Tracey's journey to Europe

I have always been interested in keeping fit. Before I took up cycling, running and swimming I worked with horses, which kept me in pretty good condition. In 2008 we retired to Spain, my husband and I bought a couple of hybrid bikes and started going for short rides, of around 20km. I struggled big-time, particularly going up inclines. I had always suffered from problems with painful knees and at first this made it worse. I used to get very frustrated, to the point of tears, with the pain… but I persevered.

We then met Gary and Lynn Routledge from Cyclogical in Quesada and started leisure rides with them on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

My fitness levels increased and I started to ride further and further within a social group. As I got stronger, happily, the pain in my knees went away – this in itself was motivation enough to continue cycling. I then decided to continue improving my fitness levels by taking up running and went on the internet where I found a ‘couch to 5km’ program and followed that. T Through the social cycling group I met someone who was a marathon runner. She encouraged me to enter an 8.5km local race at La Marina urbanisation. With a great deal of trepidation I entered the race… all I aimed to do was finish. Up crossing the finishing line it was revealed that I had come third in my category (45-50 years). I was 49 at that time and the result was totally unexpected – ‘over the moon’ would be an understatement. Over the next 12 months I entered a lot of local 5km, 10km and half marathons through Liga Running (ligarunning.com), and ran the Chester (UK) half marathon with my son Ceri. Podium places in each of the local Spanish races culminated in me winning the league for my age group in 2013. During this time I also continued cycling and moved from riding a hybrid to riding a road bike, and joined the Amigos del Ciclismo cycling group (www.amigosdelciclismo.eu – a predominantly English speaking, mature international cycling group who enjoy cycling throughout the Costa Blanca).

Through the group I received a lot of help and advice on road cycling from experienced road cyclists. The group continues to help and support me. My son-in-law Ed then encouraged me to enter an event he had completed the previous year: the charity triathlon at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, along with him and his brother. This filled me with a lot of apprehension, particularly as my swimming was very weak. ‘Weak’ to the point that I had a fear of putting my face in water let alone jumping into a lake with hundreds of strong swimmers. I was motivated to accept the challenge because it was raising money for cancer research, and started the swimming training by putting my face in a washing up bowl full of water to overcome the fear. I then progressed to swimming off Los Naufragos beach to get used to open water. You could say ‘out of washing up bowl into the open sea’. I completed the Blenheim Tri in 2015 and became part of a group called the Unstoppable Triathletes. We then went on to complete a back to back triathlon at Blenheim the following year, all for charity and I also won my category. By this time I was getting a lot of positive feedback that I had the potential to go further.

So in April 2016 I took part in a qualifying duathlon to gain a place in Team GB. This took place at Windsor Great Park. As I now had a coach, I started on a structured training plan in the January. This was a whole new experience. Unfortunately after developing a fairly common athletic condition called ‘shin splints’, my training needed to be modified and I required a lot of treatment; again all new stuff. On the day of the race the weather was atrocious, race conditions were bad and I had not paid enough attention to my nutrition. This resulted in me just about managing to finish the race and not qualifying. A steep learning curve. Still wanting to represent Team GB, and with encouragement and help from my coach I entered the next qualifying race, which was at Oulton Park in October 2016.

Again with a structured training plan, I trained hard all through the Spanish summer. The race was a Sprint Distance Duathlon (5km run, 20km bike, 5km run). It took place on October 2, 2016 and I qualified, finishing in one hour and 17 minutes, which gave me a place on the GB team to represent my country in the 55-60 age group at the European Championships at Soria in Northern Spain. The championships take place this weekend (April 29-30), so we wait with bated breath to see what the outcome is. Regular Cycle Clips contributor and duathlete

Nick Dinsdale feels that Tracy is likely to achieve a podium finish. I am sure all readers will want to wish Tracy the best of luck for this weekend. Further information about the championships is available at www.triathlon.org/events/ event/2017_soria_etu_duathlon_european_championships