2024 World Triathlon Age-Group Championships in Torremolinos-Andalucía - Lucy Williams

Pre-Race Prep:

I felt really well prepped, although I had some crazy work stuff explode on the Monday I got there, so my awesome week of getting ready, stress free and relax pre the race didn’t quite go to plan, and I spend 13 hours a day at my hotel desk for the week before eating cheese and biscuits and drinking coffee! My race strategy as Anna knows is always to enjoy the day and do the best I can on that particular day, we did have some goals however but as the distance was completely new to me we had plenty of flexibility in them to cover my first ever ocean swim of that distance, and we weren’t quite sure how I would cope with the heat, it was 29 degrees on race day!!

Swim Segment:

I was unnaturally worried about sharks!!!! The swim start was the best atmosphere I've seen in any race, everyone was super friendly, offering hugs, music, lots of singing. The water was murky, quite a lot of swells and a bit rough and the start was the same! Very rough! My swim at IMNZ this year was great prep, and I had Laura and Annas words in my head all the way, breathe, be calm, find a rhythm and settle. I never tend to race the swim and I had quite a hard kick in the mouth at the start which started bleeding and then had the constant mental game with myself that a shark would be after my blood!!!! Apart from the kick the swim and bleeding mouth I was pretty much to plan, and I was glad to get out! (alive!!!))))

Transition Insights:

The transition from swim was a long run up to the bike, I was very thirsty from the salt water and hot. I made the mistake of drinking too much in transition T1 which didn't start me off well on the bike.

Bike Course:

The course was epic, the highlight was riding the racetrack and hearing all the American teams shouting fly kiwi fly!!! I struggled a bit on the long distance as I was riding my road bike that I had used for the sprint. It was really hot and quite windy. I drank too much too early on the bike and then gave myself a few gastro issues and struggled to eat anything, I would usually have at least one bar amongst all the other nutrition which always seems to settle my stomach. The conditions especially the wind and heat got to me a bit, but I was overall pleased with the bike. It was an epic course and a great atmosphere especially riding through the town.

Run Experience:

The crowd were a massive boost, I was a bit worried about being dehydrated on the run as I had more than a few flying vomits on the bike and struggling a bit to keep any carb drink in at this point but having all of the kiwis on route was amazing, everyone cheered for their country and gave me a real boost to see some friendly faces on the laps. The three laps were nice, but the out was a bit lonely and had to dig deep in the heat! I stopped and walked every aid station to try get some fluids in which worked well, and my gastro issues started to settle on lap 3! I made some friends whilst there who did the aquabike, so they had finished when I was on the last lap of the run which was so mice to have them their form support!

There were a few crashes on the bike course, one poor American lady who looked very tired came off her bike Infront of me whilst I was on the run, so given I wasn’t racing for a podium I decided to stop for about 7/8 mins and wait with her whilst the ambulance came. She was all ok just very shaken up

Overall Highlights:

It's the first time for me that I've hit a wall on the run, I was on 7k and felt so bad with little energy and fuel in me that I doubted for a while if I could finish. It was weird as I've been doing a bit of Zwift racing with Anna and her team and more than I though it's made me much mentally tougher to face these situations I think, I kept telling myself I was uncomfortable, but it would pass, and it did! So ultimately super proud to have hit a wall learnt a lot of racing in the heat and to have finished and not stopped! I also felt super proud to be representing NZ - the support was great and clearly Kiwis are well loved globally, we had plenty of support!!!

Takeaways for Next Time:

Eeerrrmmmmm, biggest lesson for me was always listen to your coach and never deviate from the plan!!!!!! I did deviate a little from our Carb loading, hydration strategy I think mostly as I was panicked about the heat and loaded my carbs and water differently to I had before and drank too much too fast which I wouldn’t do again! I learnt a heap and was overwhelmed by the talent and awesome athletes there! Overall, very pleased with the day and had the best experience ever. My run was quite a bit slower than we'd planned but given everything I wasn't too disappointed and happy I'd found the mental strength to keep running!