Abi has been coached by Nick since February 2022 and was one of the first athletes to become part of Hashtag Coaching. Here, she shares her journey from nearly leaving endurance sport to returning to Challenge Roth and crossing the finish line.
In Abi’s words…
When I began working with Nick in February 2022, I was close to walking away from endurance sport altogether. Four and a half years later, I have completed countless races, stood on podiums, transformed my time-trialling and returned from heartbreak to finish Challenge Roth.
This is my journey with Nick and Hashtag Coaching.
Falling back in love with the sport
I have been coached by Nick since February 2022, before Hashtag Coaching officially began. I was one of the first athletes he took on and, over the years since, he has helped me go from strength to strength.
When Nick first started coaching me, I had just come out of a very toxic athlete-coach relationship. It had reached the point where I wanted to give up the sport completely.
After hearing my story, Nick offered to coach me, knowing I had already entered my first middle-distance triathlon: a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run.
During our first two weeks together, Nick did not talk about training plans, targets or race results. Instead, he asked me to fall back in love with the sport, remember why I had started this journey and reconnect with the friends my previous coach had isolated me from.
It was a breath of fresh air and did wonders for my mental health.
Discovering time trialling
During my first year under Nick’s coaching, I completed my first middle-distance triathlon at Outlaw Holkham Half, rode the 100-mile RideLondon event and entered my first 10-mile time trial.
Time-trialling quickly became a core part of my training. I still remember Nick asking me what the point of owning a TT bike was if I was only going to race it once a year in a triathlon.
He explained that a time trial was the perfect opportunity to ride my TT bike in anger, become properly comfortable on it and learn how to get the most from it. That advice has stayed with me ever since.
I completed my first 10-mile time trial in 29:54.
Growing stronger
As the years have passed, I have continued to improve. I have always felt safe pushing my limits with Nick in my corner.
Together, we have taken on:
Two half marathons
Numerous aquabikes, from sprint to middle distance
An ultra-marathon swim
More 10 and 25-mile time trials than you can shake a stick at
Two 50-mile time trials
Along the way, there have been podiums, prize money and more personal bests than I can count.
That first 10-mile time trial took me 29:54. I have since lowered my personal best for the same distance to 23:13, and that progress is down to Nick’s coaching.
Heartbreak at Challenge Roth
The journey has not been entirely about podiums and personal bests.
In 2025, I took on my biggest challenge yet: Challenge Roth, a full-distance triathlon consisting of a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run. It is also the largest event of its kind in Europe.
It was a brutal training block with plenty of dark days, but Nick was always there to keep me moving forwards.
Race day itself was chaos. I started in the final swim wave and spent the day chasing the cut-off times as the crowds began to thin. It was a non-wetsuit swim, the first in the race’s 41-year history, aid stations ran out of nutrition and I eventually needed first aid.
With 12km remaining on the run, I was pulled from the race.
It was heartbreaking. In that same moment, however, I decided I wanted to return and try again the following year.
Nick supported that decision completely. Over the months that followed, he helped me process what had happened, supported every decision I made and helped me come to terms with the experience before throwing myself back into racing.
Returning to finish what I started
One year later, I was back on the start line at Challenge Roth.
Thanks to Nick, I arrived feeling confident, fully prepared and supported by a strong foundation of training.
This time, I finished in 13:37:26.
Crossing that finish line was an incredible moment and one I owe entirely to Nick’s coaching.
More than coaching
One of the things I love most about Hashtag Coaching is watching it grow from Nick and a handful of athletes into a genuine community.
We now have a time-trialling team, a triathlon racing team and a group of people who will drop everything to help one another. That could mean forming a cheer squad on race day, entering events together or sharing advice about equipment and routes.
There is nothing else quite like it, and I feel genuinely lucky to be part of something so special.
