at 6:25am with a running start into the water.  It was a stoney ground and so this made the Australian exit a bit difficult. Found it quite hard to sight due to it being so early and dim though felt good during the swim.

Transition was long and about a minute out of T1 I got a puncture. Was nearly binning the race due to the puncture so close to the start but I had pit stop with me even though I had never used it, it worked brilliantly (best thing since sliced bread). Felt strong on the bike,  the 2 lap course had a good mix of hard rolling hills and fast long stretches which I felt suited me well.

Felt great coming off the bike into the run which was 2 laps round the waters. Got into a good rhythm and liked the well marked course. Was aiming for 1:31 though in the last 4k my calf started to tighten up and so had to adjust and slow down.

At the end, I felt the race could have gone smoother but was very happy to find out that I had won my age group and was now British Champion.  Really enjoyed the race, well run and good location, would recommend it.