I never set out to be a Triathlete. In fact my first one ever was only fitted in because I was in Jamaica for a swimming event for my club at that time - Beacontree. That Triathlon was not only my first but also my worst. The bike had been borrowed and was nowhere near the right size and my bike riding was not any good anyhow. I had also not run seriously for years and when in T1 I changed completely from cossie to bike gear. I actually won the under 17 section but I have no idea how. Funny but the Ladies and Men's winners were Rachael Horn and Jack Maitland. Jack's winning pose on right. This year I attended a Greek Tri camp with Jack and it was the first time we had chatted in 7 years. The left pic is of me after the Negril Triathlon - well ready to sleep for a week.

I started off as a swimmer. A bit of an all rounder. The only stroke I was not at home with was backstroke. Funnily enough Jodie Swallow was my main competitor in the early days. At our first Essex County Competitions we shared the spoils. I took the 100 Breast, fly and free and also the 400 free; Jodie the 100 back and the 200 medley. We met many times in the pool over the following years and as we got older Jodie mostly got the better of me. The pic to the left is me doing breaststroke when I was 6 years old and the one on the right is in Newham about 1990.

I went 66.4 long course butterfly at Crystal Palace and made the GB youth squad. I also toured Canada with England South. Unfortunately my swimming career was cut short by two incidents. Number one was when a horse kicked me and no sooner did that clear up than I had a left arm/shoulder injury. That problem is still with me today and if I have a longish pool session my left arm balloons up to twice its normal size.

So that triathlon in Jamaica was a sporting turning point. Obviously my swimming was already very strong but I had never run competitively and the bike needed to improve a great deal for me to become competitive.

Over the years my running improved to the point where I was more known as a runner was than a swimmer winning lots of small track and road races. I really trained hard on the running and although I had reasonable success there were troubled times ahead.

I was fortunate enough to be selected to represent GB in the World Duathlon championships and fortune kept smiling on me to victory in the under23s. The pic on left was taken during the World Championships. World u23 World Duathlon Champion sounds great - and so it is but my aim was always to get to the top in triathlon and the jump from u23 to senior/elite I found very difficult. I was forever injured and in 2003 and 2004 hardly competed without one problem or another. However my training changed radically at the beginning of 2005. My coach Alan worked closely with me to plan a more specific programme. Even so, I did not start running until the beginning of April. My cycling has improved massively this year and now I feel I can 'hang in' when the going gets tough on the bike. As for my swimming; well even good swimmers can have poor patches and it is only since I have gone over to the 'swim vision' programme that I feel I am approaching how I swum as a youngster. My swimming is gradually building and will probably be at its best for the London Tri and later.

That just about brings us up to the present. Thanks for visiting. Click the buttons left and right for a bit more reading.

Bye for now - Karen.