Great 'strides' for Lucy Charles at the Watford Half Marathon

Last week we interviewed 2015 Ironman and Ironman 70.3 Age-Group F18-24 World Champion Lucy Charles, who revealed that she will be racing as a professional in 2016, her first major target being Ironman Lanzarote.

Related Article - Lucy Charles: "I'm racing Pro in 2016"

While such a decision might seem obvious on the surface, there is (still) no guarantee of success at the highest level. While Lucy's swimming is beyond doubt... that nails the first 50 minutes of an Ironman, but that still leaves around eight hours of cycling and running to go! If you consider that Lucy's time in Kona was 10:20:52, that was still more than 20 minutes behind the first British Age Group athlete, Alison Rowatt, and close to an hour behind Pro's Susie Cheetham and Lucy Gossage. As she will know very well and will have considered at length, there is a long way to go and work to be done to develop as a professional Ironman athlete.

That said, I was very impressed with Lucy's run on Sunday at the Watford Half Marathon. A big PB of 1:20:59 (third place overall) shows some great progress already, even over a period of just three months. That sort of run speed isn't going to be threatening the likes of Mirinda Carfrae in the short term, but it is a big step in the right direction. If you consider that Lucy ran 32:26 for a 5-mile race at the end of November, that time is comparable to circa 1:30 for a half marathon. To to run 1:20:59 is significant progress. That also suggests to me that she is in 5km PB form right now too.

Even better, it comes off the back of a midweek cycle time trial (20 miles), which showed a year-on-year improvement of five minutes.

Keep up the good work Lucy.

Watford Half Marathon - Sunday 7th February 2016

Thanks @WatfordHalf @UK_ATW for a fab event! Delighted with 3rd lady & sub 1:21, big PB! @skechersGO @compressport pic.twitter.com/oKmBKDepoN

— Lucy Charles (@LucyAnneCharles) February 7, 2016