Kate Wins a Bronze Medal at The World Championships
My journey to the World Championships………
Exercise hasn’t always been a big part of my life but when I went to University to study Physiotherapy I soon learnt the importance of an active healthy lifestyle. I signed myself up to some 5k and 10k running races with friends and realised that exercise had so many positive benefits and really haven’t looked back ever since. After having my first baby I got into cycling. Partly because my husband bought me a road bike as a ‘becoming a Mum’ present and partly because I could sit on a turbo trainer with the baby monitor! It was a couple of years ago when I was starting to put down some faster times that one of my patients encouraged me to try and qualify to race for Great Britain. Not being one to say no when faced with a challenge I decided I would try and do just that.
I’ve just come back from the World Championships in Spain where I raced for my age group in Olympic Distance Duathlon for team GB and was over the moon to come home with a bronze medal.
I was both nervous and excited about racing this year. The training was really really tough. Probably the hardest thing to achieve when training for this event is getting the healthy balance. Being a busy working Mum of two young children, time is limited. So with that I have had to learn to manage my expectations of myself. It’s unrealistic to think that I can be training hard out everyday. Instead I try to fit the training around my home life, work life and social life as much as possible. That does mean lots of early mornings which is not always the easiest when that alarm goes off! I know I’m not the only one who has to juggle these challenges and that’s half the battle of getting to the start line and one of the big reasons why when you achieve these things you’re even more satisfied.
Setting yourself challenges, pushing yourself out of your comfort and striving to achieve goals can be so rewarding and I would highly recommend it!
I’ve had so much support for my World Championships Duathlon journey and I can’t thank everyone enough for that. Thank you to the local Poole based company Team Runderwear and also Sundried for all of my amazing kit. If you haven’t tried these two companies for their kit I would highly recommend that you do! Also thank you to local Sports Orthopaedic Consultant Charles Willis-Owen for providing me with some super speedy wheels!
https://www.runderwear.co.uk
https://www.sundried.com
https://www.sportsorthopaedicspecialist.co.uk