Grant-A-Week WINNER
Tri-newbies: Women Accomplishing the Improbable

We are all employees of the same rehabilitation centre in Vancouver. We were asked by one of our colleagues to consider entering a sprint triathlon.

There were unknowns, husbands and children to juggle, work demands, long commutes, and always the fear of the unknown pulling against us.

Let us add that the women triathletes that we saw in magazines were all petite, muscled gazelles and none of us could easily identify with that body-type; assuming it is a pre-requisite for success in this sport.

We were wrong! Since April of 1999 our group sprouted from three to eight. Borrowing a name from a web site, we have called ourselves the "Tri-newbies".

We've researched the web, read books and copied articles to provide our selves the coaching we need. We have whimsically designed our own newsletter and hand it out at a weekly group lunch in a centre cafeteria. Each of us has had to learn more about the three events in a triathlon, and how to train for each.

We have been able to see growth in all of us and we share our training stories in the morning at work. We encourage each other when one of us is flagging or pulling back from training. It is by pulling together that we make progress, literally one day at a time. Because it rains a lot in Vancouver in the winter, it presents a real challenge to us to continue to train and not stay inside by the fire!

But then look at the smiles on our faces!

Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity contact us