Lara and Colette headed to Dorney for the Diamond Triathlon – an Olympic Distance Race -and battled it out together. The race started with drama for Colette, as she was just minutes away from missing it, still struggling to get her wet suit on as everyone entered the water! So, blood pressure through the roof and adrenaline pumping the race began…

Lara remembers: ‘I managed to hold onto Colette’s toes on the swim (literally sometimes – sorry Colette!) We exited in the first group other than one girl who was way out in front. I had a super fast transition and exited T1 second, despite falling over taking my wetsuit off and crashing into the barrier trying to get on my bike with calf cramp!’ Colette’s transition was much more leisurely as she calmed down from her dramatic start and a wide swim which had added a few extra metres to her 1500m.

So, on to the bike and 8 laps of Dorney Lake. Colette ‘felt all was going well until the wind got up and then bang, like cycling though treacle. Mark’s coaching is paying off but I still have a way to go to get that average speed up. ‘ Lara taking the title of drama Viceroys from Colette  bike as a potentially boring 8 laps soon turned interesting: ‘Some chick from Evo tried to run me off the course as we were playing cat and mouse with each other so I did some off road grass cycling. Lap 5 I was wondering why I didn’t enter the sprint instead. Lap 6 I decided I need a different saddle, lap 8 I was pretty glad to be off the Dorney M25! Pleased with my bike time though because it was pretty windy.’ 

The run came next – the leg that both were dreading the most, but Colette had a stormer and managed a PB by 30 seconds, overtaking Lara on the way. And Lara, how was your run? ‘The run………well the less said about that the better! My head kept telling me how rubbish I am at running, I listened and everyone in a 2km radius overtook me! Really need to work on the run, or maybe just go for a few runs!!  #cantrunwontrun.’ 

Great racing ladies…