The Strength of Team

Part of Team Tri-Hart/Middlesex Swimming
(Gallacher Patterson, Andy Ball, Coach Lee Hart,
Kevin Van Geest, Me, Bernard Volz)

This February,  I have come to appreciate the importance of having a team.  Many people may look upon triathlon as an "individual sport", spending hours upon hours on a bike and running the road, and there are many triathletes that train that way, alone. Swimming is also a sport where we spend hours upon hours with our head underwater unable to talk to anyone but ourselves.  Yet unlike triathlon, swimming is an individual sport that relies on the team to help with practice motivation and healthy inter-team competition.  So why not transport this atmosphere from the pool to the road.

This is what our group has done both in the pool and for cycling and running.

Our swimming group started as just a few of us meeting Sunday mornings at the YMCA for lane swim.  We find it more motivating and fun to swim together.  During our swims we met other lane swimmers and other triathletes of different  abilities and invited them to join in with us.  At first there was some apprehension, it isn't always easy to join a couple of former National Level swimmers in a swim practice when you've only started swimming in the last few years.  It didn't take long before these triathletes and swimmers were looking forward to lane swims on Sunday morning, as they were seeing themselves improve in both speed and endurance. It has been an amazing experience creating new friendships and networks of people to swim, run, and bike with.  This month came the icing on the cake, some of the group competed in  their very first swim meet ever,  dove off the blocks for the first time ever, and did flip turns in their races! For others it was their  first swim competition in 25 years! Even our coach got in and raced.  As someone who has gone to many of the in-season swim competitions by herself, it felt incredible to have a team on deck cheering and encouraging each other on.

Kevin and I receiving our awards after the event.  Our families and
teammates stayed to cheer us on and watch the awards.

Even in -27 degree Celsius weather our team sticks together.  Our coach and teammates came out to cheer Kevin and I on in our first half-marathon of the season.  It felt like -33 degrees with the windchill and thus, unfortunately, the half was cancelled and turned into a 10km run instead.  Despite the weather and the race change, both Kevin and I did best times in our 10km run and felt as though we could keep going if we had too.  So happy that our teammates and families braved the elements and helped motivate us to leave the warmth of the school gym and run out to the start line.

Me, Finishing the Grimsby
 Half-Marathon(10Km)

Some of our swim group is now doing triathlon training together, and some join for a run or a cycle now and then.  We push each other, feed off each other's motivation to be better, and encourage each other when the workouts get tough.  It's nice to know you're not the only one in the room suffering and somehow that helps us work harder and keep going to the end of the workout.  We currently range in age from 19-47, yet our age disappears when we are working out together.

Without my teammates I wouldn't be where I am today in swimming and my journey into triathlon.  They keep me accountable to the training and help to make it an enjoyable experience, yes, even when it hurts.  

Even in an "individual" sport, never underestimate the power of being part of a team.