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Chelsey's Dawlish Triathlon Debut

Tuesday 27th September 2022

Following hot on the heels of Danielle Simpson who was on the podium in her first ever triathlon Chelsey Hallam does likewise at Dawlish Sprint Triathlon. Here the women’s team captain at Phoenix tells Geoff Pike how she got into triathlon and about her experience…

Chelsey signed up for Dawlish Sprint Triathlon to join her best friend, and as part of her rehabilitation from a long standing plantar fasciitis injury, thinking that a triathlon would provide a new target to attack and not require such intense run training. Chelsey used to be a cyclist before getting into running, so felt she ‘had two of the three disciplines ticked off!’ and she also says she’s watched ‘multiple triathlon and Ironman documentaries and YouTube videos’…what could possibly go wrong?! Turns out nothing much, apart from the small matter of finding that six weeks out her bike was a write off…and her replacement wasn’t going to arrive on time! Here there is another link to Danielle who generously lends Chelsey her bike…’Carol’.

Chelsey says that the regular swim and brick sessions were the most important part of her training and the ‘advice and support provided by Liz was invaluable’ in helping her prepare, ‘Liz was an absolute rock’ for about 3 months of training.

On the race itself Chelsey says ‘probably the most enjoyable part was the fact that my swim is so terrible, that after it I was just picking people off one by one on the bike and the run.

Chelsey’s swim was 4 minutes slower than the woman who won, and that was the gap between the final rankings. She had issues with goggles and controlling her nerves at the start which also slowed her down but it’s a nice feeling going past people off on the run and she went past the fourth placed woman in the final 100 metres to secure a fabulous third place on her triathlon debut.

Chelsey is definitely up for competing in more triathlons next year, and at least she now knows what to practice in the winter to win the next event…but says the only problem is having the time to fit all the training in!