Sport – especially swimming – was a big part of Chrissie’s life in her school years and right through university. After she’d finished studying for her MA, Chrissie decided to run her first marathon, and, in her own words, trained herself “in a very obsessive but unstructured fashion”. In April 2002, she finished the London Marathon in just 3:17:17.
After being hit by a car in 2003, Chrissie had to put her running career on hold and returned to swimming. But then in 2004 she decided to try a triathlon. She also moved to live in Nepal for 16 months, and it was there that her love for cycling really took off. She’d ride in the mountains every morning before work, and during her time there, she managed to cycle over the Himalayas, a journey of 1,400K, and even got to Everest Base Camp by pedal power.