Louise Wells is recovering from her “toughest race” yet after competing in the World Ironman Championships in Nice on Sunday.

Wells finished 32nd in the 50-54 age group in France after taking part in a 3.9km swim, a 180.2km bike ride and a 42.2km run, completing the 226.3km in just under 12 and a half hours.

Speaking on Monday evening, Wells was in good spirits after coming through the most difficult race of her life.

“My quads are a bit sore but otherwise I’m doing OK,” Wells said.

“Overall, I’m really pleased with how it went as it was by far the toughest course I’ve done.

“The swim was pretty hard as there was a lot of surge and swell and current, which made it quite tricky and hard work. The bike was just something else, a lot of elevation, a lot of climbing and even on the flatter bits the wind was really strong so it was really tough.

“I tried not to overbike and save a bit for the run, which I was really pleased with as I went sub-4 hours for the marathon after we’d just done the bike course that we did. It was my slowest full Ironman to date but it was the toughest one I’d done.”

Although she was pleased to come through the extreme endurance test, Wells went into the event with hopes of a far higher finish than 32nd in her age group.

“My hopes and expectations were for a higher finisher than 32nd,” she said.

“I did really well in Kona last year, I was sixth and the podium goes to five, so my goal here was to try to get on the podium, but the Kona conditions and the bike course suited me much better than mountainous climbing, which isn’t really my strong suit. I should perhaps have been a bit more realistic about my strengths and which course suits me better.

“The best part of the day was getting over the finish line because it was all over but when I look back on it, basically I’m happy with how it went because I gave it my all. I don’t think there was anything about the day I could have changed. There is no regret, I did the best I could with what I had and that’s what my efforts gave me, so I have to be pleased with that as you can only do your own race and it gives you what it gives you.”

Wells had plenty of support in Nice, with members of her family flying from Britain and Bermuda to cheer her on in the south of France.

“My family are all in England and Scotland, so my parents came out, my twin sister and her husband came from Scotland to watch me and my kids got the weekend off, they are at school in England, so they flew over to support me,” Wells said.

“My husband, Steven, who lives with me in Bermuda, flew over as well so I had a good support crowd. The run was really good because it was four loops, which I found mentally challenging for the first two but you get to see your family and friends twice every lap so that made it easier.”

You might think that after competing in the Ironman World Championships Wells would be resting for a few months but she will be competing for Bermuda in the Backyard Ultra World Championships next month.

Wells said: “I’ve already qualified for the half Ironman 70.3 World Championships, which is in Marbella, Spain, next year but other than that my next focus is the Backyard Ultra World Championships in October. I’m on the Bermuda team for that so I need to recover and get ready for that in three or four weeks.”