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World Duathlon Championships - Pontevedra

4th Jun 2014

World Championships. I have raced 9 AG champs in my career- and a couple of times I've pulled out the best performances of my season to come away with medals. The rest of the time they’ve been the biggest disappointments. Pontevedra is the first time I’ve managed to achieve both!!

Not looking too disappointed at the medal ceremony- even though I know I'm capable of way more!

Pontevedra was by far my most disappointing race of 2014, yet I still came away with the bronze medal. Perhaps that tells you something about my hopes, and confidence in my current form!

I had a great start to the race, despite not being allowed to wear my own kit (last year's old suit apparently did not count as 'official uniform', but I'd refused to spend £90 on a new one that would only be worn once!) Cue a quick kit exchange with my mum who luckily finished the sprint event before the standard race started! (And won a gold medal in the 60-64 category no less! No pressure on me then...) Fortunately we are the same size, and fingers crossed no one would protest about the wrong name on the suit! (Bardsley was my unmarried name after all...)

Leading the 10k run into transition

So- the first 10k went great, I was running a comfortable pace yet somehow leading the wave! First time I've led an international race, and the support from all the GB spectators was awesome :-D

I was first out onto the bike, and here the plan was to set off comfortably, get the nutrition in and then ride hard on the second lap.

Unfortunately I was trying out new nutrition and hydration ideas- and while I'm well aware you shouldn't try anything in a race you haven't tested in training... I clearly hadn't replicated race conditions in my training where everything had worked fine! So... with the Spanish heat, the added race intensity and adrenaline it pretty soon started to go wrong and give me severe cramp, even riding at an easy pace.

Setting off on the bike- before it all went wrong!

Nothing I tried would shift the cramp- stretching, riding out of the saddle, drinking, taking more gel, backing off the pace even more, pulling down my compression socks (were they too tight?), pulling them up again... and obviously I'm not concentrating on racing! I couldn't really respond to others passing me anyway as any increase in effort just made things worse!

So frustratingly, I just had to watch others pull away that I should easily be able to respond to, and on a course with nice hills that should normally suit me. Wondering if I would even be able to run at all when I got off the bike. Somehow I was still 2nd in my AG into T2, but to be honest I was going for overall position (and overall podium) which is more meaningful in the younger categories!

But my legs were hardly working by now- everything was done steadily and carefully (slowly!) in T2, but it was really hard not to trigger the cramp on such a twisty run course. Thankfully only one girl in my AG passed me as I hopped and jogged round the final 5k (wouldn't really call it a run) meaning I somehow managed to hang on to 3rd.

So although Bronze wasn't the colour I was going for, under the circumstances I was relieved not come away empty handed. I then spent the next 5 hours unable to eat, or move more than 100m from the toilets or collect my bike from transition and get back to the hotel!
Lesson learned.
Shame I had to learn it in a World Champs, and that a gold medal still eludes me! I just have to take away the fact I proved to myself what I know I'm capable of on a good day- hopefully next time!!