Sixth in her age group for her first Half Ironman… doesn’t get much better than that. Carla tells us about the Cowman 70.3:

‘We travelled up to Emberton Park Saturday for registration, to familiarise ourselves with the course and I was also keen to see the lake. The setting was great in the middle of the Park (with ample parking and loos close by!). The course was right up my street, some undulating hills and predominantly off road run – fantastic.

Would you Adam and Eve it, we are in the middle of a HEATWAVE – I’m not complaining, the weather is stunning (if you’re relaxing by the lake with a picnic and playing rounder’s like ‘normal’ people). Completing a half Ironman in it, another story, so anyway I crack on…..

Barely any sleep the night before but that can be said for most competitors when chatting in transition with folk at 5.15am. I set out my kit and didn’t forget anything – BONUS ready to go, it’s amazing how quickly time passes, before you know it they’re calling you for race briefing and start sharp at 630am.

Swimming is definitely my weakest discipline, when I look back at my first Sprint triathlon 3 years ago I despised the lake and swimming for that matter. Since then I’ve been able to focus on developing my stroke and definitely improved, being coached by Mark the last two months specifically in the lake my confidence has boomed, I love it. This was the best experience, in fact it made me laugh, the amount of folk zig zagging across me in the water as their sighting was pants meant I was able to pick up pace and swim through them, dare I say it left quite a few men behind – that felt bloody awesome ;0) Sighting was so important as we arrived in the morning to fog and low lying clouds, consequently visibility was poor. You couldn’t see the buoys from the bank (crazy given blue skies day before). I held back at the start then zoned out, focused on the course and was assisted out of the water in 42mins52sec.

With Surrey Hills as my playground through the winter I’d worked hard on the hills, so the biggest hill we climbed three times on the bike was a breeze. Held back as I wanted to leave something in the tank for the run, loved it – took on fuel and fluid as you should and came off the bike in 3hours 14mins.

I ran into transition and was used to ‘jelly leg’ feeling as I’d done lots of brick sessions. We were free of the blazing sun throughout the bike leg, chuffingnora was it out in force now. I completed first lap (four in all) of the run, with a steady short pace managed this in about 26mins, I remember talking to myself (as you do) ‘just keep this up Carla and you might be able to pick up now and again through the course’. NO flipping way, pace dropped dramatically, running up that darn hill into a corn field was sheer hell, the intensity of the heat was shocking, I made sure to stop at every water station, it was like nothing I had experienced before and didn’t feel prepared. Mental strength definitely pulls you through, lots of participants walking meant you were on a level playing field of course, so giving up definitely never an option but it did cross my mind I tell you. I managed to hold my (female) position off the bike and completed the run in 2hours 3mins! Ran through the finish line with my daughter Grace, elated – what an amazing experience, 6 hours 5mins and 14 secs, 6 in my age category and hungry for another one.’