Last night I had the opportunity to guest speak at the Carina Leagues Club/Camp Hill Welfare Association Dinner. It was a great night and gave me a chance to give back to my long-time supporters, Carina Leagues Club. The audience seemed to enjoy my speech so I thought I would post it here to let you know a little more about how I started in the sport of triathlon and where I am hoping to go.
Enjoy...
It all started with a box of Weet-Bix. As I
sat down for breakfast one morning, back in 2004, I noticed the Kids Triathlon
advertised on the box. A 200m swim, 10km cycle and 2km run looked easy printed
across the back of a cereal box, and the smiling faces on the accompanying
children fed my curiosity. I had never ridden a bike before and could barely
swim 25m of freestyle, but I signed up nonetheless and was determined to
finish.
Eight years on, and I can still remember
the look of horror on my dad’s face as I jumped onto my bright red, 1930’s
Malvern Star that was about 3 sizes too big for me. I was so embarrassed to
have him run alongside me for the entire 10km cycle, screaming, “keep your eyes
on the road, Ellie. You’re going to run into something”. Thanks Dad.
I did manage to finish though and crossing
that line still reigns as one of the proudest moments in my life. I didn’t know
it at the time, but it was the opening of a new door, a new adventure, and most
importantly, a new opportunity.
Following that race, I caught the triathlon
bug and it seemed there was no cure. I saw an ad in the local newspaper about
the triathlon club down at the Clem Jones Centre and joined up under the
direction of Warwick Dalziel. My first couple of weeks at the club were
definitely a learning curb to say the least, from crashing my bike into a pole
and taking half the skin off my body, to tripping over my own feet whilst
running. Thankfully I did get better though, and have never looked back since.
After being at the club for a while, I
began competing in a series of races that took me all around Queensland. As any
11 year old can tell you, winning IS everything, and my scope on competing was
no different. I began winning my age group category at these small events,
feeding my love of the sport and confidence with each one.
As I progressed as an athlete, I began
competing at State and National level. I severely struggled with nerves and
anxiety though as the races got more intense and the competition more
fierce. It took me until I was 17 years
old to overcome my pre-race anxiety and learn to get the best out of myself
whilst racing. Sure, I had some pleasing results throughout my younger years as
an athlete, but it wasn’t until grade 12 that I really began to make a name for
myself and stamp myself as a potential future champion in the sport. At 17
years of age, I became the Australian U20 School Age Champion and a dual silver
medalist at the Youth Olympic Games. I had found my feet and felt invincible;
on top of the world to say the least.
However, it was then that I also realized,
being in such a brutal sport wasn’t going to be all smooth sailing. Two weeks
after returning from the Youth Olympics, I broke my elbow in a cycling
accident, putting me out of training and competition for eight weeks. It was my
very first broken bone and the start of a number of serious injuries.
It seems that the better you get, the more
severe the adversities become and the longer they last. But, at the same time,
the sweeter the victories taste and the harder you have to work to get them.
In 2011, I overcame six months worth of
shin splints to win the National Junior Series. It was an achievement that came
as a result of numerous tears, tantrums and hours of pain. But, none of that
seemed to matter in the end. It made me a stronger, more mature athlete. I went
on to achieve a 17th place in my first World Cup in Canada later that
year, against some of the greatest triathletes in the world. Once again, I was
back on top of my game and loving every second of every day.
This year has been by far the most
challenging, yet most rewarding of all. I started with a bang, winning race one
of the Australian Junior World selection series in Canberra. However, only one
week later, I managed to stick my foot into the front wheel of my bike whilst
mounting in a race. I suffered a minute fracture, and as you can imagine, a
very sore foot. This had me off running and cycling for four weeks, which is
not ideal in the middle of my main racing block. I came back though, bigger and
better, winning the Luke Harrop Memorial triathlon and U23 bursary.
In April, I headed across to France after
signing a contract with a Team to compete in a series of races across the
country. This series is arguably the toughest, most competitive in the world,
with the sport’s greatest athletes lining up to compete. I was set to live in
our Spanish training base for three months, whilst travelling to and from each
of the French destinations for the races. It was only one week into my trip,
and in my very first race, that adversity struck me again. During the run
component of the race, I suffered a stress fracture in my right foot. The bone
had completely snapped and required the insertion of a pin, a few weeks in a
plaster, a few more weeks in a moon boot and countless weeks off running. It
has now been 12 weeks since I underwent surgery on my foot, and am back into full
swim and cycle training and have just started back running again. I am already
planning to race in China in early September and am waiting on the announcement
of the Australian Junior Team to compete at the World Championships in
September.
As William Arthur Ward so aptly said,
“adversity causes some men to break; and others to break records.” This is my
chance to break records and I know I will come back from this injury stronger,
faster and more determined than ever; all on the journey to becoming an Olympic
gold medalist.
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A huge thank you to Kevin Cairns for organising for me to be a guest speaker at the evening and supporting me in my marketing ventures. Follow my Facebook fan page for photos from the night.
Ellie xo
