by Lucy Charles-Barclay knows a thing or two about pushing through the pain barrier. The British triathlete ran a full marathon on a blown Achilles en route to becoming the Ironman world champion last October in what was the crowning moment of her career.
The 30-year-old finished as runner-up four times in a row at the event in Hawaii, where athletes face a tough test of body and mind in extreme, humid conditions.
Charles-Barclay not only won the event, but set a world record, completing the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and marathon in 8hrs 24min 31sec. Now, she is ready to take on her next big challenge.
Apart from defending her title, Charles-Barclay is pouring all her energy into a major new event as he tries to cross the triathlon into the mainstream.
Launching in Miami next month, the Tour will see 20 male and female athletes compete over distances of 100km (2km swim, 80km bike ride and 18km run) across eight cities, including London in late July. World Triathlon T100 T100.
The rebranded series was launched among many authors this month in London. Chris Kermode, chairman of the Professional Triathlon Organization who masterminded the highly successful ATP World Finals of tennis, predicted that the triathlon could become one of the biggest sports entertainment products in the next few years.
It’s a sentiment shared by Charles-Barclay. With over half a million followers on her Instagram and YouTube channels, she is one of triathlon’s most marketable stars.
“If the broadcast and storytelling is done right, there’s no reason it can’t take off in the mainstream,” says Charles-Barclay, who decided not to pursue a place at the Paris Olympics to focus on the T100 series. “I would love to see it as one of the Netflix series, as in tennis, golf or rugby. My sister does all my YouTube content, so I’m used to having a camera to follow me around. That would be great.”
A fly-on-the-wall documentary documenting the supernatural limits Charles-Barclay pushes her body to would certainly make for a fly-on-the-wall documentary. The former long-distance swimmer is the proud owner of a “pain cave” near her home in east London, where she can simulate the harsh environments of hot weather training thanks to altitude generators.
“It’s my brothers. My father-in-law was a professional boxer, so he built this outhouse. Then we started converting an old school gym into our cave, getting new treadmills, upgrading equipment.
“We have an infinity pool that’s like a swimming pool treadmill, so you can swim on the spot against the current. We can do swim-cycle in this one space, but also weight and strength and conditioning stuff. A spit and sawdust boxing gym was basically a high performance triathlon gym.”
Caving is a small part of Charles-Barclay’s relentless training. The day after our conversation, she goes to Lanzarote, where she will fine-tune preparations for the opening leg of the T100 series.
Despite three different triathlon world titles in recent years, Charles-Barclay has never won a 100km race. She hopes to push through the resilience developed over two injury-plagued seasons to try and win her first event, having overcome a broken hip and broken leg.
“The broken leg was a major accident,” she says. “I was doing a half Ironman and I felt massive pain. In high-level sport, you’re on a knife’s edge between being great and being broke. That’s the really difficult balance. One of the reasons for my bone injuries is my swimming background. Growing up, I only swam, which is a very low impact sport. Going into triathlon, where running is very impactful, I don’t think my bones were necessarily equipped, so they had to adapt.”
It is important to share the context of such injuries, according to Charles-Barclay, in triathlon, a sport where participants are at risk of RED-S – an endurance syndrome that athletes can develop when under-fuelled. . Those who develop it usually believe that a specific body or weight will improve performance, but an energy deficit can take a toll on the body.
In women, low bone density due to reduced estrogen levels – loss of periods – can lead to amenorrhea and make them more susceptible to fractures.
Charles-Barclay says awareness of the condition is growing in his sport. When fellow Brit Emma Pallant-Browne, who has suffered before, was seen bleeding through her bodysuit while on her period last year, she used it to warn of the dangers of not having a regular cycle.
“There’s definitely more education about it,” says Charles-Barclay of RED-S. “As athletes, we have a responsibility to share that as well. But one of the best things about triathlon is women and men of all shapes and sizes doing well at it. You don’t have to be a certain size to do this and I think it’s really important to point that out.”
Charles-Barclay has become used to seeing comments about her body online – many speculating about the cause of her injuries were quick to point to her poor body. She credits her close family, including her full-time coach and husband Reece, with helping her through. “There are a lot of strong women in this sport – and there’s always been equal pay, equal coverage, and some of the biggest athletes are women,” she says. “The ladies are doing a great job driving that.”
For now, she will focus on the T100, which presents a whole new challenge. “This will be way out of my comfort zone. From the moment the gun goes off, it hurts. In this type of racing, you see athletes falling apart at the line.”
