Hi guys,

Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who had posted stuff or texted John to say good luck and well done. Much appreciated.

So, 2nd in Europe. And I'm sure you lot who properly know me will not be surprised when I say I am disappointed!! "What? 2nd in Europe and disappointed!" I here you say- well yes but I have have high standards and I honestly believe in different circumstances the race would have been mine but I'll go onto that later.

So the journey began on Wednesday as I travelled to Lisbon via Heathrow by plane. More OAP Americans (why do I always end up with them?) but nothing too exciting. Met the sweetest ever old guy next to me on the way to Lisbon called Pat or Alf but then he fell asleep when I needed to pee and I couldn't bring myself to wake him up so the most uncomfortable flight ever !! Never ran so fast off a plane in my life!! Bikes made it from terminal 5, phew!!, so that put my mind at rest a little!

For the next few days the British team were based in a lovely hotel two mins from the race site with the Swiss team and the hundreds of kitted out age groupers for company. Not a lot exciting happened there so I'll move onto the important part-race day!!

So at exactly 5.30am my alarm went off and it was time for me tto roll out of bed and get breakfast. Why the junior girls always get the cold, stupid o'clock, early , spectator free start times I do not know but I wanna protest and get us a decent starting slot. Looking like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, then back again I munched, turbo'd a little then made my way down to the athlete's lounge to register. And surprise surprise it wasn't ready! 20mins late some Portugese guy who thought he was God turned up and eventually we were body marked and allowed to set up transition. The transition area was located in a huge arena type place which when it filled up would provide an electric atmosphere (thanks to our start time I'v gotta say the crowd didn't blow me away!! Mind you I was beating the Portugese girl so that might be why) Warm up went incident free and then it was time to race...

I was slap bang in the middle of our field on the pontton so if I got a good start brilliant, if it was shocking I would be screwed and battling it out with pairs of feet and choppy water. A good swim is always important but today it was especially as important as a girl called Monez was in our race. Portugese and in her final year as a junior it was obvious what she would be out to do. Oh and did I mention she was World junior champion in 2005 and Fernandes's domestique and built like a man?? Seriously the girls has legs to rival most of the boys! So off went the gun and in I went and the battle began. Nails had clearly been sharpened and dirty tactics discussed. Hands grabbed at my zip, arms and legs and blatantly tried to haul me as far backwards as possible. Now here's my theory- surely people would swim so much quicker if they stopped focusing on dunking folk and concentrated on swimming? It's not rocket science is it? But no they would prefer to try drown people in their quest for that lucrative gold medal. This is where I put my hands up and say yes my fists are sometimes clenched but only if someone is purposly trying to hold me back. I employ the "they started it first" approach then let loose the inner ned and retaliate. I digress. Till the first buoy it was an absolute nightmare but once round it I found a patch of clear water and worked my way up the field and by the last buoy I was in no-man's land but not far off Monez. I exited the water in 4th, infinitely better than what I managed towrads the end of last year. However due to my lack of open water swimming this year I was gubbed and dizzy when I got up!

It was a long run to T1 and the dizziness and knackeredness was showing and Monez was putting time into not only me but the whole field. Then being the prat that I am, I mad the matter worse by stopping at the right rack and not the left. Thing was I had ran to the right spot on the floor but then of course my bike wasn't there. Now It doesn't take a lot to confuse me but this left me totally perplexed but thankfully it clicked and I was reunited with my bike.

The bike course had two sections to it I'd say- a long out back and a 1k technical patch. The plan was that because I was going so well on the bike I would attack on lap 2 probably and try build myself a lead. This wasn't to be thanks to the rain. The turns were all 90 degrees and there were plenty of cobbles too. I had no option but to try make my group work to catch up Monez who was 30secs clear as it was too dangerous to attack. Girls were falling off their bikes left right and centre. I was the only british girls not to crash their bike! However my group in general were useless. They could just hold onto my wheel but they were gubbed doing that so making them come through was near impossible. The eventual winner did manage some work but still I was clearly the only one really pushing us on. Big pat on the back me!! I had a few wobbles but thankfully managed to stay upright which can't be said for most of the girls out there. A german girl took out brits jodie and bex in the pack behind me and some girls fell in front of Vicky causing her to crash too. The gap between us and monez fluctuated a little but probably averaged 30secs.

Coming off the bike I was confident. Domestiques are quite well known to be naff runners and despite my lack of run training I knew I was still pretty fit. For once a flawless T2 and I left the half empty stadium. I left it feeling great and put a huge amount of time into Monez until I hit the infamous cobbles and bang, I was down. Now I'm quite tall and gangly so you can probably guess how bad I must have looked as I slided sideways but still tried to keep running- limbs flailing madly in a desperate attempt to stay up! Instead I still crashed down and kept sliding until I hit the crash barriers on the other side of the corner. This was how I got my grazed bum, side, swollen and cut ankle, cut knees and cut elbow...I have never been so para bout my bum being in show but thankfully the suit held out! I carried on but because I have a very small area for my foot plant and I was trying to go so fast I kept slipping. It was like ice! The French girl, however seemed to be coping a lot better and took her chance as I slipped and slided round every corner. I fell again round a u turn near the end of that lap too. On the last lap I struggled round Monez (grip not effort wise!) and tried to make up as much as I could on the normal surface but about 70% of the run was on slippy stuff so it was too late. We entered the stadium and I ran round to take 2nd having to watch the French girl Emmie as she bounded around with the finishing banner that I had been so hoping to be holding above my head. Not realising I had been cut I got taken aside by a paramedic and cleaned up. The camera man seemed very intent on filming me as I squirmed when the alcohol was put on my cuts. Thanks. I wasn't the only one though, streams of girls were coming in covered in cuts and grazes.

Soon after I was chaperoned into doping control. It's not the most dignified things really. One minute your meeting someone for the first time and the next they're watching you pee into a bottle and they need to see EVERYTHING. Then your seperating your pee into different beakers and its quite disgusting really but its for a good purpose. Anyway enough about that!!

So there it is, my European champs 2008. Bring on Vancouver!