It’s the 31st December 2012 and I’m sitting at my PC collating all my cycling data for the year – sad eh!! It suddenly dawns on me that I’ve cycled over 4000 miles in 2012 and I’m still a fat b%£$&!”£ - this can’t be right!!
“This year I’m going to make a resolution and I’m going to stick to it” I thought to myself.
I know a few people that have taken part in triathlons, they are all slim, so it must be good for you. I quite fancy that idea – so let’s do it.
This was my first ‘serious’ resolution and I felt proud that I’d had made that commitment to myself.
It’s amazing how all of this changed as I put on my trainers the next day and went for a ‘run’. What the hell have I done!!!!!!????? I put this initial atrocious performance down to the fact that I don’t like running so wasn’t too hard on myself ?
The next morning I was up early and headed to the pool – I can swim, have done for years, how hard can this be?
Goggles on and Bermuda shorts flapping around as I walked to the edge of the pool. Standing there looking very similar to a character from ‘Benidorm’, I looked down the lane. Looks pretty short, this will be a piece of cake.
Dive…………… I’m a swimming god… Front crawl all the way to the other end, I turn and head back. Huge mistake as I hadn’t actually taken a breath yet and was about to find out what gasping for breath underwater felt like!
I emerge approximately 4 metres from the side of the pool in an eruption of coughing, splashing and general panic… 29 metres….. I think I may need to practice swimming too ?
It all sounded lovely and I was looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, it was probably the coldest day on record when I awoke from my restless night’s sleep, so the thought of wearing what can only be described as a lycra leotard was not appealing. I arrived at the venue in plenty of time, registered, racked my bike up and started to lay out all of my clothes; Socks, gloves, arm warmers, leg warmers, t-shirt, spare t-shirt, spare gloves.. You get the idea. My area of transition looked like a car boot sale!!
Looking around I noticed that most people only had a pair of trainers and their bike helmet…. PAH!! It’s freezing, I’ll need all of this I thought to myself.
I won’t bore you with all the details, but the swim was relatively uneventful, but as I exited the pool I kept reminding myself of the rules… “Don’t touch your bike until you’ve got your helmet on”… Out of the pool doors and outside into transition – blimey it was cold!!
Found my bike with relative ease and popped on my helmet and ensured it was fastened. What happened next can only be described as embarrassing… Let’s just say trying to put a t-shirt on over your head isn’t possible whilst wearing a cycle helmet ?.
Eventually I head out on the road and into familiar territory for me. Fast forward 50 minutes or so and I’m back at my car boot sale trying to find matching socks and trainers to put on for the jog around the park. The below says everything I want to without boring you all with more text.
It wasn’t long after this that I discovered the Nicetri Club and after a couple of emails I turned up one Wednesday evening for a ride. I thought that I would start with the ride as I was pretty quick on my road bike as I had been doing it for quite a while AND I did ride over 4000 miles in the last year….
Those thoughts have haunted me ever since!!!
There was a modest turn out and the group was split into ladies and what appeared to be ‘astronauts’ riding space ships – before I had time to choose my group the ladies had gone and I was rolling out of the car park amongst the astronauts. I was used to riding in a group, so was sure I’d be ok. As we turned out of St Neots and headed towards Abbotsley, the mood suddenly changed. Some bloke they called ‘Fatboy’ (who clearly didn’t warrant this name) took up the pace and all I can remember is hanging on for dear life.
Within a couple of miles of leaving Abbotsley I had been dropped ? I knew where we were headed, so I carried on chasing and re-joined the group in Everton – oh how I wish I hadn’t bothered!!!
After three times I was absolutely knackered, so I opted to stop in the little layby at the top where someone called Keith was standing barking instructions and encouragement to us all during the session. I sat there and watched as people just kept coming past. Up and down they went. It was relentless.
As the group in the layby grew, I became more aware of one particular ‘astronaut’ – he just kept going and going, almost getting faster with each rep. He was clearly extremely mental and also a machine!!! You guessed it, I’d just met Duncan ?
The ride home turned out to be even more ridiculous as the ride to the hill session. Apparently we were going to ‘chain gang’ at about 20-21mph all the way back to St Neots. As my speedo clocked over the 30mph point again, I literally blew up and had to back off… I had been dropped again ?
That ride back to St Neots was a pivotal one for me. Two thoughts were in my mind constantly:
1. This is a joke, I’m useless, why am I bothering
2. Wow, these guys are awesome, who better to train with
Still toying with these thoughts on the drive home, it was borderline that I’d see any of these mental people ever again!!
That evening I received a couple of messages via Facebook which made my mind up for me – they were from the Club Captain – that astronaut, machine bloke from earlier (Duncan) Never have kind and encouraging words been more needed I can tell you!!!
Roll on until the present day…
I’ve completed four Sprint Triathlons and my first Olympic distance on Sunday (yes I’m still aching as I write this).
The Nicetri Club is truly awesome, like anything, it is the people that make it. You’d think that having numerous members eligible to wear a GB vest would cause things to being ‘cliquey’ and that there would be an amount of arrogance around – but there is absolutely none of this in the club, everyone is so very helpful and always happy to offer advice (or take the p155 (Keith)) ?
I’d like to thank you all for the support you have shown and given me over the last few months it is truly inspirational.
Special thanks to Duncan for giving me a kick up the arse during the last couple of months, Lucy for her smiles that I’m sure have kept us all going through the pain, the Ritchie ‘clan’ for their support, experience, banter and cake, the ‘ginger’ one for falling off her bike on my first ever session and making me feel so much better about myself..
Unfortunately for you guys I can now look in the mirror and say; “I’m a triathlete, I REALLY am” – which means I’ll be sticking around!!