Next up, our distance specialist, Roslyn Mcginty, offers the first insight into her tri journey with her début Triathlon England blog.
I am a F40-44 GB Age-Group Triathlete. Back in 2008, I decided to venture into triathlon and quickly caught the bug. After much deliberation on which club to join I decided Tri London best matched my needs - with training in the early mornings and being conveniently close to my work in Central London. I have always been active - swimming, canoeing, playing squash - but a couple of years prior to joining Tri London, I had started to run. More stress at work equated to longer distance running and having sustained too many injuries whilst focusing on running marathons, I was advised that training across three disciplines would lower the risk of injury. Two sprint distance triathlons later I was hooked and in a moment of insanity I found myself pushing the ENTER NOW button for Ironman Germany 2009. This has led to an iron distance race addiction every year since.
I honestly believe that joining a Tri Club was the best decision I could have made. I was working as a Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Nurse in a tiny private practice and believed that my days of making new friends were long gone. Tri London changed all of that and has provided the perfect opportunities to train with like-minded souls with an unrivalled experience in all things tri whilst at the same time making many new friends. The theory on fewer injuries is yet to be proven, but my decision to change to triathlon has resulted in achievements that I believe would never have been possible.
Not long after starting out I remember the thrill of qualifying for the GB Age-Group Team and travelling to Australia in 2009 for the Olympic Distance World Championships. I was desperate to go because I thought I would never have the opportunity to race for GB again. I felt I had ‘got lucky’ when I qualified at the Bedford Olympic Distance qualifier (in truth I probably had!). Soon after this event I realised that my strengths lay in long distance events.
I went on to surprise myself further not only by qualifying again but also winning Gold at the European Long Course Championships in 2010 & 2011 in Spain & Finland. I mean me?! I have never won anything more than a fancy dress competition!
The long course format remains my favourite distance but sadly the World Long Course Championships are the only races with this format now. In 2012 The European Triathlon Union changed the format for long course triathlon from long course (4k, 120k, 30k) to iron distance (3.8k, 180k, 42k) and teamed up with Challenge. I thought my days on the podium were over but I had a fantastic season last year at all of my races and was shocked to win Bronze at the English Middle Distance Championships and Silver at the European Long Course Champs at Challenge Almere, Holland.
I have my woe stories like any triathletes. In 2010 I was diagnosed with an allergy to exercise after suffering an anaphylactic reaction during an open water swim. This continues to be a problem though thankfully the serious reactions are not too frequent, although totally unpred means that other than exercising in well populated areas such as parks and gyms I am restricted to training with other people. I train and race with an Epipen & that’s a tad tricky in an open water swim, particularly if it is non-wetsuit! Whilst having this condition is a pain I am grateful that I can exercise – too often you hear stories of people so much less fortunate.
In fact, at the end of last year I was contacted by the BTF to ask if I would be able to help sight for a blind lady named Alison that lives locally. We have been out for a few runs and she is so appreciative and delighted by any opportunities where I can help her to get outside. We did her first 5k Park Run together in November, she really enjoyed it and it was definitely the most rewarding 5k that I have ever run. Unfortunately I slipped two discs in my neck the following week and required some time out of training and some epidural injections into my neck. I am back cycling on a turbo and running now and just hope my progress continues to allow me to swim again in March. I don’t need to get fit for just my own races any more - I’d love to be able to help Alison do a triathlon by the end of the year. She has some amazing dreams and I sincerely hope that I can help her to achieve some of them.
My training and race plans for the year ahead are very much in motion for 2015 and hope my neck will allow for what is in store! The plans so far look something like this:
February/March – Perhaps an off road event or two!
April – a week of warm weather training in Lanzarote
May 2015 – The Tour of Wessex – This is one of the biggest multi stage cyclosportives in the World. It is held in the South West of the country. Each individual stage has its own unique mix of challenging terrain and with 335 miles spread over three days back to back it is a truly tough event! Perhaps middle distance event taster too!
June 2015 – Cotswold 113 – Middle Distance Triathlon – (Tri London Middle Distance Club Championships)
June 2015 – World Long Course Championships – Team GB – Mottala Sweden
July 2015 – A middle distance event
August 2015 – Ironman Copenhagen
September 2015 – Sight for Alison in a triathlon
Knowing me, a few more will work their way into that mix too! Let's wait and see...
