LUCY GOSSAGE

She’s back from a top-10 finish in Kona and feeling suitably proud

Two months after breaking her collarbone, Lucy’s beaming with pride at her Kona performance

When I broke my collarbone two months before the Ironman World Champs, the mountain I had to climb to make the start line seemed too steep and too high for me to contemplate. Not in a million years did I think I’d be able to put together a decent performance, let alone one that would put me in the top 10 for a second time. So sitting on the plane back to the UK now, with hand luggage weighed down by a ninth-place umeke, I’m still in a state of disbelief.

I first went to Kona as an age-grouper back in 2008. At the time I was much heavier than I am now, still used a road bike, and, in comparison to nearly everyone else who races there really didn’t have a clue. Because of a late qualification and work commitments I arrived five days before the race and flew out the day after. I didn’t know anyone else out there and was too scared to introduce myself to anyone. So I spent most of the week jet lagged and alone in my condo, filling out a job application for my PhD and wondering how the hell I was going to get round an Ironman in the crazy Kona heat and humidity. I landed back in the UK on the Tuesday morning with the worst sunburn I’ve ever had and went straight into work to do the skin cancer clinic!

I went back in 2010, this time as a good age-grouper. I still felt intimidated by the other athletes but this experience was much more fun. Firstly because I had some friends I could hang out with. And secondly because I was much better prepared physically and knew what to expect. Finishing fourth in my age-group was a phenomenal achievement for me at the time and I went home full of pride, thinking that that was probably Kona done for me.

Yet four years later I found myself going back as a pro, though it was far from the debut I intended. A long-standing Achilles injury flared up and I ended up walking 21 miles of the marathon, eventually crossing the line as last pro female, and in exactly the same time as my first-ever Ironman. So last year I had some demons to conquer. It was particularly hot and I suffered. But everyone suffered. And although it wasn’t my best race ever I was absolutely over the moon to finish 10th. At the time I wrote that ‘I expect when I look back in a few years time this will probably be the race of my career that I’m most proud of.’

I wasn’t sure I’d come back to Kona this year. It’s always been a race I felt I ‘had’ to do rather than ‘wanted’ to do. It’s the only chance you get to race all the best athletes in the world, all of whom bring their A-game. For me it’s a nightmare race. The swim is important. The bike is non-technical, dull and riding it solo, chasing after a slow swim, is hard. And because of the heat the run is a pure sufferfest. Give me a hilly and chilly course like Bolton or Tenby any day!

I didn’t realise how much I wanted to race Kona again until I broke my collarbone. I guess sometimes you don’t know how much you want something until you think you might not be able to have it. But when I was lying on the floor in A&E sobbing my heart out I knew. I wanted to test myself against the best in the world once again.

I didn’t think much could top my race there last year. But coming back from this accident, both physically and mentally, is definitely the biggest achievement of my triathlon career to date. My close friends and family know what a hole I was in for the couple of weeks after the crash. I pride myself on my optimism but no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t find a single positive. But time is a strong healer. And when I got on the plane I knew that, whatever happened in the race, I’d be proud of the way I’d got myself to the start line.

Finishing in ninth place was completely unexpected. Even writing it now seems somewhat surreal. I raced beyond my physical fitness and the result is down to my head as much as my body. I guess the adversity I’d dealt with in the run-up meant that I no longer feared Kona as a race. The other girls racing didn’t intimidate me. I knew that all I had to do to be proud was make sensible decisions on race day and cross the finish line empty. The result was irrelevant.

Maybe taking away the pressure, and any focus on results and outcome, was what helped me on the day. Who knows? But I know, that at every single point in the race, regardless of position or speed, in my book I was ‘smashing it’. Way behind after the swim but I’d smashed it. I was way back in 20th at the turnaround on the bike but knew I was riding well. And on the run, to some extent I wasn’t worried about position, certainly until the last 10km. I knew I was racing out of my skin and couldn’t be doing anything better or differently.

Perhaps Kona 2016 is the race that will define my triathlon career. I guess only time will tell. But one thing I know for certain is that, when I’m old and grey and my physical exertion for the day is hobbling to the shops, I will still look back on the last two months with an immense sense of pride, and probably also disbelief.

At every single point in the race, regardless of position or speed, in my book I was ‘smashing it’