Race 1 Gatorade / Ative Feet Tri Series, Catani Gardens StKilda
Sunday 25 November 2012
By Beginner Head Coach, Bernadette
Do you remember your first triathlon? Standing on the water’s edge, a bundle of nerves, waiting for the starter’s gun to sound….. obsessively running through each step of the race in your mind, but not really knowing what to expect? That was the experience for many of our 30 Try the Tri participants on Sunday.
Out of the team of 30, almost half of them secured a top ten finish, and seven of them finished either first, second or third. That may just be our best results yet from our Beginner Try-the-Tri Program!
In the Active Feet, the quiet achiever Wendy Sheldon snagged a first place finish, and Jessie Waugh found herself securing third place. In the Gatorade race, Harry Spartels smashed out a 1:05 for an impressive win and was closely followed by Gordon Hassett (1:09) and Dan Fotherinham (1:09) to round out the podium.
Pru Joss proved that determination and focus pays off, with an impressive first place in the Gatorade race. She’s back next race, so watch out girls!
Other notable results were Tom McCaul who secured 4th position in the Active Feet, and Mark Schreuder and Keith Thompson in 4th and 5th in the Gatorade.
While it’s fantastic that so many of our newbies achieved such great results, some real heroes can also be found a little lower down the results list…..
Here’s a big shout out to the true champion who was horrified to come last, but constantly inspires everyone around her with her guts and determination (she didn’t actually come last anyway!) You know who you are… keep at it girl, you’re doing fantastic things!
A big congratulations to Michael who spent the last few weeks fixing a dodgy knee and raced like a pro.
To Stewart and his daughter, Nikita, who have struggled to balance training with work and family commitments, you both ran a fantastic race and secured top ten finishes, that’s worth a family celebration! To Sinead, who ummed and arred about which race to do because she was nervous about the swim, you took on the Gatorade and swum like a fish!
Every person who raced has their own story about what inspired them and what kept them going when it was tough – I wish there was enough room here to tell all their stories.
To all of our Try the Tris, you guys were awesome. Well done on becoming triathletes, it’s great to have you as part of the team! See you at training soon.
– Coach Bernadette
“Just wanted to express my thanks to you and the other awesome Tri Alliance coaches for getting us through the last six weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed my first Tri today and can’t wait to better myself through a continuing relationship with Tri Alliance.”
– Stephen
“Thanks so much for your awesome coaching and your general triathlon co-ordination helpfulness. I was delighted with the ‘try the tri’ program and would definitely recommend it!…… I initially joined up to get more confidence swimming in the bay and for motivation to train but I am finding the program was useful with planning in general, organising and thinking a couple of steps ahead like in a tri.”
– Simone
‘Well done all – our Coaching team is proud of each and every one of you and look forward to seeing you continual improve over the coming months!’
Team Tri Alliance
