Sam Theobald took part in this amazing event on the weekend of 17-20 October in Torremolinos, Spain. This is what she had to say about her race:
Lining up with athletes from countries all over the world on a very hot sunny afternoon is a great experience. The heartbeat drums that go off before the starting horn brings a mix of adrenaline and excitement.
The age group wave consisting of 65 athletes start off with a beach run into the sea, it was a choppy swim which ended up being 240m longer than normal although I had a great swim coming out the water in 5th. A run up the beach, over a bridge into transition to collect the bike and out onto the bike course. These championships are draft legal so lots of working groups on the bike course. The course consisted of a long steady incline up for almost 5k, turnaround and back down twice through. Not my best bike and some silly mistakes on my part caused me to lose a few places and I came back into transition in 8th place. On go the running shoes and then out onto a flat out and back run course finishing with a run down the blue carpet to the finish coming in 12th.
Although not the race I'd hoped for it did earn me a spot for the mixed relay race 3 days later. Myself and 3 team mates each completed a mini triathlon before handing to the next team mate. The final athlete finishes their run down the blue carpet to the finish.
This was my first mixed relay race and it was absolutely amazing! Fast and chaotic racing, completely flat out from start to finish. The crowds were out in force, the run route was a wall of noise from supporters. I had great team mates and we all gave it everything to finish in 5th.
A wonderful experience to finish off the few days of racing.
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