Lucy Charles from Hoddesdon first took part in multi-sport at a GO TRI aquathlon in 2014. Fast forward one year and she's just won her age-group at the 2015 Ironman World Championships in Kona by 29 minutes!
We caught up with Lucy before her tri to Hawaii, to find out how she got involved in triathlon and how her season had gone thus far.
"After a fairly successful career as an open water swimmer for Great Britain, my love for swimming had started to fizzle out. It was at this time I decided to enter the Ironman UK triathlon. I needed an event of this enormity to reset my goals and make sure I would commit to training.
Having never completed a triathlon before I decided to join the very new Hoddesdon Tri Club. It had been established for a couple of months and was based just around the corner from me, perfect! It was here I learnt just how tough an Ironman was likely to be, whilst also meeting some great people. Myself and a number of Hoddesdon Tri Club members took part in a local GO TRI Aquathlon, this was my first multi sport event and I loved the whole experience. It was after this race I decided to enter lots more triathlons, aquathlons and sportives before the big Ironman race.
Time flew by and my triathlon brain absorbed as much knowledge as possible before the big Ironman race day arrived. The race itself went well and I finished in 2nd place in my age category, narrowly missing out on a slot for the World championships in Kona, Hawaii. After this I spent the winter months training hard with my club, rebuilding myself as a stronger athlete ready for the next tri season. This year I had one goal, return to Ironman UK and qualify for Kona.
I can't thank GO TRI enough for pushing me in the right direction, giving me the buzz for this fantastic sport and setting me on a new career path!"
Congratulations to Lucy on an amazingly successful 2015, which has also included winning Iher age-group in Ironman UK, becoming National Middle Distance Champion and being crowned Ironman 70.3 U25 World Champion.
To find out more about GO TRI and to get involved, click here.
