It’s been almost a year since George Peasgood’s life-threatening bike crash, however, now on his recovery journey he’s shared his insights and experiences of World Triathlon Para Championships ahead of Saturday’s racing in Pontevedra.
Recovery
It’s been almost 12 months since the accident and my recovery I can’t complain about, especially when the medical professionals say I’m beating the odds even being alive.
I decided to share my recovery experience on Instagram and it’s been important to be honest for a few reasons, most importantly my own mental health. I absolutely hate that the general population think being an athlete is so good 24/7 when it’s not.
It really wound me up in hospital when someone would say to me that things must be going well, when to be honest they weren’t, so I said no more doing the nice stuff for social media and I’ll happily, and much rather now, put the bad stuff out there too.
With my recovery I’ve recently been able to get back to running. The first run back was good and they’re getting better, the more I do the more I feel like myself. The biggest thing that is slowing my rehab down is the fact I’m not doing more at the moment.
2023 World Triathlon Para Championships Pontevedra
The British team will have travelled over to Spain together earlier in the week to get settled for the last bits of training. The team environment before a major race is crucial but so so individual, I like being psyched up so I love the theatre atmosphere, some people prefer to be mellow which is fair enough, but it’s all about everyone getting what helps their performance.
The day before the race is familiarisations and the chance to recce the course ahead of the racing. For me, I like the detail so I’d be paying attention to everything about the course and breaking it down into really specific things.
The flow of water/tide, location of things on the bike and wind direction or running dips, surface, camber and everything. Visualisation is person dependent, but for me critical so I’d think about everything on the field of play.
Some of the team have been there and done it before at World Championships multiple times before, whilst some have done one or two, or are making their debut.
I’m not sure on their training and things at the moment but most probably they’ll just be thinking things similar to most larger races. I’m just hoping that they’re all physically sound and get the race they deserve.
Putting on the first Worlds trisuit is very special and it’s hard to believe, well it was for me, and I was just excited and nervous to get racing.
Representing Great Britain and pulling on the trisuit is always a really good experience. If they’re like me they’ll be nervous and excited to get the race finished, and just looking forward to embracing the challenge.
I remember my race in 2018 when I won bronze. The race, in Gold Coast, Australia, was not ideal at all but there is no such thing as a perfect race in triathlon. Standing on the pontoon, I was nervous but excited to get racing and hoping there wasn’t anything to stop me performing.
World Triathlon Para Championships Pontevedra gets underway at 08:00 BST (09:00 local time) on Saturday 23 September. Coverage is available on TriathlonLIVE with race updates on the British Triathlon social media channels.
