Claire Brown – Triathlon
A bit about me
I am currently 37. I work as a Veterinary Radiographer at the University of Liverpool Small Animal Hospital and I’m obsessed with 80’s music ha ha
My triathlon journey
As a child I swam at my local swimming club but I quit when I went to university. Let’s say I enjoyed my university years and the weight unfortunately piled on!
As a child I swam at my local swimming club but I quit when I went to university. Let’s say I enjoyed my university years and the weight unfortunately piled on!
Determined to get fit again and loose weight for my wedding I started running. With this new found passion for sport I was dragged along to the local triathlon club by my friend to try out one of their swimming sessions, which I loved! I signed up to the club straight away but felt as though I was no where near fit enough to take part in a triathlon so I continued to attend the training sessions and volunteered at the club events. After seeing how supportive and inclusive the triathlon community was I decided to bite the bullet and enter my first triathlon at Nantwich in 2013 (picture below)
That was it I was hooked, I bought a road bike, a wetsuit and started looking for events to enter the following year. Where things started to take off for me was when my training buddy mentioned that if I had registered my intent to qualify for the Great Britain age group team I would have potentially got a place. I obviously didn’t believe him but thought I would give it a try. I very surprisingly managed to qualify for both the standard and sprint distances at the 2017 World Triathlon Championship in Rotterdam but as the races were on the same day I decided to go for the sprint distance. Unfortunately I pulled my calf before heading out there which I was completely gutted about but thought I would just pull up my big girl pants, tape myself up, take it easy and enjoy the experience fully without the pressure. Well what an experience it was. It was such a honour to wear the GB kit and having people shout and cheer for you all the way around the course was just something that I can’t explain, but what I do know is that it’s made me hungry for more!
I somehow managed to finish 10th at those championships and that was carrying the injury I had. This result has made me even more determined to do it again as I want to try and do myself justice and see how I can perform against these amazing women when I race fully fit.
So far 2018 has been an incredible year with an overall win at Southport sprint (pictured below) which was a ETU qualifier for 2019, 4th in my age group at Deva standard which was a qualifier for ITU world championships 2018 and 2019 and 1st in my age group at Cardiff ITU sprint qualifier for 2018 and 2019.
I have some huge events coming up in the next few months including Glasgow ETU sprint championships and Australia ITU world championships (sprint and standard) which I’m super excited about so my focus at the moment is to just get my head down and continue to work hard and hopefully stay injury free!
I came across Mountain Fuel after a race (Firefighters 2up Duathlon, pictured below) in Bolton at the beginning of the year (2018) and started to try the products during and after training sessions and I have to admit I really love them, especially the Jellies and the recovery powders, I’ve not looked back to be honest. They are really yummy (especially the cola jelly) and more importantly give me the results I’m after and train hard to achieve.
The Mountain Fuel team are a superb group of individuals who are extremely supportive, talented, encouraging and generally awesome and I feel completely honoured and humbled to be part of the Mountain Fuel family.
Favourite Events:
I’m biased but I love my home club (Chester Tri) events especially Deva divas women’s sprint. This is such a supportive and encouraging event for women to try a triathlon for the first time. They do so much for the ladies in the run up to the event, including workshops and training sessions, it’s really just something else.
Goals:
The ultimate goal and dream is to get a podium spot at a European or World championship event!
The ultimate goal and dream is to get a podium spot at a European or World championship event!
Complete another half Ironman, currently looking at Majorca in 2019 and then possibly a full Ironman, possibly.