The World Games 2022

The World Games 2022. Definitely the highlight of my career so far. 

I left for my long journey to Birmingham, Alabama on the 4th of July. Five flights later, I made it. The weather was a bit of a shock to the system with it being humid and mid 30’s most days. Coming from a 13hour time zone difference and winter back at home, I arrived 10 days prior to my race to adjust. I struggled training most days leading up to the event and thought it was my body struggling to adjust to the heat, however a couple of weeks prior to the Duathlon I came down with Covid and thought it wouldn't affect my training and racing but it very much did. I tried to put it behind me and focus for what was ahead.

I was set to race on Saturday 16th of July at 8am and arrived at the venue about 90 mins before I was scheduled to start. I checked my bike in and went on to do my usual race warm up. We were soon called to line up and and get the race underway. The Duathlon started with a 10km run done as 4x 2.5km laps around Railroad Park. I started pretty strong and wasn't that far off the leaders for the first lap but as the run continued on I began to struggle more and more each lap, dropping off my pace quite a bit and couldn't stay with the girls who were running past me. I came into transition near the back with a few still behind me and with a small group of girls about 30 seconds up the road. I knew I would be able to catch them with my bike being my stronger leg and set off to complete my 40km bike leg. 

The six lap bike course was a technical one with there being 18 corners each lap, over 100 corners in total. I was by myself for the first lap and was honestly very confused where I was supposed to go as the roads weren't marked off well and we were only able to complete one lap of the course in the bike familiarisation the day prior. To put in perspective at one of the intersections there was basically a cone in the middle of the road and you either went left, straight or right. I somehow went the right way but I really had to think about where I was going each lap which meant I wasn't riding the best I could because the course was extremely confusing. As I finished my second lap on the bike I saw that there were some girls who were behind on the first run leg, were now in front of me and they never overtook me on the bike. The group of girls I was chasing down were now over half a lap in front of me. I couldn't figure out how I had fallen so far behind or what was going on. So not only was I confused about where I was riding but I was also affected mentally wondering why I was riding terribly. Turns out about half of the girls in the race had gone the wrong way which I found out later on. After an unsuccessful chase to catch the group ahead, I rode solo for the duration of the bike leg. 

I came into transition to complete my final 5km run leg of the Duathlon which was 2 laps around Railroad park. It didn't go well for me and I was really struggling out there. I finished my first lap on the run to only see that most of the field had already finished which was a bit embarrassing for me considering I had never fallen so far behind in a race before. I did my second lap and finished the race. Turns out 12 girls were disqualified for riding the incorrect bike course, I somehow rode it correctly and came away with 9th place overall. 

My race may not have gone the way I’d hoped and it was unfortunate I had Covid so close to the event but I’m glad I was able to even get to The World Games. Although it may come across as negative, it was more of a way to gain experience. I wasn't aiming for a podium placing, I had only set the race as a goal a few months prior. Most people would have been focusing on this for a couple of years and I was able to race against the best and at the highest level possible for Duathlon. Now its time to aim high for triathlon. 

A massive thank you to those who helped me get to the start line as well as my coaches Stuart and Matt. To the people who donated to my Go Fund Me, your donations were hugely appreciated and were able to cover the costs of flights to get to and from Birmingham.