Triathlon is for everybody

At the weekend I ran a very family oriented race and really enjoyed myself. My son, Dominic is a typical 12 year old and like many would rather be playing fortnite than exercising but even he didn’t completely hate it.

It reminded me of the Arctic One Paratri festival at Eton Dorney – an event I did with him last year that will soon be coming up again on May 27th. With para and non para-athletes mixing all day this was actually one of the most inspirational and life changing days we’ve ever had.

With three events on offer (a sprint distance, super sprint and ‘super duper’ sprint) there’s plenty of choice for anyone. I’d decided to run all of them in my first multi event day alongside my brother Matt – I genuinely wasn’t sure how that would affect us. There was a big gap between the sprint and super sprint in order for the British Paratri Championships to take place, so we’d brought picnic chairs and watched the incredible athletes competing in the National Championships. Each athlete was ruthlessly overcoming any and all obstacles placed in their way.

The one unifying characteristic was that there was an incredible level of focus and determination from Para athletes of all ages and ability, and some amazing and unusualy kit in the transition area to enable people to take part to the best of their abilities. I’d found myself grumbling about my rack position then looked left to see a competitor screwing on their leg – it helped me reset my attitude.

The rest of the family including Dom, arrived for the final (and shortest; 200m /5km Bike / 1.5km Run making it ideal for young people or first timers) event of the day, the Super Duper Sprint. We had agreed to do it side by side, every step of the way. I’d told him about some of the courageous things I’d seen and heard as the day went on. Although the sprint and super sprint ran separate waves, the final race is a mixed ability event for eleven year olds and above so it was fantastic for him to see both adults and children of every ability level fighting to do the best they can alongside us as we raced.

Matt was frustrated – he’d missed out on his first trophy in each of the first two races by a single place and was determined to make the last event count – there were some fast athletes competing so it was proving challenging.

The swim was the usual mass start mess – I had no idea what was going on around me other than keeping Dom on my left hand side so he didn’t have to worry about where he was going. I helped him with the swim/bike transition and we flew round the bike course with young people on handbikes or riding normal bikes but with artificial legs; we got hunted down on the run by people running on blade prosthetics. None of this mattered – we were all in the race together and it felt like we were all the same.

There were a lot of our extended families cheering us around and they were enjoying the spectacle more than an ‘ordinary’ triathlon, but the loudest cheers of the day from every one were for one young lady who came into T2 after everyone else had finished, and despite being told how proud everyone was and that she had nothing left to prove insisted on heading out again in her running wheelchair to finish the race.

Matt was chuffed – he’d finally scored a trophy – and we all cheered on every one of the winners.

It was a phenomenal, emotional day and I’ve found myself reflecting often on the events of the day. I’ve even used the examples people were making to keep myself going when I’ve been struggling. I think the most wonderful thing I really had reinforced was that Triathlon really is for everyone. It’s an individual challenge, you against your body regardless of what that might mean and it was amazing to have everyone just face the same challenge alongside each other.

I know it was educational and inspirational for the young people competing, but it was just as powerful for me. I’d recommend anyone give this a as it could help to expose us to challenges and viewpoints that may be some way from our own.

Before this day, I would have sworn Dom didn’t have a competitive bone in his body, but I can only assume he was inspired by what he had seen – if you look closely at the photo above, you can see he’s just easing forward to make 100% certain he crossed the line first. I’ve never been so proud of him.

If you are in the area and fancy sharing the course with some incredible superhumans, give the event a go. If you don’t, I suspect they would be grateful for volunteers to help with the logistics of what is a huge undertaking as well. Check them out on their facebook page if you are interested. We’re going back – We have some PBs to smash.