“The only way to get better is to surround yourself with people who believe in you”
This is my second year racing as a triathlete and not a cyclist. It is also the second year Thornton Chartered Financial Planners have supported me. Everything still feels very new, in an ever changing environment, the stability I receive from my sponsors keeps me confidently moving forwards towards my ambitious career aspirations.
My first major result this year was winning the Staffordshire Half Marathon. I finished the 13.1 mile event in a time of 1h 11m 44s. I feel this was a great show of my resilience due to picking up an impact injury just 8 weeks previously, allowing a total of less than 25 miles training before the event.
Secondly in May I won the English National Standard Distance Tri Championship. I had a good swim, which is my biggest weakness, resulting in a somewhat easy chase on the bike. I then finished the day off with a 35 minute 10km run to comfortably take the win across all age categories.
Most recently I made the step up to middle distance racing. This was in the form of an Ironman 70.3 race (70.3 is the total distance of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run). In my debut race I finished 2nd in the under 24 age group, at an age of 19, as well as 15th overall which included the professional athletes. Initially I looked at the negatives of what went wrong for me; But on returning home to a wave of support I realised what a great start to my career in middle distance triathlon that race was.
I train and race in a hugely supportive environment. The pressure to perform at races will only ever come from myself. This is something not every athlete can say and is why I take pride in the sponsors I work with. The support of Thornton Chartered Financial Planners, a local family run business established in the same year I was born, just adds that extra level of determination to the hard work I commit myself to every day. I cannot thank Sharon, Jools and the team enough for the belief they have had in me from the start and I cannot wait to show everyone what I am capable of in the future…
