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Triathlon is infectious! It really is that simple. Actually I think what is infectious about our sport, is positive energy and just plane positivity. The word, lifestyle, gets tossed around a fair bit nowadays as people are looking for other ways to get the most out of their lives while they have it, but Triathlon is positive lifestyle. The lifestyle that encapsulates triathlon really is worthy. Triathlon as a sport is a real challenge to everyone that attempts it, and the feeling of fulfillment after an event is pretty tough to beat. Being a destination sport, makes it even more attractive and events are popping up all over the globe. You can race a triathlon event now on every continent on earth. How cool is that!
I was drawn to this sport as a young teenager and inspired by the superhuman efforts of a few pioneers of this sport. In its infancy, people who did triathlon were seen as a little crazy, fitness freaks, set on killing themselves with exercise. Growing up in Australia, Triathlon was thrown onto our TV sets in the form of these crazy events, held in Hawaii and California, Europe and even New Zealand, done by these super fit, super human athletes who were looking for endurance challenges to not only test themselves but really to test the endurance boundaries of human beings. Even the TV commentators who followed these events sounded a little freaked out by what these crazy people were doing. I remember in my household, we looked at these people in awe and disbelief, as we watched the challenges they faced and some of the distances they were competing at. Names like Mark Allen and Dave Scott are now synonymous with the sport, but I remember the other unsung legends, such as Ken Glah, Jeff Devlin, Wolfgang Dietrich, Pauli Kuiri, Scott Molina, Mike Pigg, Emilio Desoto, and Scott Tinley, just to name a few. These pioneers jumped into a sport when it was in its infancy and took on these challenges in an era that is much different to what we enjoy today. They were super heroes to me, and I dreamed and wished that one day I could be brave enough to take on these challenges like they were.
As a very young and impressionable teenager, these guys inspired me to dream and inspired me to want to test myself more than the conventional sports of swimming, cycling and running. It was these super human athletes that as a youngster I watched and ultimately wanted to emulate.
I have told this story so many times, but as we approach the end of this decade and I reflect on the last 10 years it makes me smile. For me, my life has changed a lot since the end of 2000 until now. I am now 10 years older, married with two wonderful children of my own, and instead of looking forward at a career that is set before me, I am looking back at some of the races and goals I set and achieved. It is during these times of reflection that you often go deeper and ask yourself where you drew that inspiration. Where did the fire come from? Why the push towards my own personal perfection? The answer in my life is simple. The phrase, Chase your dreams! This phrase stemmed from three words my mother would say to my brothers, and me before bed every night. Dream, Believe, Succeed. I started this past decade losing my mother to breast cancer, but her mothering words guided me for the entire decade and continue to do so.
As I got into this sport and was inspired by these great pioneers of Triathlon to take up the challenge of this sport, I always subconsciously had these three words running through my head. My desire to emulate my hero’s was where my passion stem from and my belief that it was possible was my motivation. My dream was to be like Mark Allen and Scott Molina and win races all around the globe and at all distances. I wanted to win like Mike Pigg and dominate the big races like Alcatraz and Wildflower in the same way he did. I wanted to ride through the European streets of Roth and break 8 hours for the Ironman on those magical German streets like Pauli Kuri. I wanted my name on the ITU World Cup trophy next to Brad Beven and I wanted my name on that Ironman Hawaii bowl next to those pioneers I worshipped as a boy. And in the past decade I did!! I realized those dreams and made them a reality.
I sit here with my two girls playing in our backyard pool, in Sydney Australia and I still reflect and love this sport. I enjoy the people in it, the lifestyle we lead and moving into this next decade I move forward with the same mindset and focus that I did 10 years earlier. In those 3 words my mother would say to my brothers and I each night before bed, Dream, Believe, Succeed. To the people who come to this sport for the first time this year, I hope you enjoy your journey with us. This sport is amazing. For the rest of us who have tasted a triathlon finish line, I hope to see you on a start line sometime this year and I hope that this following decade is to you what this past one has been to me, full of surprises and challenges but a fulfillment of your own personal dreams. Dream, Believe, succeed. It does not get any simpler than that.
Enjoy Your Journey
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