Over my years I've attended plenty of sports awards dinners and heard even more guest speakers at numerous different events. Being the guest speakers is always an honor but it isn't without nerves that you get up infront of an unknown audience to share what you feel are words of wisdom and inspiration in the hope that the audience take something positive away from it.
Just last week I was invited to be the guest speaker at the Brisbane State High School cross-country awards night dinner that was held last night and on somewhat short notice I put together my speech but on all reports I passed with flying colours so I thought I'd share my 'words of inspiration and wisdom' with you:
I was really struggling for what I was going to talk about to all of you tonight until about half way through training this morning. And having been given some direction on what to talk about, this morning’s session was perfect! My alarm went off at 3:55am this morning and I was out the door and on my bike by 4:30am and trust me the 5ºc weather didn’t make it any easier but after my car was involved in a car crash 2 weeks ago it has been my only way of getting around and I had to meet the rest of my training group at 5:30am. We were doing an 80km loop around the north side of Brisbane and with the extra riding I had to do, I was looking at close to 130km for the morning. Within the first two hours I’d already had 3 punctures and was close to wanting to call a taxi and call it a day! For anyone that has had to change a tyre they will know that it’s never much fun especially when it is down to about 3ºc but after having to resort to using a muesli bar wrapper (a common cyclists trick) to cover the gash I’d only found after the third puncture we continued on and not only did I get the 130km done but I also rode close to the quickest I’ve ever ridden for the 20km time-trial section in the middle! It was this persistence and resilience that not only got me through this session but also what I have achieved thus far in this sport.
I’ve always found quotes to be somewhat cliché but after having heard this one a while back it has just stuck with me and regularly pops into my head during sessions or days when it all just seems too much;
“It’s not about how many times you fall down, it’s about how many times you get back up.”
You’re all here tonight because of your achievements in cross country this season and I applaud all of your efforts, many of which trump a lot of my performances throughout my schooling and the exciting thing for many of you is that the best is likely yet to come. Personally it wasn’t until grade 12 when I made my first Queensland team for athletics and my first Australian team was my first year out of high school in 2005. In fact the furthest I ever went for cross country was regionals so a lot of you have a healthy head start on me!
2008 was my second Australian World Championship team which was held over in Canada. Canada is one of the best places I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to but racing in 5ºc and rain isn’t! I finished 33rd in that race but one year down the track, a change in squads and coaches and most importantly a completely different mindset I finished 4th in my category and 10th overall at the 2009 World Championships on the Gold Coast
It was after Worlds in 2009 that I was given the opportunity to race professionally and have been ever since and have raced in a number of national championships as well as international events all around Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and USA. And at the end of the 2010/2011 season I was ranked 168th in the world after some of my best results which included a 6th place at the ITU Continental Cup in Devonport and 20th place at the ITU Oceania Championships in Wellington and 12th place at the ITU Oceania Cup in Mooloolaba where I actually lead the race up until the 4km mark of the run.
I went into the beginning of this season full of confidence and looking to improve on the last and everything started off really well at the Noosa Triathlon where I finished 14th, just behind Chris McCormack and ahead of Courtney Atkinson. Unfortunately the next series of races didn’t go to plan and my results were well off what I thought I was capable of. And being a rather emotional person each of these results got a little bit harder to deal with and in a sense I was searching for answers because in actual fact I was training better than ever before and my training times were just not being reflected in races. In a bit of a last ditch attempt to gain something from the season I headed up to a race in Hervey Bay where I ended up having my best race all season to finish 5th in a really quality field, only just narrowly being beaten by Pete Jacobs who was runner up to Craig Alexander at the Hawaiian World Ironman Championship last October. Not only did this result give me the confidence that training was in fact on track but also made my mind up on what direction I am now heading in. I’ve decided to now focus on the Ironman 70.3 distance (1.9km swim, 90km cycle, 21km run) and my first race of this distance will be in Yeppoon on August 19th and I’m actually more excited than ever about entering for me the unknown!
And just before I finish I’d like to leave you with a couple of quotes or mottos. The first is my coach’s motto and however simple it is, is something that he has instilled in me and something I strongly believe should be followed by not only anyone chasing the elite athlete dream but with any significant goal in life;
"PERFORMANCE THROUGH PERSISTANCE"
The second is a phrase that a few of us came up with at training and believe it or not I actually have written on a piece of strapping tape and stuck to the handlebars of my bike. It’s three simple words but when it all comes down to it, if you chip away at your goals with persistence and bounce back from whatever setbacks you may face the results will come. And that phrase is;
"JUST BACK YOURSELF"
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