Making the big decisions

Other than the fact that we both only came to triathlon in our late 20s, there is almost no other way in which my triathlon career resembles that of Chrissie Wellington:

Wellington is a force of nature who stormed on to the Ironman scene in 2007 when she disproved the popular belief that you couldn’t win on your first visit to Kona by becoming World Champion – a feat she repeated in 2008 and 2009.

I limped through my first triathlon with a banged-up old mountain bike, enormous stitch and calf strain – a feat I’ve not repeat again and again but only due to buying a slightly better bike.

Chrissie has smashed Ironman world records year on year.

I once smashed my alarm clock when it made me get up at 4am for a race.

So dominant is Wellington that when she shows up at an Iron distance event these days, the question isn’t whether she’ll win but how many pro guys she’ll beat (known in tri circles as ‘getting chicked’) – the answer to this questions in Roth, Germany, this summer was all but three of them –Chrissie came 4^th overall.

I sometimes get chicked. I’ve been to Germany.

But, for this week at least, I feel I’ve shared an emotional and competition based bond with the great British champion. After those three back-to-back victories at the World Champs in Kona, Hawaii, Chrissie arrived on the Big Island in 2010 as the reddest and hottest of favourites. But, to the surprise of everyone, she pulled out on the morning of the race due to illness.

This year, she was again such a red hot favourite to regain the title that, were she any redder or hotter she’d have been sponsored by Tabasco and leaving a Back To The Future style line of fire tracks behind her on the bike. But disaster struck again when, a few weeks out, Chrissie came off her bike on a training ride. To cut a long story short, she bashed up her body pretty bad and it was touch and go whether she’d make it on to the start line. But she did. And she won. But she described the decision of whether to race – both in 2010 and 2011 – as the hardest of her life.

Do you accept that you’re not at your best and race anyway or do you pull out until you can give a proper demonstration of your training, fitness and race readiness?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself this week. You see, while Chrissie had to decide whether to defend/regain her crown in the biggest triathlon on earth (‘the Superbowl of triathlon’) in Kona  Hawaii, where 3,000 of the very best pros and age groupers go toe-to-toe over the gruelling Iron distance (3.8k swim, 180k bike, 42k marathon run) tackling Hawaii’s legendary winds and iconic scorching lava fields in spite of her debilitating viruses/injuries...I have to decide whether I’ll do our little local sprint (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run) against 250 athletes here in Dubai which is also quite hot, in spite of having been a bit fluey and having had a chest infection for the last week.

I know, right? The parallels are un-freaking-canny! Like, spooky?

Well, I may have only managed a couple of swims and a bad run in the past 10 days due to doctor’s orders, but there were a couple of decent weeks of training before that and the entry fee has been paid now, so, barring any Chrissie-style virus on the morning of the race (I guess one advantage of not having been allowed to ride is that I couldn’t crash!) I’ll be there.

I may not be chasing world records or world titles – a top 10 would be nice, as would a PR – but I’ll still leave it all out there, with everyone else. Coz we’re triathletes and whether best in the world or first-timer, that’s what we’re there for – to push ourselves. And sometimes, that’s the very best medicine.