No Feeling Like It

Home

I’m from the southeast of England, around East Sussex and Kent. I’ve been based in the same area for 17 years, which is my whole life. I’m surrounded by farming fields, quiet lanes, rolling hills, and small woods where I can ride my bike or run. 

About 20 minutes south, it goes out to the sea, so there’s always been quite a lot of variety and green in the landscape. I live next to Bodiam Castle. I can see it from my window. It’s flat, but it has a little hill in it, so it’s a good place to train.

My dad, Mark, has sheep and had cows before, so that fits with the environment around here. He works partly on the farming side and does conservation-style work too, working with nature and doing what feels right for the land rather than against it. 

My first memories outside are being on my bike when I was five, riding in the forest near me where there are mountain bike trails. I also remember the Lake District where we would go camping, and I would swim with my brother Oliver or sometimes on my own. It goes shallow at first, then drops really deep close to the shore, from nothing to total blackness. When you’re 10 or 12, that’s a bit of a shock.

Off-Road

My dad raced mountain bikes, so I followed that. He didn’t do triathlon, but he did duathlon, and when I was younger there was a lot more off-road triathlon around. He also did 12-hour and 24-hour endurance mountain bike races, so he had that longer-distance side to him.

I started racing really young, even from a balance bike. My brother is a couple of years younger than me, so he was doing the same races I was doing. I liked the off-road, so that’s what I always did. It was fun, and he enjoyed it too, so he followed suit.

I’ve always loved the off-road side of sport. When I was young, I was doing stuff in the pool, racing cyclocross, racing mountain bike cross-country, doing cross-country running, and just trying different races.

That progressed into triathlon when I was about eight. Then it progressed to racing on the road too, but I was always still mountain biking. So when I had the chance to do XTERRA, I was able to bring my love of off-road into triathlon as well.

Learning

The course I’m doing is distance learning, designed for athletes, so that helps me a lot. I can fit training around schoolwork, and I’ve been studying Spanish for about six years while also learning French and Italian to make travelling and racing abroad feel more connected to the places I’m in. 

I help out when I can, like going to see the animals or helping my dad when he’s doing fencing. Sometimes I’ll run to the land he has, or do my long run there, so it becomes a way of making the most of the time. That’s why I like understanding nature more. The more I’m immersed in it, the more I enjoy it.

I learned about XTERRA before I raced it. I think I had seen people like Hayden Wilde and Flora Duffy, because I started watching the World Triathlon Championship Series on the road and knew they had done XTERRA too.

I also remember reading about people like Ned Overend and some of the earlier athletes, when it was more pure mountain bikers coming over to do XTERRA racing as well. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, because I always wanted to do off-road triathlons, but there weren't too many opportunities around when I was younger.

Headspace

I think my closest friends are probably through sport. Through the season, I see them quite a lot, and on training camps you get to know people pretty well. When training takes up so much of your time, some people don’t really understand why you’re always doing it. 

Where I live, I’m a bit far out from other people, so there aren’t many people near me I can train with every day. That’s why a lot of my training is solo, but I make the most of being around people when I can. I’m quite happy to be in my own headspace. It can be difficult to clear your head sometimes, and sport is the best method for me. 

The road is cool, but you’re always being overtaken by cars. When you’re in a forest, there could be someone around the corner or there might not be. You don’t know, and I like that. It’s nice being on your own with that peace of mind.

Morgan Rhodes is based near me, and I used to train with him a bit where I swam. What amazes me most is the power the elite guys have on the bike, and their ability to hold that much effort for that long. They’re out there for a couple of hours or more, and that’s the level I’m aspiring to reach. You see it and think, if I want to get there, I’m going to have to be that fast. It’s a cool thing to accept and tell yourself you can get to.

Wanting It

The biggest thing this lifestyle has taught me is probably mental. You get the physical benefits, but mentally it’s done the most for me. It makes you reflect, especially after a race, and it stops you from taking things for granted.

When you’re working for something, it’s not like you’ve just been training for the last week. You’ve been building toward it through everything you’ve done, maybe for your whole life. 

I know it’s called a finish line, but it doesn’t really feel like the end. It feels more like reaching a new level, or opening a new door to another challenge. You achieve one thing, and then that sets you up to try for something bigger.

Self-reflection has probably been the biggest thing for me. It’s been the most powerful thing in helping me become a better athlete. I’m not trying to be hard on myself, but I really want to be the best I can be. Realistically, I’m not going to do that by doing it halfheartedly. I have to give everything, because I really want it.

Having Fun

Fun is still a big part of it. Sometimes a ride doesn’t have to be specific. I can just go to the forest and ping it down some trails, or go as fast as I can and see what happens.

I’ve been crashing a bit more recently, but not big crashes, just small things. I think that’s because I’m having fun and pushing myself out of my comfort zone, taking a corner quicker or trying to clear something. You slide out, come off, and just laugh at it. That might not be fun for most people, but for me, that’s my fun.

“Riding fast or running fast down a trail, there’s no feeling like it really.”

XTERRA has also taught me to relax. You’re still a normal person at the end of the day. You just want something badly enough to keep working for it. I’m not some superhuman thing. I’m a normal person who wants it, and I think anybody can have that if they really want it.

If you don’t want to race, that’s fine too. Just enjoy being out there. But if you want to get to the elite level, or be the best at something, you really do have to want it.

The main thing is to have fun. I think I’ve got a good balance where fun comes through the sport for me, and through that enjoyment, I want it more. If I wasn’t enjoying it, it wouldn’t work. Being positive gives you a positive performance, but if you lose the enjoyment, there’s no point doing it. For me, making sport fun comes first, and the other stuff comes with it.

What I’d want people to understand is that just because you’re quick, it doesn’t mean everything is easy. Getting to big races can be really hard, but those opportunities mean a lot to me. I don’t take them for granted.