Tanni’s View


Baroness


Grey-Thompson DBE writes for


Ability Needs M


any months ago, I agreed that it would be a good idea to get involved in participating in a Team Triathlon


involving a swim, bike and run/racing chair. Even though it is more than 12 years since I retired, I thought that I would have time to prepare for it. Time, and lots of other things got in the way and while I do a reasonable amount of exercise, nothing is quite the same as actually being in a racing wheelchair. I know that Triathlons start early in the morning


to get everyone through the course causing a minimum of disruption to everyone else who lives in that community. That still didn’t quite prepare me for the 6.24am start, but in the whole scheme of things it could have been a 6am start. It didn’t occur to me that would mean waking up at


22


3.30am in order to get to the race, and there is only so much coffee that you can drink when you are not sure whether there are accessible toilets. I was lucky that I have a great team around me


and while I might have been able to get on a bike, there is no way that I would ever feel comfortable or safe doing an open water swim in a river. I have never really been a confident swimmer, and while I am OK in a pool, I do know my limits. There really was something quite exciting


about being back at the start of a race and, in a weird way, I have missed it. Seeing everyone prepping and getting their bikes racked for the transition, fixing all their gear and warming up brought back a lot of happy memories. The other thing with Triathlons is that they have a wave, not


Ability Needs Magazine


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