Who am I?
I am 60 years old, generally pretty grumpy, like to stop for coffee when riding, and occasionally subject myself to the rigours of an Ironman! I like to ride on new roads, to different places and even the odd bike path. I don’t like jelly fish and pleeeeeease don’t ask me about my road bike frame. I am one of your new ambassadors and have no idea about doing flying mounts and dismounts!
No prizes here people, pretty easy….I am of course Greg!
Only joking lol (and I hope he reads this haha), it’s me Gary, but you can call me Gaz (really you can).
But who am I really? And how did I get here, to this club, doing this sport with all you wonderful people.
Unfortunately, the answer is quite a long one because I’ve been doing this kind of a stuff a long time.
I’ll try to keep it short though.
I have always loved sport and tried to participate where possible. About 40 years ago I remember reading something about an event called the Ironman and remember thinking how insane this was. I thought it looked pretty silly and you could die trying to do that. But it sat in the back of my mind from then on.
In 1984 I did my first Marathon (The Big M Melbourne Marathon), I did another in 1988 and recorded my best time in 1993.
I did many fun runs until my knee succumbed to the rigours of a previous and very ordinary football career, and so I turned to cycling. I got serious and raced incessantly. I actually won some significant races and placed in many others, not to mention lots of 4th places (the old chocolate medal). I raced A grade vets for many years and then one day I heard the Ironman was coming to Melbourne and my life changed.
I went under the knife to get my knee working again, and completed the first Melbourne Ironman 4 months later in March 2012.
And then what?
I have now completed 7 Ironman events, and numerous 70.3, Olympic and even Sprint distance Triathlons. Somewhere in amongst all this I crossed paths with Tri-Alliance, and found that the people here actually tolerated me and accepted my many and varied personality quirks.
And so that relationship has grown, and I now feel I want to give something back to this club and the people in it who have not only helped me achieve some lifelong ambitions, but have also helped me become a better person in the process.
I’m still pretty grumpy though and future articles will bear witness to this, but we’ll chat about that another time.
So, for better or worse I’m one of your ambassadors, I will try to fulfil this role to the best of my ability but realize I will never be another Eddy or Steph. There’s so much more I could say but I guess that’s enough for now.
And words of wisdom…
Maybe some advice from someone who has had multiple setbacks along this long road may be of interest! Perhaps a little insight as to how my mind works, and how I approach these challenges!
“I have no time for yesterday, yesterday’s a thousand miles away” (Greg will know the song)!
When things get on top of you – “fight back”
Anyone who keeps fighting can never lose!
Weird aren’t I?
Gaz
