There are no boundaries after taking those first triathlon steps in Go Tri

An inspirational story from Lucy Charles who is part of the newly formed Hoddesdon Tri Club; it shows what can be achieved in a relatively short time:

After a fairly successful career as an open water swimmer for Great Britain, my love for swimming had started to fizzle out. It was at this time I decided to enter the Ironman UK triathlon. I needed an event of this enormity to reset my goals and make sure I would commit to training.

Having never completed a triathlon before I decided to join the very new Hoddesdon Tri Club. It had been established for a couple of months and was based just around the corner from me, perfect! It was here I learnt just how tough an Ironman was likely to be, whilst also meeting some great people. Myself and a number of Hoddesdon Tri Club members took part in a local Go-Tri Aquathlon, this was my first multi sport event and I loved the whole experience. It was after this race I decided to enter lots more triathlons, aquathlons and sportives before the big Ironman race.

Time flew by and my triathlon brain absorbed as much knowledge as possible before the big Ironman race day arrived. The race itself went well and I finished in 2nd place in my age category, narrowly missing out on a slot for the World championships in Kona, Hawaii. After this I spent the winter months training hard with my club, rebuilding myself as a stronger athlete ready for the next tri season. This year I had one goal, return to Ironman UK and qualify for Kona.

I'm pleased to say that I have achieved that goal and I'm just weeks away from racing in Kona with my fiancé Reece. 

My 2015 race season has so far exceeded my expectations by miles, having several titles to my name now including;

Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire 18-24 winner 

National Middle Distance Champion 

Ironman UK 18-24 winner 

Ironman 70.3 U25 World Champion 

I can't thank Go-Tri enough for pushing me in the right direction, giving me the buzz for this fantastic sport and setting me on a new career path!'

We all wish Lucy the very best for the Ironman World Championships in Kona