Diving In

My dad used to take me trail running up around Ben Lomond in the Scottish Highlands. He would kid me on and say there was a McDonald’s or Costa Coffee at the top of the mountain, and I actually believed it, so I ran the whole way up.

He’d never tell me the distance either, so sometimes I’d cover 10K up the hills with no problem. It’s only now that I know the distance and think, ‘That’s too far, I don’t want to do that.’

All Conditions

It’s very rainy in Glasgow. We don’t get a lot of nice weather, so you kind of have to get used to that. We don’t live in the countryside. It’s more metropolitan, with cities and big buildings, but once you’re out on the country roads, it’s a bit better.

It probably takes 45 minutes to an hour for us to get to the countryside for trails, but Scotland has a lot of beautiful gravel tracks and trails. We can put the bikes on the car and drive wherever we want to go.

When I think of the countryside, I picture lochs, water, trees, and cold weather. It’s usually wintry, windy, and freezing, and I’m always layered up in my kit, but I still manage to enjoy it.

Family

My family plays a big role. I’m really grateful to have parents who drive me all over the country and take me to do all kinds of events. They definitely want the best for me, and it’s always been like that. They’ve always seen the potential in me.

I have three siblings as well, but they're all older than me. My sister is a dance choreographer, one of my brothers is a teacher, and my other brother does architecture. My dad used to do triathlon, so that definitely had an influence on me. 

I learned to ride my bike before I learned to tie my shoelaces. I went from a balance bike straight onto pedals, and even though we lived in the city, my dad would still take me out on my bike. 

I was a very outdoorsy kid. I used to climb trees and everything. I was always on wheels, either on my bike or my scooter, or I was just running. I think I was very adventurous and wanted to do everything.

Starting Again

Triathlon started as a little thing, and then I started to think, maybe I could actually be good at this. I just kept going through it, and I represented Scotland at Inter-Regional Championships when I was 12.

After that, I took a break to focus on performance swimming, but then I decided I really liked triathlon and enjoyed it. I wanted to spend my time doing something I loved.

Loch Venachar is a place where I’ve competed in open water, and I definitely have a lot of memories there. I feel like it’s where it kind of started, because I loved open water swimming and that channels into triathlon really well. It has the mountains, the trails, and the water, so I think it definitely fits.

I did the Youth Scottish Tour, which was really good. It was definitely an experience because it was with the top girls in Britain, and some of them are biking three times a week because that’s just their sport. It was a struggle, but it was fun, and I enjoyed it.

I’m starting to enjoy everything else now, not just the swim leg. I’m trying to enjoy the run and the bike too, and trying to put it all together.

Routines

I stay motivated by having a schedule. If I have a run in the morning, then I’ll do something fun or go out with my friends, and then maybe I’ll train again at night with swimming. I get to see my friends, and I try to make it more fun for myself.

At school, I do English, French, human biology, and PE. When I’m older, I definitely want to do something with coaching or sport, maybe sports science or sports business management.

The main thing for me is getting out and doing the work. I’m not going to get results by sitting on the couch, so it’s about getting out running and putting in the miles. It doesn’t always need to be fast, but that consistency is definitely one of the top things for me.

It’s definitely a struggle sometimes, because when everything is in a routine, if you’re too tired to do something, it all goes out of place. 

Social Balance

School, studying, training, and friends are difficult to balance. You have to work out how much studying is too much, when you can see your friends, and when you need to say, ‘Sorry, I have to train that day.’

I have quite a lot of friends from swimming, and I’ve made connections from other clubs, so I have friends from all over Scotland. I also have friends in the triathlon academy, but I never really train with anybody, so sometimes it does get quite lonely because I’m training all the time by myself. But there’s something in the back of my head telling me to keep going.

My friends who aren’t training think I’m crazy. They’ll say, ‘What do you mean you ran this morning?’ Then they’ll ask if I’m training again today, and I say I train twice a day. They don’t know where I get the motivation to do it, and I’m just like, ‘Me neither.’

Resilience

This year, I got diagnosed with dyslexia and visual stress. At my previous school, when I said I was really distracted in exams and couldn’t get them finished, they said they would look into it, but nothing really happened. After I moved schools, they got it sorted. They got the tests done, and now I get extra time and support with my exams.

Growing up with sport has definitely given me a lot of resilience. If I do something wrong, I get back up, do it again, and try until I get it right. That has transferred into my studies as well.

I think what makes me who I am is my determination and resilience. When I was younger, I sometimes didn’t want to go to run club. I’d think, ‘I don’t want to do this. I want to play on my iPad.’ But my dad would say, ‘We’re just going to go,’ and then I’d end up enjoying it.

Pushing boundaries is definitely a way to go, but you also have to make sure you enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy the atmosphere or the sport, then you should change it or try something different. The main purpose of sport is to make you happy.