To inspire.....or empower

Kristen after her marathon

The word INSPIRATION gets used a lot in triathlon.

My first inspiration came from my best mate at vet school, Kristen Hennessy. She came over from Boston to study vet, and had already run the Boston marathon. I was in awe of her! At that stage, my longest run ever had been about 4k. She used to take me around Royal Park in our lunchbreak, chatting away while I was dragging myself behind her and could barely breathe! She'd say, "you'll be fine, just keep running", when all I wanted to do was stop! She ran the Melbourne marathon in 2005, while I ran the 7.5k event (my longest run at that point). I was amazed at how strong she looked at the 25k mark, and when she finished, exhausted but so happy I thought "I want to experience that feeling".

Since then, I have been inspired by so many others in this sport. Some of those have been the elite, especially from the early days of Ironman; Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Julie Moss, Natascha Badmann. Others more recent, such as Craig Alexander, Chrissie Wellington, Mirinda Carfrae. (There's a recurring theme with athletes that come through in the run!!) But countless other sources of inspiration have come from the age group ranks. And particularly those that excel while juggling work, family etc. Ken Murley is one of those. Ken is 71 years old. He still runs a business, and managed to become world champion in THREE distances in a 10 day period last year. He is FIERCELY competitive, and just exudes energy and vitality. He is happy to say yes to a nice glass of wine too! A great example to us all. Ken is one of so many friends who are like this. They may not all be world champions in their age groups, but they all strive every day to be the best that they can, and to live their lives to the full. Other sources of inspiration come from those who would love to be able to get the the start line of another ironman, but are struggling with illness, such as Dave Orlowski (leukaemia) and Tim Pickering (Guillain-Barré Syndrome).

So what about me? Some people tell me that I inspire them. I take that as the biggest compliment ever, and often with a little disbelief. Yes, I juggle a fair bit with my work and training (and fitting in those nice dinners!) but I don't have kids, and I am sure throwing that into the equation would make those balls far harder to keep in the air! So I think there are people far more inspirational than I am.

Iron Cowboy

I was listening to another podcast on my long, very lonely, cold, wet ride on Saturday. It was an interview with the "Iron Cowboy", a triathlete who recently completed 50 ironmans in 50 states in 50 days! (I know, beyond belief - he also has 5 kids!!!) He said that rather than INSPIRE others by what he had done, he would rather EMPOWER them, to be the very best they can be. He has donated a lot of the money he raised to the Jamie Oliver foundation, to try to help educate people on healthy eating choices. He is also doing motivational speaking, and some coaching.

It made me realise that rather than aim to inspire people with what I do, I would rather empower them too. Not in the same way as Iron Cowboy. But in my job, I aim to empower final year vet students to go into practice with some coping strategies for the difficulties they will face (I give a lot of wellness and holistic advice, as well as the theoretical stuff). Similarly, I hope that through this blog, I can empower some triathletes, not just to go harder, faster, stronger, but hopefully to achieve all that with a bit of balance and enjoyment.

And during that ride on Saturday, I thought of a practical way I can empower some of them. When I have raced Hawaii, I will swim, ride or run with ANYONE in Melbourne who wants some company and doesn't feel fast enough to be able to stay in a bunch (as long as I'm not too slow for you!!!) I think there are a lot of people out there who would love to take up the sport, or start riding more, but just need that little bit of company to get them going, and I definitely know that many people struggle with a fear of the open water.

When I was a beginner cyclist, I would NEVER have been confident enough to venture up to Kinglake if my good friends Abbie and Phil hadn't waited for me at the top of every climb! (They seriously used to have time to eat a sandwich in Mt Pleasant, while I made my way up the hill from Eltham!) If I can give someone else that kind of boost, what better way to empower them to get active, enjoy the outdoors and get a taste of the most amazing sport ever?

6 weeks to go