“I’m a triathlete, which involves swimming, cycling and running, and I do it at a very competitive level. In the Netherlands you have really cool competitions with multiple divisions. The more races your team wins, the higher up you move and can even become national champions. I compete in the premier league, which is the highest level, with a team called Rogelli Trimates. It’s a really fun team because there are low-key people, but they are all very dedicated. Last year we came in second in the country so it was a really good year.
I started competing around 2013 and this will be my third year of premier league. I’ve always been a swimmer, but I didn’t have much talent. But I discovered I was very good at running long distances when I started doing triathlons. My dad was always a runner, and he did this one race every year so I decided to do that one too. I started training and it went surprisingly well. Then my swimming coach was also trying to become a professional triathlete at the time. I started thinking if I was good at running and could swim, why not buy a bike a try a triathlon.
‘The feeling of finishing a race is incredible’
You do it once and then you are hooked. The feeling of finishing a race is incredible. You swim for like 10 minutes, do half an hour of cycling and then 20 minutes of running. You use every single muscle in your body, first your arms and shoulders with swimming, then your legs with running and cycling. It’s not like anything else out there. But it can also be a real struggle if that moment of exhaustion comes a little too early.
There’s still some room for improvement. You can make tiny mistakes in these kinds of races, and once you make a mistake it’s over. And that can affect your whole team. It’s really interesting but also really hard. It’s taught me a lot about the way you approach things and your mindset. I’m not very disciplined with studies, my deadlines are crazy, but you learn how to handle the stress. It teaches you to get used to pressure. If only I could make my working days as efficient as my training, but I haven’t figured that out yet.”
Want to be featured in Humans of TU Delft? Or do you know someone with a good story to tell? Send us an e-mail at humansoftudelft@gmail.com
Heather Montague / Freelance writer
Comments are closed.