“It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” ― Hugh Laurie

As I sat down to write this I realised I hadn’t written a blog since November 2015. So decided I better do it now! That’s crazy, why well more because if I think about the 4 Triathlons I have done since then, I could write book about them, but for now let’s try keep it to a short essay J, ok short I mean short and to the point, so keep reading you will be encouraged, inspired to dream and motivated that tomorrow is another day to start again on the journey of life and pursuing our dreams, and NOW is a good time as any.

On the 11^th December 2015 it became a reality, I officially finished an entire Triathlon with only the use of my arms and became the first south African woman to ever have done so, summoned up amazing by the following few words by Sean Falconer from Modern Athlete Magazine (Attached full article to read)

In December Catherine van Staden finally achieved her goal of finishing a triathlon, becoming the first South African female para-triathlete to complete an event using just her arms, and the emotion of the day got to everybody! There was not a dry eye in the house at prize-giving after the Jailbreak Triathlon near Worcester, as 36-year old Catherine van Staden received a special award from the organisers for completing the Minimum Escape 1.1km swim, 41km bike leg and 11km run leg. She fought back the tears when thanking all her fellow triathletes for their incredible support in this and earlier events, and you just had to look at the emotion on Dad Herman’s face to see what this finish meant to them both.

I closed my eyes after this race and suddenly found it was March 2016 and I was on my way to Bloemfontein to race in the African Paratriathlon Championships, what another incredible experience being my first race where I got to race amongst fellow Para triathletes, after having raced all my previous 7 races amongst able bodied athletes. I finished this race but unfortunately did not make the time cut off to receive a medal or ranking points.

A week later we are off to East London to race the ITU Paratriathlon opening race of the season. Here I found myself amongst some of the top athletes in the world, yes I asked myself the same question, how did I get to this point, I told you I blinked. I unfortunately did not finish this race as I got cut off on the cycle leg due to time, but I count this experience as more than having to finish a race but being part of one of the biggest growing sports currently, and finding friends in places I would never have expected. I realised at this race I need to not only “up my game” but meeting fellow wheelchair athletes, who have been doing this far longer than I have, encourages me to know that I will reach a place where, time in a race will no longer cut me off, and I will be racing for my personal bests to cross the finish line of future races.

I mean I have only been training for this type of paratriathlon racing for 11 months, and my arms are growing stronger by the day. There was a reason God made our legs stronger than our arms, to carry our body’s right. Don’t mess with me and my arms they are gaining some serious muscles unlike my legs!!

The quote I stated above, makes sense, we will never know when we are ready, I mean how does one define ready, therefore now seemed the right time

.

I could have told myself I was not ready for the races I did in Bloemfontein and East London, and waited maybe till next year, but I didn’t, my coach and I decided to go for it anyway, why, we would never have known if I was ready or not, but we did it, and even though I never got official points, a medal or crossed the finish line on the one, the“now” of it made sense, because the finish line and medal is not the complete journey, it’s just a sign of the conclusion of a race, it’s the courage to take on the “now moment” even when “ready” doesn’t fit into the picture.

What’s next on my race calendar, for the next few months, well in just over a week I take on the Suncity Sprint Triathlon, which is one of the last races of the season in South Africa. I have been looking into various races internationally and well always wanted to race the New York City Triathlon. Am I ready to go do my first international race out of South Africa, I have no idea but “now” is as good a time as any. I couldn’t think of a more exciting race at this point, I mean racing in the big apple, you know the city where people go find dreams right!!! Although am not looking for my dreams I am getting to live my dreams. So when is the now of this race, the 24^th July, 3 months’ time, which is 3 months to train, 3 months to close my eyes and know the now, and 3 months of finding some extra funds to do this race. If you feel at all like you would like to give funds towards my race costs for this race, please email me!!

"Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will. "

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

I had a dream last night that I had the word DETERMINATION tattooed on my forearm, I believe if we have a determined heart and spirit we can do anything we set our minds to, I can tell you there were moments in my races especially in the cycle part that all I wanted to do was stop, my arms were tired, I faced another hill to climb and then some wind to accompany the hill, and all I can muster up at those times is a deep felt belief of determination to keep going no matter what, even if I don’t feel ready!

Do you feel ready? No, well neither do I, but……………….

“It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” 
― Hugh Laurie

Check my website out we are daring to inspire and be strong : www.daringinspiringstrong.com