In the European long-distance Duathlon Championships in Horst, Netherlands, PACTRAC's Wendy Gooding (50-54) defended her title. Wendy won GOLD last year at the same venue, and successfully defended her Title over the distances of - run 9.5 miles, bike 37.5 miles, run 4.75 miles. She was one of 4 Gold Medal winners for Team GB.
Wendy said: "It's a great town and there was the usual fantastic support for the Brits. I was delighted to finish about four and a half minutes faster than last year and to win my age group again."
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FROM THE BTF WEBSITE: http://www.britishtriathlon.org/news/wendy_gooding_4166
Meet the Team - Wendy Gooding.
The racing season for the Great Britain Age-Group Team gets underway this weekend with the Horst ETU Duathlon European Championships. With less than a week to go, British Triathlon spoke to defending long distance Champion Wendy Gooding about her journey to the start line.
Wendy Gooding
50 years old
Defending W50-54 European Long-Distance Duathlon Champion
Day job: Assistant principle
Wendy ran competitively for many years in 10K races and half-marathons but did not take up duathlon until recently, as injuries began to catch up with her, and her introduction to the cycling element was somewhat unusual for a duathlete. "I was a director of sport at a sports college," she says, "and we developed one of our changing rooms into a spinning studio so I really got into cycling by becoming a spinning instructor. After that I bought myself a road bike, put the running and cycling together and had a go at duathlon."
The marriage of the two disciplines soon bore fruit as Wendy won her age group in the first duathlon she entered, the Newmarket Duathlon in 2009. "It was in August and about the hottest day of that year," she says. But I'm a bit of a sun worshipper so they were great conditions for my first race. It was very much a local race.
"After that I asked a coach at my club, Pactrac in Peterborough, whether I should do some training over the winter and try to qualify for the GB Age-Group Team. So he put together a programme and I then went on to qualify for GB and I first represented them at the 2010 European Duathlon Championships in Nancy."
Wendy's GB debut went well enough, she came fifth in her age-group, but her biking was letting her down, not least because she was struggling to find a bike to fit her. "I now have a custom-made bike," she says, "because, as I am five feet tall, to get a bike off the shelf that fits me is really difficult. Having had this bike built to fit has made a huge difference, especially on long-course events."
The difference the bike, along with the decision to rein in her training as the race approached, made became apparent when Wendy won the F50-54 age group in the ETU European Long Distance Duathlon Championships at Horst last year. "It was the first time I'd won anything representing GB," she says.
"Up until then I'd never really given my body a chance to recover before a race but going into Horst, because it was a long-course event, I did what I was told, took my rest days and tapered properly. On race day it was amazing how everything went to plan. I was running under seven-minute miling for both run legs and I just thought 'wow where did that come from?'
"It was the first long-course event I'd done and the town was fantastic. It was really well organised and the support was just tremendous. Crossing the line first in my age-group was just amazing. It was a great place to compete."
Part of what makes for such a good atmosphere is the support from the team management and Wendy credits this with a major roll in the GB Age-Group Team's success at European and World events: "The management from British Triathlon is absolutely fantastic and that makes a huge difference to the team. The support Joan Lennon, the team manager, gives us is great and people going out for the first time have nothing to worry about. When I went for the first time the support Joan gave us made all the difference."
Going into this year's race, Wendy is confident of doing herself justice but will not be drawn when asked if a repeat victory is on the cards. She does, though, believe she has given herself as good a chance as possible. "Last year I spent my summer holiday cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats so I've really worked on my endurance and I'm injury free," she says. "Training has gone well so I'll just have to see how things go on the day."