Worth The Wait with Lucy Charles-Barclay

Join us for a winter walk with 2023 IRONMAN World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay!

We caught up with Lucy before Christmas to reflect on her historic win in Kona and look ahead to even more success in 2024.

Additional footage courtesy of Team Charles-Barclay @LucyCharlesBarclay
Thumbnail images courtesy of IRONMAN and Holly Charles

#Triathlon #IRONMAN #swimbikerun

00:31 – Reflecting on Kona
03:10 – The first standalone women’s IRONMAN championship
04:20 – The journey to a world title
05:42 – Why long distance?
06:59 – How IRONMAN became the focus
08:23 – The Team behind Team Charles-Barclay
10:07 – The Importance of Women in Sport
12:48 – The four-legged friends
14:11 – Inspiring the next generation

So Lucy thank you so much for having us at your home uh in East London first of all congrats on the win oh thank you it’s I think we’re like 2 months after the race now and it’s just about sinking in like since we’ve been home seeing the

Family and just they know the Journey of what it’s been to finally win that race so yeah it’s been amazing Buy but amazing so now you can officially call yourself a world champion from cona fifth time lucky yeah it definitely feels like fifth time lucky I mean it

Was such a journey to finally get that world title I mean 2017 was the first time I lined up as a pro in in the Iron Man World Championships and came second that first time and I think naturally I just F well surely one day I’m going to

Win it then if I can be second the first time and I never ever thought that it would be that long and I guess we had a pandemic FR in there and um injuries highs and lows but yeah it was amazing to finally do it saying like obviously

This year as well is probably the year that you’ve raced the least yes in comparison to the previous years how does it feel knowing that you finally secured that yeah I mean I guess so after winning my first world title which was at the end of 2021 in the half

Iron Man I then had hip stress fracture last year came back from that one to take the um world Trav on long distance championship and then I broke my foot this year and it was like why like not again I can’t I can’t have another injury and then to kind of six months

Later finally get that winning coner like it was just I couldn’t believe it after the journey it had been of of the injuries highs and lows but yeah I’m just so glad I finally did it and I guess as well like like that you not

Only did it but you did it breaking a course record leading out of the swim with over a minute and a half it must feel so huge to know that after that I guess you call it a comeback yes but you not only did it and

You also then stormed ahead as well yeah I think if there was ever a way I would have wanted to win that race that was how I would have wanted to do it and I think I did a podcast um I think early this year and I said like that would be

My dream way of winning would just be taking it out from the start leading the whole day and then getting the win I never even thought about breaking the record or anything like that I was I just want to win I don’t care what time

It is but then when I did win and I turned around and looked at the finish time I was like I think that might be the fastest anyone’s done this um and I guess that was just the cherry on top really just to be like you know what

I’ve had to wait so long but actually it was so worth it and if I went back now and some said well you’re going to have to wait like I know 5 six years but you’re going to win it in this style I’d be like okay I I’ll wait it’ll be worth

It oh definitely and would you say that there’s any standout moment from that day whether it was from lining up in the swim and looking around or just being on the bike on your own and knowing that you had well whether or not you knew you had a

Gap like the whole day was pretty amazing and I remember like waiting to line up to get in the water and obviously it was the first women’s only World Championship so you’re just looking around and it’s all women there and it felt just like a really special

Feeling like it it almost felt before the day started that it was going to be quite historic um and yeah The Vibes were really good like everyone just seemed really happy really up for it and then I guess from the moment the gum went off I just felt really good and I

Was like okay here we go here we go it could today could be the day but it’s such a long event that I guess you never really want to think about it so the whole day I was like just don’t don’t think about winning or anything like

That just do your thing and I think like I felt so strong on the bike and was getting told I was growing the lead and I was like this is literally The Best Day Ever definitely I think you looking back to Lucy and 2013 2014 you were sort of looking to maybe

Make a bit of a Swit from your previous cuz obviously so you’re an elite swimmer yes that was a key thing that was part of your your journey so far how if you were to say anything back to Lucy then to where you are now yeah do you think she’d be shocked surprised

That you’ve made it this far like that you stuck with it for this time yeah I think so like I mean Sports always been my whole life and when I made the switch from swimming to TRL on it was to do something new but I wanted it to just be

Fine like swimming had got to the point where it was all encompassing and I guess the fun I kind of lost the love of it a little bit so I was like well let’s try traon it’s free sports it’s still got swimming in it so I I won’t be

Completely going away from my roots but I’ll be able to try two new sports and just have fun with it and I think quite quickly realized that my competitive nature I hadn’t lost it I still wanted to try and be good at Triathlon and yeah I never thought it would be my career

But I thought I could just try and do well at it so I guess I never would have imagined getting to the point where I’m now in the sport and I would say Sport’s always been my life but Tron feels like it’s transformed my life so yeah it’s

Been an amazing journey no definitely and something that I’m curious about which I was trying to sort of see if I could find anywhere where you said anything in reference to it was why long distance cuz it seems obviously I know in terms of swimming you always more long distance swimmer over

Sprinting was that kind of the reason why you went straight into signing up for that initial Iron Man rather than going for a Sprint yeah I think I’d always even in swimming I was like what what’s the hardest event what’s the biggest challenge that I can do so even

When I was 9 years old I wanted to do the 200 butterfly and then was like oh I’ll do the 400 medle that’s harder and then oh you can do long distance and then you can do open water and do 10 kmers or the marathan swim and I was

Like always like getting harder and harder and I think that was why when we switched to doing TRL on I was like oh there’s this thing called an Iron Man and it’s like probably the hardest thing you can do in the sport let’s just go

Straight in and try and do that and I think I’d kind of given up sport entirely before I started doing trelon so it was something that was so scary that it was going to force me to train for it dedicate myself to sport again and yeah going as prepared as possible basically

Yeah obviously you signed up for your first Iron Man you take about a year to train yeah Iron Man in the UK is not forgiving yeah and not only that in the 18 to 24 age group yes you’re winning you’re coming second first all like you

Really took it on fully from the start yes when did it kind of click that it was something that maybe you could go into full time yeah I think when we signed up for the first time man it was more like one and done that’s what we

Thought like you can then we can say you’ve done an Iron Man and at the time we were setting up a personal training business so we’re like oh we’ll probably be a bit more respected if we can say we’ve done this really hard event and we

Trained for it ourselves so we must know what we’re talking about a little bit but as soon as I finished that first Iron Man I’d never felt anything like that like I swam at a high level and got national International medals but the feeling I got when I crossed that finish

Line was like nothing I’d ever felt I guess that sense of achievement knowing that I’d kept going even when it got tough and I’d never race for that long I think it took me over 12 hours to that first Iron Man in Bolton and anyone who’s done that one it’s it’s a really

Tough Iron Man for your first one um but yeah I loved it and I was then just completely hooked on the sport and I was like right what can I do to go quicker next year like what training more training can I do and yeah I just completely loved the whole journey to

Doing it and then the whole day itself was amazing so yeah I was really hooked on trifon by that point in terms of your team and family Dynamic you reference we quite a lot ree is with us today um obvious so you met Rees when you were still swimming

Yes I guess in a way obviously I know Reese you’ve already you you have your own career in Long Distance as well from an elite perspective too yeah kind of coming onto that journey together do you think that that kind of spurred you on even more to keep want to keep pushing

With the long distance and like keep training and because you had that team Dynamic of getting to do it together it wasn’t a case of what we talk about quite a lot is like doing it on your own it’s like actually you have someone to do it with and build up and almost

Create a sense of community within yourselves yeah I think I never well I never would have even known where to begin I guess if I was doing it on my own ree was studying Sports Science when we first signed up for that initial Iron Man and you did all the research into it

Looking at how we’d need to fuel ourself what equipment we would need like it was really a mindfield when we first started and we did the journey together and and made it a lot more fun doing the training together the long hours going out cycling on the weekends like it’s a

Lot of training to do that distance it really helps if you’ve got a partner or friends that you can go and do it with we were quite lucky at the time that a Trion Club was just setting up so okay we joined that club and learned off

Loads of the members who some had done Olympic distance some had done full Iron Man Half Iron Man’s like there was a a vast amount of knowledge in there that we could tap into too so I think it definitely helps having a good team or community that you can really work with

And have fun while you do it as well so we’re talking a lot at the moment around how big and important women in sport has become yes more so in the last couple of years like 2 three years and we’ve kind of seeing this reflected more on the

Long distance side as well as short course I guess for you when you see the level of racing that has stacked up over the years yeah and then you see con how does it feel known that you’re one of the athletes kind of pioneering that increase in women’s sport but also

Translating that into long distance as well for Triathlon yeah it’s been amazing like obviously I came into Triathlon around 2014 and the growth of women’s sport in that time like we’ve seen it we’ve been part of it and I always had a few athletes that inspired me when I started

But now I think like the depth and breadth of female athletes performing at the highest level is just amazing and there’s so many athletes that you can take inspiration from and I think they often say you have to see it to be it so actually by giving us this platform as

Athletes and the fact that we had the women’s only World Championships this year and I think it had more views than the men’s race so see that that in itself just shows like there’s an appetite for women’s sport and if people watch it then they might want to do it

As well so yeah it’s been an amazing growth over the last few years and I guess when you’re getting tagged stories of little girls with their battle bre and it must sort of put a smile on your face knowing that there is literally a next generation of athletes who are

Coming up not only wanting to you know become the next world champion in longdistance shorts whatever it is they’re also looking to become the next Lucy Charles Barkley yeah I think like I obviously always put the braids in my hair and then we turned it into the battle braid

Movement and then just seeing young women and girls doing the same whether they’re going to do an exam at school or they’re doing their first ever travle and like they’re applying it to any aspect of their life and getting tagged in stories of other girls braiding their

Hair I think it’s it makes it all worth it it’s like when I don’t want to go out the door for a run cuz I’m tired I’m like we’ll do it for that young girl that might take up the sport and it’s being inspired to get into traon so yeah

It’s been amazing to see that as well and I I really love it when people do share that it’s nice just to give back in a small way so um even a few weeks ago I I went into a local school and spoke to the kids there and just being

Able just to see that they’re even in a small way maybe being inspired to get into the sport or just be active is just really really great and I guess as well like not wanting to ignore the two little guys us today ler and pickle how

Important is it do you think to have maybe a distraction or something something outside of the daytoday that kind of keeps you grounded but then also it’s just another Dynamic to your life yeah it’s so nice like when I was training for Kaa it was like the part of

The day I look forward to the most like i’ I’d be up at 5 600 in the morning go and do my 6 km swim and know I’d come home have breakfast and I’ve got an hour where I can just walk in here with the dogs and take my mind off of triathlon

Entirely so they’re a great little distraction when Triathlon becomes a bit too much in my life um yeah they’re they’re quite demanding but they’re they’re definitely worth it I say Lola’s been on the journey with you for quite a long time um when did you get Lola so we

Actually got Lola I think 2018 was it 2019 yeah it was after after I came second in cona that year we’d had a bit of a bet me and REE that if I won I could have two dogs if I came second I could get one and if I came third I

Couldn’t get any dogs so I actually went into third place in that race and with about two miles to go went back into second and a lot of people were like oh did you do it so you could get the dog yeah obviously it was all about the dog

And how important is it for you to kind of inspire their next Generation cuz I feel like long distance it’s it’s taken its time to get younger people into it yeah I think I mean even since I did TRL on you’ve seen more younger athletes come across to the IM man distance even

At the elite level like they used to say people didn’t really start doing it till they were in their 30s and now you’ve got 20y olds winning the world title so I think it it’s really great and I guess going back to swimming like when I stopped swimming I could have just given

Up sport all together but then I went into triath and tried a new sport and found new success so I think it’s a lesson that can be learned in a lot of individual sports that actually if you’re a runner for example maybe you’re not enjoying it anymore or you’ve

Stagnated and you’re not seeing progress well maybe come across the Trav on and just see how you get on and you might just enjoy it or you could actually be really good at it so um yeah doesn’t mean you have to step up to full I man

You could go and do a Sprint distance but just give it a go and see what Happens oh