This year I knew and had accepted my racing would need to be put on hold because of my GCSE exams - but it hasn't gone that way! Finishing last year on such a high, my coach sat me down and said "Libbie, we need to work out what you want to do and have a solid plan for 2024, I need you doing less racing and more quality training. You need to pick a few A races and a few B races and NO adding last-minute races in!"
Because of my exams I picked Spartan UK races and my big A race being the OCRWC. Why I picked OCRWC? Because I love being in the mountains and want to keep my band in the 15k and hopefully come away with the gold in my age group (14 - 18 years).
On my plan I had one UK Spartan race before exams then everything else would be after. However, in February I received an email from Spartan that I'd been selected for the UK Spartan National Team with 4 other females. I was shocked because I never expected this, I thought it would take years to even be considered. I didn't have to think, and it was a YES, but this completely changed the year, and I felt that I really needed to put my racing first equal to my exams. I spoke to my coach, and we still had a good plan and luckily all Spartan Championships were after my exams, it just meant there was no room to slack on my training.
May came round quickly and the first UK Spartan Race was the weekend before my first GCSE exam, it was good to have a race to take my mind off exams. The first race was the Spartan Beast (13 miles) which was the first race of the UK National series, I was really happy to finish 6th female. The next day was the Spartan Super (6miles) and this race was with the new rules where they didn't separate the pro wave from age category wave. I like this because I feel you get a true ranking of where you stand. The race went so well and finished 2nd overall out of 56 females, my legs surprising felt good after racing 13 miles the day before, but I've always raced better after another race!
Knuckling down on my exams, halfway through my mom surprised me with a trip to Spartan in Zandvoort, Netherlands during half term. I did this race in 2013; it was cool getting to race on a beach and the F1 racetrack. It was a Beast and then the Super race and boy it was hard, because forgot how hard running on sand is. Both races I came 11th female overall; the Beast I came away 1st in my age group and 2nd in the Super, really pleased because the European athletes are so strong.
Back to exams, and on the last week of my exams it was the OCR European Championships, and I had such bad 'FOMO' not being able to go! Exams finally done I turn to train as a full-time athlete, first up was UK Spartan Midlands Super and the next race in the series. This race went perfectly and I finished 4th female overall but what I was more pleased with, is that my time is getting so close to the top athletes in the UK, and I could see my training paying off. My coach has put more speed work in because this is my weakness and part of training I don't enjoy as much.
As soon as I did Spartan Midlands on the Wednesday, I went out to Morzine, France for the Spartan Ultra World Championships. Sadly, I was not allowed to do the Beast because of French laws, but I loved watching the ultra and beast race and was itching to race up the mountain, with epic views. I raced the Super but felt this race went all wrong and I lost it mentally. The first 3k of the race was super flat, around the town, I was keeping with the front pack but came to a high wall and took a few attempts to get over it, which cost me big time. I lost the front pack and this is where I lost it mentally thinking I'd never catch them now and I knew we weren’t going up the mountain, I came 10th female. Not the result I wanted but I learnt a lot from it. I then went out on the Sprint with my best friend Eme and had such a laugh.
Eme and her parents invited me to stay with them in the French alps to train for 2 weeks, and OMG this was just amazing, and I got some quality mountain running in. Next up was the last UK series race, a Sprint, I have raced Badminton before, so I know this race is going to be flat as a pancake and extremally fast.
The race went well and another 100% completion, which saw me hitting the sphere throw and achieving 6th overall. Over the UK Series race you get points at each event to calculate your series result overall. I wasn't expecting this result and came away with a 3rd overall, it was so epic to stand on that podium with fellow VOOM athletes Andrea and Fede who are the best athletes in the UK and who I inspire to be like in years to come!
Now I am waiting for my GCSE results on the 22nd of August and knuckling down on my training for 3 big Championships: Spartan European Championships in Kaprun on 7th September, OCRWC on 5th October and then the first ever Spartan Sprint & 100m World Championships in Croatia on 12th October.
With being picked for the UK National Team and being recognised as a pro athlete, I have qualified and decided to go Pro at OCRWC. It will definitely be incredibly hard but I'm excited to see where I rank against the best in the world.
