Brighton and Hove Triathlon on Hove Lawns where many women have done their first race
Weekend Warriors
All those years ago when Stephen and I stepped into the
world of triathlon we had no idea where it would lead us. Actually Steve started first, but he was
following a young friend of ours James Clarke. James was the one who brought a
220 magazine into our kitchen one Saturday afternoon and read an article to us
about the Hawaii Ironman. Steve and I just chuckled and remarked that there was
no way you could do a 3800 mtr sea swim, then go straight out on a bike and
ride 112 miles and then run a marathon. NO WAY.
Steve took the magazine away from James and flipped through
the pages. There was a section at the back that had triathlon and duathlon events
listed and after talking about it was a while, Steve pointed out to James that
he was a very good swimmer and had done well at running at his boarding school,
and he did have a bike that he used for transport locally. Why not give it a
shot? James was still in his teens. Steve was in his early forty’s and had been
a good swimmer when he was a teenager. I wasn’t even listening by that time.
So before you could say ‘trainers’, Steve had entered James
into a small local event in a country park near Horsham. Steve and I watched
him swim in the lake, casually change into dry clothes and go out on the bike
course and then watched him run around the park after that. He did well, even
without the smart triathlon kit that all the rest of the competitors had. I
took photos and shouted in an unladylike fashion.
A month and some run training later Steve was on the start
line with James at the next event they found close to home. I took photos and
shouted at them both. They did another race later in the summer. Steve and I
had been going to a gym since earlier that year trying to get some fitness back
and lose some weight. We had all been swimming regularly at Littlehampton though
as a breast stroker and I had to learn front crawl. I had Steve’s old bike, he
had bought a better one.
At my first event, the Damp Dash duathlon early in the next
year. I met John Lunt the race organiser. His event company was called Human
Race and he had been most encouraging to me on the phone, when I was not at all
sure that I was up to doing the race. I had learned to swim freestyle and had
managed to get to a mile in the pool non stop. I was running local road running
events and had done one ten mile event. I had entered John’s Damp Dash in the short
event; 400 mtr swim/5km run, but he talked me into the full distance of 800mtr/10km
since the entry for the short event was poor. I was terrified that the young
athletes would laugh at me because I was fifty years old. John told me that he
would like to have me in the race to encourage other older women into the multi
discipline sport, it would be good for the sport he said because women were a
very small percentage of triathlon fields at the time.
Sally-Webb Potts and Jane King we have had great fun together at many races.
That event was such fun and everybody was so supportive,
even the young guys shouted ‘Well done’ as the later swim waves flew past me
out on the run. That was it; Hooked. John Lunt and his
wife Nicola have been friends of ours for thirty years and I hope to see them
again at their big race in Sussex.
Brighton and Hove Triathlon in mid September
again this year. I pray to Heaven and all the Angels that the world will be a
bit more normal again by then.
John has always called people like us in the sport, ‘Weekend
Warriors’, and that is exactly what we were in those days because we got so
quickly and so fully into the sport that we did an event every weekend from
spring, all through that next summer season. There are thousands of us, that all
fit nicely into that category. They are people who have to work all week and
the many who have families, who are their first priority. They don’t have the
luxury or training whenever they like because other things come first. So it is
difficult to make it into the elite crowd that we all see on TV, without the
time to put your heart and soul into the training and without the money to buy
the best bike on the market, and all the expensive kit that the top people get
to wear, because the family still want a holiday and the kids want their own
bikes.
About the only good thing I have seen during the current LD
is that a lot of us have had more time on our hands and we have been able to
train for as long as we wanted because we have not been able to work. There is
no work right now. That is certainly the case for us, our business suffered
badly and the overseas clients that we usually do our collections and packing
for, are in a similar situation to ourselves and are not allowed to travel, so
they cannot go out buying antiques and certainly don’t need containers full of
them and may not for some long time yet.
Our training is way up on our usual levels and we are both
going well right now; if only there were any events not cancelled or postponed and
if only we could travel to them if there were.
We are packing in the hours and our running is hugely
improved. Even without the swimming, as yet we have been getting in about 28
hours a week. Running every other day at dawn, then turbo training even more
hours. To make up for the lack of swimming we have done all kinds of other classes
on TV and are feeling nice a supple because of that additional area.
This is a post awards shot of me with my age group winning trophy at Sater, Sweden
I am with Mary Ann Wallace and Peggy McDowell-Cramer from Team USA.Great friends.
Steve has always held the theory that whatever mileage you
run per week, you could put together if you needed to do a long run. How many
hours you bike a week, you can put together at any time. It’s all there in the
bank. Of course that does not work for the elite because of the speed they have
to work at. For us Weekend Warriors though, it works a treat. Steve and I both
know from many years of experience that you do not have to run your legs into the
ground, hammering out road miles every week. We do not do twenty plus mile runs. When you are older, that just leads
to injury and more with the running than anything else. With the amount of
turbo training we do all winter, and now all summer, we know that we have a
long bike ride in our legs any time we ask for it.
Brighton and Hove Triathlon, race briefing before of a women's wave.
One piece of advice we have both given to newer triathletes is,
never to chase lost training sessions. If you miss a session for whatever
reason, work or unexpected problems or family chores, do not try to fit it in
somewhere else in your carefully planned life schedule. Don’t worry about it
either. That bus has gone, wait for the next one and don’t fret. Steve’s
business takes him away quite often, he will be driving from end to end of
France or Germany or Holland and he will be lucky if he can get a short run in on
his travels before he gets in the cab on his truck for a days driving.
Stay calm and do what you can, when you can. The love of our
sport will still get you to the finish line of whatever event you are aiming
for. We Weekend Warriors may take longer to get there but the satisfaction of
crossing the line in a half or full Ironman is worth more than gold and that
feeling will last forever.
Below: Just for those who think that I only ever wear sports kit.
As a matter of fact, I have a long summer dress on right now.
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