“Know your why.”

And prepare for things to go wrong. Thinking through possible problems beforehand, she says, makes them easier to deal with when you’re tired and your brain isn’t working quite as well.

After months of training specifically for a race that was hot, dry and fast you can imagine my dismay when conditions were more akin to an early spring day up on the Peaks than to an island best known for tourists baking by the pool!

“There was no way I was not gonna finish that… medal or no medal.”