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Alpine French School Super Human Triathlete Helen

I know Helen (Alpine French School Director) won’t big herself up on her fantastic achievement……. So I’m going to instead.

Helen represented France in the final race of this season at the European 70.3 Championships in Ibiza at the end of October. I remember speaking to her a week or so before the race about her preparation and training for the event and she told me she was tired as it had been a long season, but as she is a machine… I knew she would be fine. No matter how much preparation and training you do for this kind of event, it’s never going to be easy. The race consists of a 1.9km swim, followed by 90km bike and just because that wasn’t hard enough…. finishes with a 21.1km. Why not throw in a massive thunder storm on race day just to make it a little harder? The storm arrived just as the race was about to start. The competitors were unsure if the event was going to be cancelled, amended to a half marathon or a duathlon. Finally the event organisers decided the event would go ahead, even though a couple of hours late. Helen battled her way through the swim in extremely choppy waters, then the bike transition. The bike section was difficult in the rain on the wet roads along with burst drains to contend with. Now on to the run. After depositing the bike Helen went to the tent to get changed for the final part of the race (feeling quite cold, due to the non stop rain and drenched kit). The run was 4 laps of the mariner. I’m guessing on a usual Ibiza sunny day this would be spectacular. The thing that made the run was the amount of spectators cheering on all the competitors with big smiles. I’m guessing that extra bit of encouragement just drove Helen to complete the final race of the season.

She’s back in the office now….. still training as hard as ever!!

August 26th, 2025
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