What’s the point?

‘What’s the point? Look at her. She’s just got so much natural talent. She’s so good. I’ll never get there.’

It is easy to get disheartened when you set out to do a new, hard thing. Even easier, perhaps, for our younger team members and for our children to lose faith and give up. Being surrounded by glossy social media posts doesn’t help and the pervasive victim narrative persuades our young people they can’t do things that their mothers and fathers would have just gone for, blissfully ignorant!

I was reminded of this at the weekend. Let me tell you the story…

In August 2023, I decided to become a triathlete. So it has been a whole year of others being much, much better than me: at 3 sports! (4, if you count triathlon itself.)

I don’t mean ‘become a pro triathlete’, by the way. I love what I do far too much to ever stop. I say’ become a triathlete’ in the way people say ‘become a vegan’. It touches everything. In fact, it demands more time than being a vegan could possibly require and even my bedtime had to change. I’m sure that’s not required of vegans.

I got up at 5am and went to swim squad with a local club, where I was the newbie and the worst swimmer.

I learned to ride a strange bike where you rest your arms on bars that stick out like a unicorn’s horns and discovered I had no biking muscles or stamina at all. None.