To those of you who don’t know what G files are, they are a series of informative and highly entertaining articles I pen from time to time, and the truth is I’ve forgotten what number I’m up to.
I did write some through the covid period, but as soon as I’d written something, it became out of date because of the ever evolving situation, so I binned them! They were great though!
The G stands for Gaz by the way……quite clever really!
Anyway why am I writing something now? You no doubt ask hesitatingly!
Well something happened last Saturday that sent a little shiver up the back of my neck!
It reminded me of something that I think we all forget from time to time!
Ant it wasn’t Long Course!
And it wasn’t Short course!
And it wasn’t any of the coaching group!
It was the Try the Tri #6 group!
Yes, the newest and least experienced people, who barely know each other let alone the existing members of our squad, who showed me something extraordinary!
You see the last part of their session Saturday was a full run through of a triathlon, a short one, but it had some tough bits and a decent run at the end. Swim ride and run with proper transitions, and even some sand running!
As they were crossing the finish line, and some of them are fast, believe me (even faster than me …..probably) (Greg will like that bit) , they waited there and clapped every one of their group over the line! Right through to the final finisher, all of them, with no prompting from me or any of our coaching group. E-v-e-r-y s-i-n-g-l-e one!!!!
Team spirit, camaraderie, call it what you will, it’s the the sort of thing that LIFTS everyone!
Tri-Alliance!
So why does that touch me?
I guess I don’t like the way we split our squad into Long or short course or advanced or intermediate or whatever. They are words, labels, no more than that.
We are one squad!
At the moment Short course are approaching their last race of the 2XU series!
I’m asking them to lift to new heights, and push themselves harder than ever before!
Long course are approaching Melbourne 70.3 and Port Mac IM, with Cairns not far off either. Their training is arduous and can be quite lonely, and some are in the depth of the Port Mac build which is simply hideous!
So I put the call out to all of us to remember that we all part of one squad and if you see each other out there training or racing, give each other a boost, anything helps, believe me. Call out each others names, let them know that whatever it is they are doing, you are with them, supporting them, and likewise they are behind you!
Corny I know, but when you are at your limit this sort of thing makes you stand a bit taller!
Long course, Short course, Multi course, Duathlon, Aquabike, Aquathon, whatever you are doing, we are all in some way involved.
Don’t think to yourself, “Hey that person is really good and doesn’t really know me, they won’t want me barracking for them”, YES THEY DO!
Everyone gets a lift from this sort of thing!
EVERYONE!
OK that’s want I wanted to say, don’t know if I put it that well, this stuff can be quite emotional.
Gaz
