The Joe Humphries Memorial Trust is helping to fund some of my race entries for this year. I'm really grateful for the funding as it is going to let me race some amazing events this year.

The first race in my calendar was Battle on the Beach. This is a sandy beach race in Pembrey, Wales which is known for it's 5km long beach section. This was the first year that I was doing it and I had an absolute blast. I started in the front group but ran my tyre pressures too low and managed to puncture my rear tyre. I made the rookie error of forgetting my multitool which meant that I couldn't take my rear wheel out! Nightmare! However, this meant that my goals for the race totally shifted from trying to win the thing, to making the most of the riding and enjoying the race.

As my puncture took AGES to fix, I was really far down the field (there were over 1200 riders in the race). This meant that I was able to say hi and some encouragement to lots of the field as I moved up the pack. I got to ride with some really great guys and helped to pace other riders in the crosswinds on the beach - the wind picked up on the final lap and it was crosswind chaos!

Overall, I had a really great time riding the event, loved all of the technical sand riding and smashing it around the woods. I want to say a massive thank you to JHMT for the funding, this year is awesome.