• Victoria Stears – #thetrilifereporter

    Victoria HartAs a life-long runner who enjoys cycling and the occasional sea-swim, the sport of triathlon seemed like the perfect route of progression for me.

    The fact that I am not a complete beginner in any of the disciplines gives me a quiet confidence that I can survive this type of event as it is really just a case of improving on the skills I already have and joining them together.

    Swimming is something I have always loved, although after years of competitive swim clubs as a child I defaulted towards holiday swimming in the warmth of the Mediterranean, or the occasional open water swim in freezing British waters as an adult. Essentially, I was an unstructured lazy swimmer up until 2016. My cycling story is more positive and generally involves a weekend jaunt along the coast, with a regular commute to work thrown in for good measure. As for running, well, I adore it. I prefer to run 5 and 10K distances and am not particularly fast, but I certainly make up for my lack of speed with tremendous enthusiasm.

    Although I have a fairly full race calendar throughout the year, my priority race is Hever Castle Triathlon in September, which I am determined to perform brilliantly in. All of the effort I put into training and racing this year revolves around my desire to be spectacular at Hever.