Claire Danson: Para-triathlete prepares for 255km triathlon, two years after paralysis
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Claire Danson is preparing for the 255 Triathlon - a 5km swim, 200km bike and 50km push
The muscles are aching, the lungs are burning, but the coach is urging her on.
Claire Danson has just knocked 18 seconds off her 1km personal best.
This may have been just another training session, but one few could have predicted two years ago when she was fighting for her life in hospital after colliding with a tractor while on a training ride.
In an instant, her ambition of becoming a professional triathlete was over. Multiple injuries, including a severed spinal cord, meant Danson would never walk again.
But, after a remarkable recovery, the 32-year-old is back racing, back winning medals and setting her sights on more lofty goals - including the world's longest single-day triathlon.
'I knew straight away I couldn't walk'
Unable to speak while on her hospital bed, she used a letter board to communicate. Following the word 'sorry', 'Para-athlete' was the second word she spelled out.
"I knew straight away I couldn't walk, but I'm going to do sport and I'm going to do it to the best that I can do," she told BBC Sport.
Danson owes much to the doctors at Southampton Hospital and her family.
Consultant hand surgeon Alistair Phillips said: "Her injuries were life threatening and life changing. The psychology and mentality of being an elite athlete, I wish all my patients had that.
"The results can be sketchy if you don't have a patient that engages. Claire knew where she wanted be. We just had to persuade her to do it at our pace, not hers."
Danson's race 'family'
Claire Danson completed her first para-triathlon on Saturday
Central to that recovery has been the support team around her, which includes retaining her old coach and training partners.
"Claire is still Claire," said coach Will Usher, who is training a para-athlete for the first time. "You've still got the same determined athlete, even more so now.
"Her biggest fear was she'd lose her training family. We were careful to create an environment where she's still part of the family."
Claire added: "Their support has been second to none.
"With the loss of identity that I did begin to feel in hospital, a lot of that was to do with my place in the sport and team. I can't run or ride a bike like they can and therefore where do I fit?
"Sport is the one time where I feel my chair is not even acknowledged. It gives me a sense of capability rather than inability. The people that I do it with see me as a fellow sportsperson, they don't see me in a chair."
From the evidence at the British Championships, she can do it pretty well too, having claimed silver behind Tokyo-bound Georgina Lord.
Life beyond Ironman
Danson, though, has unfinished business with the sport.
Having won her age group pre-accident, at the 2019 European Championships and Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire, Danson had hoped to move up to the Ironman distance of 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run.
Instead, she's now targeting an even longer race, which will be only her second as a para-athlete.
The 255 Triathlon is billed as the world's longest single-day triathlon, in which athletes swim 5km, cycle 200km and run - or in Danson's case, push - 50km.
"I feel like I just need to get something ridiculous out of my system," she said, bursting with passion at discussing the buzz of racing again.
"The big motivator is just because I can. Pushing myself to the extreme is what I love. If anybody had said less than two years ago that I'd be doing this, you'd have been laughed at."
'The ultimate goal is Paris 2024'
Claire Danson and her sister, Olympic gold medal-winning hockey player Alex Danson-Bennett
While Danson and her team enter races not really knowing how fast she can go or if she'll make the finishing line, she is already looking to add to the Danson family medal collection.
Her sister Alex won Olympic gold in Rio and bronze in 2012 as part of the Great Britain hockey team.
Claire adds: "Adding a Paralympic one would be very cool wouldn't it? That's what every athlete aspires to. The ultimate goal is Paris 2024.
"I don't know how long the improvements can continue, but I believe I can train hard enough until I am good enough."
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