In life when you have been on a very long journey, one which has spanned over ten years with numerous ups and downs and the odd moment which has taken you off track all together, its easy to forget just how far you have come…and difficult at times to even remember where you started in the first place.
I often talk about the start of my “fitness” journey being the moment a snotty little kid shouted “Run Fatty Run” at me, or the moment I saw a terrible photo of me at my largest, or even the moment I decided to run a marathon but the other day I remembered another key moment in my journey towards fitness which I have never really mentioned on here before.
About eight or so years ago I was working for Newham Council as their volunteer manager. Part of my job was to inspire local people to get involved in volunteering at large scale sporting events in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics & Paralympics which was to be held in our borough. My background was in inspiring young people to take up volunteering, and mainly in cultural activities really, so the whole sporting landscape was just as new to me.
One of the big events in the diary was the London Triathlon which is held annually in the docklands area at the Excel Centre. The event which takes place over a weekend in August sees 5,000 competitors competing at a range of distances and needing the support of over 500 volunteers in a range of roles. I think I managed to sign up about 80 local residents to help out many of whom didn’t even know what a Triathlon was, but we spent two very long days finding out.
On the first day I was positioned just outside the transition area where my job was to warn the cyclists that a steep hill was ahead, it was a bit repetitive but also very exciting being at a key point with such an important safety role. I remember being in complete awe of the elite athletes, and even more so at the charity participants, including a little old lady on her bicycle complete with basket. I recall thinking to myself “If she can do it, I wonder if I could?”
The next day I was positioned dockside in the area at the end of the swim before transition. My role was to ask the athletes to remove their wetsuits, as they had to put them in bags before carrying them through to the bike area. It was an incredibly hot day, and there were some incredibly hot men coming out of the water. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and by that point I had already decided that I was going to do a triathlon.
Now remember I was seriously overweight and completely unfit. I could only swim breaststroke, did not own a bike and couldn’t run to save my life. I do not know what possessed me to think I could do it. But I mentioned it to the race organisers in the event debrief, and that sealed the deal as he gave me a free place for the following years super sprint event.
As always I left the training till the last minute, but in the Spring of the following year I did buy a bike I started cycling into work, swimming in my lunch hour and the running….well I never did quite get round to the running bits of my training plan. August came round pretty fast, I had agreed to raise money for Macmillan Nurses who had been looking after my Granddad who had cancer and there I was along with 300 people in my wave with my size 20 body squeezed into a wetsuit about to embark on the biggest fitness challenge of my life.
So what happened?
The 400 meter swim was tough, I got kicked and elbowed at the start and then run out of steam a bit in the middle and had to resort to breast stroke which was just as well as I was swimming off course a bit too. I wasn’t last though there were girls behind me as I emerged from the docks a little dazed and confused, and unable to get out of the water unaided. But I saw my family behind the barriers cheering me on and I stripped from my wetsuit (imagine that running in my swimsuit with all my wobbly bits) and got on my bike.
Ten minutes into my cycle I realised one of my tyres was a little flat, nothing serious but enough to make the bike ride really difficult. It was also about midday by now on one of the hottest days of the year and I had two 5K laps including a killer hill to contend with…it was tough all 40 minutes of it.
But not as tough as the 2.6 kilometre run, my legs had forgotten how to walk let along run. I don’t actually remember much from the final leg of this challenge other than the fact that I couldn’t run for more than a few seconds at a time and that I was incredibly embarrassed at the crowds watching me power walk as everyone else around me ran towards the finish line. It took me just over 23 minutes to complete a distance that today I could probably do in 15 or 16.
As I hobbled along the dockside with thousands of people spectating and cheering me on I had never been so exhausted in my life…even after running the Marathon I didn’t feel as wrecked as I did that day. I was real emotional too and started crying the minute I crossed the finishing line, received my medal and found my family.
So why am I bringing all of this up now?
Well, the thing is I found the photos from the event in a box last week and I was shocked at the size I was when I did this race. At the time I didn’t think I was THAT big as I thought I had slimmed down what with all the training I had been doing. It’s funny because these are the only professional photos I have ever paid for from any of my fitness event, and the only real evidence I have of how big I was at the beginning of my journey.
I have just looked up the results on line (amazing that you can do that right?) and what I didn’t know at the time was that I came dead last in that event in a time of 1 hour 24 minutes and 2 seconds, a whole 41 minutes slower than the first lady home.
That was my very first event and it was on such a massive scale, yet I don’t think I really understood what an accomplishment it was. I have literally done hundreds of events since of all sizes and learnt an incredible amount about myself through taking part in them. But seriously, I loved that event despite the fact it was incredibly hard.
I hope at some point I will do another Triathlon but for today I look at these pictures and remember just how far I have come.