Gold again for Sharon

Sharon has worked really hard and consistently this year in her training for the European and World Sprint Duathlon Championships, and the results speak for themselves. A well deserved and brilliant result, smashing the field by 4mins, which is huge in a sprint event! This is Sharons report:

My first ever race in ideal conditions sunny, not too hot and not a breath of wind. Made a change from shivering on the start line hoping the rain isn’t going to get worse. Anyway all the females set off along the athletics track together. There were no body markings so it was impossible to tell who was in your age group so it was just a case of going out hard and trying to keep it up.
The run was a bit hilly and twisty through the streets of the old town in Pontevedra and back alongside the river, with lots of support along the way to keep you going. Transition was a doddle with my new helmet – no giving the opposition chance to catch up this time. Then the bike was a 10k steady climb on a wide carriageway and 10k back down the other side. Riding the course beforehand was really scary as there was a lot of heavy traffic and it was very windy so I came down hanging on to the brakes and even then managed over 30mph. However on race day I decided to give the tribars a go and try to keep my hands off the brakes. It seemed to work as I managed to pass a couple of people on the way down – never done that before on a downhill stretch ! The final run was just a case of hanging on up the hill and over the cobbles. I did manage to pass a French lady on the way but it turned out she wasn’t in my age group. Anyway I finished in the lead with about 4 minutes to spare. So didn’t need the new helmet in the end.
Thanks to Fran for her encouragement and training plans getting me up to speed !