Relentless Forward Progress

Not many people are lucky enough to see their dreams come true. You have to be patient and persevere. I make my dreams come true. There is no other way." Clarinda Brueck.
I am one of those, one of those that make their dreams come true. Making dreams come true is no small feat. As I am learning it comes with ups and downs, it comes with obstacles and barriers, it comes with winning a victory at one time and losing a battle at one time and sometimes that one time happens on the same day. It comes with learning about ourselves and our abilities as human beings to dream the impossible and not give up until we make the dream come true. Giving up is not an option, the option is only to take each day's as a new day, a new opportunity and a fresh start in looking at the dream and to  keep moving forward no matter what.  It’s about relentless forward progress and the determination to keep showing up no matter what.

                                                     

“Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.”– Charlie Jones

I got a DNF at a triathlon on the 1^st November. What's a DNF you might be thinking for those not into triathlons....DID NOT FINISH. In fact I got about 200 meters into the 1500 meter swim and was pulled out of the water. Not by choice of my own, but by the amazing lifeguards/organizers of the race. Let me paint a picture for you, of what it was like. Firstly out of the 1300 athletes, there were two of us with disabilities, a guy with one of his legs amputated and me. Let’s be real it takes a lot to show up at these races, it takes a deep sense of belief, attitude, and resilience, because these races are not yet made for athletes with disabilities, so besides the physical obstacles, the perceptions of others around, the inexperience of organisers learning to work with athletes who have disabilities, its just tough out there so by the time the race starts emotionally one can be very tired. But this is part of the journey for me, and one I will keep walking in knowing it paves a small way for more people with disabilities to take on triathlons, especially here in South Africa.

Here is what happened that Sunday morning I get escorted to the water’s edge by my handlers (My dad and my Biokineticist Greg Hyson) in my wheelchair. We wait for the go ahead to get in the water. My handlers grab my arms we walk into the water, once about ankle deep I just sit down, and almost become like a seal and literally lie on my stomach and push myself off the ground to a deeper enough spot where I can kind of just chill without being too shallow. The fun part is trying to keep my legs down, because by wearing a wetsuit my legs just automatically want to float, so after struggling for a bit to find a position that's comfortable we wait for the horn to go off. Horn goes off I swim a few meters and I can't see through my water filled goggles, oh flip, what's happening, I stop swimming, I can't stand and I try lie on my back to get the water out. Water out, goggles back turn around start swimming. Water floods my goggles again, I flip over try empty and goggles back on. By this stage I have a life guard next to me asking if I am ok. I say yes, just my goggles playing games with me. Now take into account, the wind was howling, the water was full of waves, and people were being taken out because of the conditions. The next thing I know there is a jet ski next to me, wanting me to get on and be taken back to the shore, ok so I am a bit of a rebel and decide no way, I am fine to swim, it's not the conditions it’s my goggles. So I swim off away from the Jet Ski guys who want to take me back to shore. Problem....goggles once again full of water and I flip on my back to empty them and guess who is there waiting for me, the Jet Ski. This time I wasn't given any choice in the matter, pulled onto the back of the Jet Ski and delivered back to the shore. Race over. DNF. 

It felt like all the training, the travelling with all my equipment through airports, on planes, the time, was a total waste, the friends who came to support didn’t get to see my do much, but it was over and I had to accept that, I couldn’t change the circumstances but I had a choice to make, what was this going to do in my journey towards my dream,

It was strange for me, swimming is my strength in a triathlon, it's the one part of it that I have real confidence in, yet on Sunday it was the one that I couldn't get through. Did I fail, it sure felt like it for a few hours after, were there lots of questions I asked myself yes of course, did I do everything in my power to not fail, I don’t know. All I do know is that i couldn’t go back and change the situation, it was too late but what I can do is build on it for the next race. Practically, I got rid of my goggles, I will in one of my next training swims, swim without goggles so next time if this happens I will just remove my goggles and swim without them. I will believe that even though this might look like a failure, I am not a failure for trying, and each race I compete in teaches me something new, which I can use for the next race.

"Like success, failure is many things to many people. With positive mental attitude, failure is a learning experience, a rung on the ladder, and a plateau at which to get your thoughts in order to prepare to try again." W. Clement Stone

I have one more triathlon left for this year on the 11 December, before the New Year starts with many races, and lots of training, and some big stepping stones forward in my dream. I will show up at this race, I will give it all I have believing that I will get to push/run towards the finish line still believing in the power of dreaming and to never stop trying no matter what, being patient and persevering even when it’s hard. If it wasn’t hard, it wouldn’t be fun!

“Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.” Cynthia Kersey

I have taken part in 4 triathlons since August, two of them, I couldn’t do the run because it was on sand and my race wheelchair doesn’t move in sand, but I did the swim and the cycle, another one I wrote about earlier in August, where I did most of it, but not the full distance and then this latest one where I got a DNF, so in reality I actually haven’t finished a complete triathlon yet, but I still believe my time will come, just as you should still believe your time will come, it is all a matter of patience, perseverance, relentless forward progress, never giving up and always showing up no matter what.

And so I will continue to take the DIS in disability and make sure it remains DARING INSPIRING STRONG

Born Champions

We are born champions, we just need to find it somewhere deep in ourselves, because the world will tell us we are “losers” but we can choose to believe……who you are and what we can do. We have one life and I choose to live it to impact the world, no matter what life has thrown at me, my disability, will try to disable me, but I am choosing to DIS-able it.

 My aim in life is turning the DIS in dis-ability, to the words DARING INSPIRING STRONG. I am daring to take on the stigma behind beliefs of what disability has been seen as, I am wanting to inspire a generation of people with disabilities to just do what they love, knowing that my strength in life comes from God being my stronghold, and as long as He is strong I can be strong, because this at the end of the day is All for His glory not mine!

 I have dared to take on triathlons with just using my arms, on the 22^nd August I tried my first one, this would mean I was going to swim 1.5km, hand cycle 40km and run (in my race wheelchair) 10km. I didn’t choose the easiest triathlon, I just choose the first one that was there for me to do.

Did I finish the full course…no, I could only do 20km of the cycle (1 lap of the 2 lap course), due to time constraints and the cycle course being closed after 5pm, but the amazing race organisers and referees allowed me to keep going on the run to cross the red carpet to the finish line.

I will spare you the gruelling hills of the cycle part of the race, but let’s just say when I checked the stats on my Garmin watch, overall I had climbed nearly 1200meters, at one point I climbed a hill with my arms for 40 minutes consistently, and coming back down I hit speeds of 60km/hr.

 At the end of the day I had done more than I thought I could ever get to…I had swam 1.5km, hand cycled 20km and pushed myself on the run 10km, in total 31.5kilometers with just my arms.

 It has taken me nearly 5 days to recover, to a point where my arms are not stiff, sore or fatigued and my energy levels are ok again, ready to start training again to dare to take on the next race.

 My dad came with and worked tirelessly for the whole day and even the long 2 day journey to the race, and for this I was grateful and love the fact the he can spend his retirement assisting me pursue my dreams. I learnt a lot about what works and what doesn’t, I fought many mind games during the race, especially the cycle, you know things like “what on earth am I doing this for” “I will never get through this” “another hill, really my arms can’t do this” but then another gentle still voice comes in and says “keep going” “you are strong in God” “this is all for His glory so keep going” “you have trained tirelessly for this, don’t give up”. And then we just keep going and we did keep going, why because we choose to believe we can take the DIS out of disability.



Overall my times were swim 34 minutes, cycle 2 hours and run 1 hour

  

The past year has been crazy, in one sense and I am amazingly grateful to my sponsors and supporters who have made my journey possible, CBM Italy, Challenge Athletes Foundation, CE Mobility, James Grieson, and Motivation Sports Chairs. My coaches, Neil McPherson (Dinamic Coaching – Triathlon coach), Brian Button (swim coach), Greg Hyson (Biokentikist), and Sports Science Institute of South Africa (My second home, my gym). My friends, you know who you are, who have walked me out of some deep dark places, my family who have put up with my very early mornings and my very early nights, my nieces who are my cheerleaders and my puppy, who loves me no matter what.

“For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.” Romans 11:36

I leave you with the lyrics of a song I had playing a lot the past few days……

“Like a small boat, On the ocean, Sending big waves Into motion
Like how a single word Can make a heart open, I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion

And all those things I didn't say, Wrecking balls inside my brain, I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time?

This is my fight song, Take back my life song, Prove I'm alright song
My power's turned on, Starting right now I'll be strong
I'll play my fight song, And I don't really care if nobody else believes
'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me” Fight Song – Rachel Platten

UNTIL THE NEXT RACE – I REMAIN DARING INSPIRING STRONG!

“You don't have to be a hero to accomplish great things---to compete. You can just be an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.” 
― Edmund Hillary

We talk about an inclusive world in which all persons with disabilities enjoy their human rights and achieve their full potential.

Meetings, talking, words, manuals, guides on how to be inclusive, signing acts and plans is all part of the working towards a society that becomes inclusive for people with disabilities, but what really changes.

Most of the time it is just a physical act of what the word really means for it to be seen and not just spoken about. “The CBM Family Team” tried showing this on Saturday by racing the ITU as an all-inclusive team!

On the 25^th April, Melani, Judith and I took on the ITU Discovery World Triathlon. In my mind

when I asked Melani and Judith to do it with me I didn’t think “inclusion”, I just thought “team building” and “Fun”. Yet being who I am I decided it needed to mean something and when I looked at our team it made sense….. “UNITING TOWARDS A DISABILITY INCLUSIVE SOCIETY”

Here we were, me with a disability, Melani and Judith, racing as a team showing something that walks inclusion.

Catherine to swim 1, 5 kilometres

Judith to cycle 40 kilometres

Melani to run 10 kilometres

Being Cape Town and being the Atlantic Ocean the water temperature on the day was 9 degrees Celsius and the swim was cancelled due to it being too cold, so my part of the race was no more. So we kept our heads flying high and went for coffee instead. Oh yes we still had to race two more parts of the Triathlon……..

 Judith cycled 40 kilometres, and then handed the baton over to Melani who ran 10 kilometres, and as a team we all ran into the stadium together and finished as an all-inclusive winning team, not winning the team race but winning by participating and bringing in inclusion where we knew how.

"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?” 
― John Green

Did we do something remarkable in this race?

Did we change mind-sets of people by being an inclusive team?

Did people even see us?

Did this impact society in any way by making it more inclusive?

I can’t answer these questions but I do know we had coffee together as a team, Judith cycled for our team, Melani ran for our team and we all finished inclusively together for our CBM Family Team, we even got the medal to prove it!

Another step to Iron

A very quick update on my – “Journey to Iron” and my step for a hand cycle.

I received the amazing news from the CAF (Challenge Athletes Foundationhttp://www.challengedathletes.org/)............... “I am happy to inform you that you were approved for a Top End Force 3!! Congratulations! I have included the certificate in order to start the ordering process and your approval letter. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any other questions and again, congratulations!!”

Yes so I got my hand cycle and will hopefully be getting it to South Africa soon. Just another small step to Iron!

 THANK YOU TO…………………………………

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination"

Journey to Iron

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together"
-Vincent Van Gogh

 

 

My last update was all about recalculating, you know the x=y mc2 kind of stuff, the if plan A isn't working then what is plan B, if plan A doesn't work is it ok to go with plan B or does it really make any difference if plan A or B work, don’t work, the point is there has been a plan recalculated and its coming together slowly but surely!

 

My formula which has been in development the past 4 months = #journeytoironman

 

Yes you read it correctly I am journeying towards doing an Ironman. What is an Ironman for those who don’t know it is a 3.8km swim and 180 km cycle and a 42km run, all on the same day straight after each other. All this with only my arms! 

You might be thinking how on earth is this possible for me especially since my legs don’t work properly? Well with some new equipment, some training and some determination and good coaches I am sure the day will come, for now it is all about the series of small things coming together.

 

 

In order for me to do this I had to make some serious changes to my way of racing. I had to make the decision to take one of my biggest fears (being in a wheelchair) and throw it in the bin and just get over my fear. Yes I now have a racing wheelchair. A friend of mine said “only you Cath would get a racing wheelchair as your first wheelchair”

 

What do you use the racing wheelchair for, it’s for the RUN section of the race! An amazing donation from a friend James Grierson and an amazing DHL donating the transport from the UK, I received my “Flying Start” from Motivation in the UK. I actually am doing my first “running” race on the 17^th May. It is just a 12km race but it’s a great way to test out my new running legs in an official running race!

              

 



Handcycle

I could really not go further than 10km on my trike with my legs for the CYCLE part and realised this is not going to work, so I gave my trike away to an amazing up and coming Para cyclist and applied for a hand cycle from the CAF Foundation. Patience is not one of my strengths and so it’s been a long time waiting to hear if I will receive my hand cycle, I will know this Wednesday 1 April! It’s a faith journey, let’s just say that as these hand cycles do not come cheap.

Giving my trike away!

 

 

My amazing organisation I work for CBM has supported my with a swimming wetsuit for the SWIM section and been amazing in giving me the time to fit my training into my work schedule!

 

So to say again………………………………………..

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together"
-Vincent Van Gogh

So as you can see there is a series of small things but they are coming together slowly but surely on this next journey. I am excited to have recalculated and found the answer to a formula on this journey of life, and the answer for my next season which is a #journeytoironman

There are still many small things to accomplish and pull through and get, if you want to support me on any of these other small things please let me know directly!

 

Onwards we go in the series of small things to do a great thing and become an Ironman!

 

Greg Hyson and I just back from a training run!