At the end of my senior season, my high school swim coaches told me that I should train for triathlons now that my swimming career was over. My response was something along the lines of “yeah, right.” Why would I ever compete in a triathlon? I had about a million reasons why I would never, ever even think about training for one. Yes, I was captain of the swim team, but I was no Katie Ledecky. I was never a distance swimmer. I had never biked more than two miles on a cruiser. Running was out of the question: my twin brother runs division three cross country and track, and I wasn’t about to compete with his skill level. With all the new changes in my life that came with starting college, I didn’t really want to try anything else new, especially something as difficult as a triathlon. I definitely wouldn’t have time to go to practice. I had just about decided that my athletic career would come to a close as I began a new chapter of my life at Dartmouth.
Guess what? That idea lasted less than two weeks. Amidst all the confusion of orientation week, the unfathomable happened: I realized that I missed playing a sport. It had always provided me with an escape from the stress of school life. So when I found myself at the Tri Team’s booth at the club fair, despite the million reasons I had to not join the team, I signed myself up.
Admittedly, I was terrified at first, but I let those fears go and hit the ground running (literally). Practices give me an hour each day to stop stressing about my Econ problem set or my Geography midterm and instead focus on swimming, biking, or running with beginners and seasoned triathletes alike. Every practice presents a new and exciting challenge. Whether it’s trying to keep up with the track workout, figuring out how to work the spin bikes, making the intervals at swim practices, or just trying to remember everyone’s name, tri practices keep me on my toes. And I love it. As I transition into college life, everything is new. Yet tri team gives me the perfect balance of trying something that I never thought I would while still providing me with a constant in my life. I know that at every practice I can expect a challenge, but I can also expect a group of welcoming Dartmouth students and coaches who consistently make an effort to get to know me better. This constant community has made my transition into college life so much easier than I could ever have expected.
If I had to identify a point in time at which I knew that tri team was where I belonged, it would be our hike up Mt. Cardigan a few weeks ago. I pulled myself out from under several fluffy blankets at 8 AM on a chilly Sunday morning, met the team outside Robo, piled into a van and made the drive to the base of the mountain. As we began the hike, I didn’t talk much, but by the end I was sharing my life story with team members whose names I had just learned an hour beforehand. All the upperclassmen were so eager to know more about the ‘21s: not just where we were from and what dorm we were in, but what we planned on majoring in, our favorite things about Dartmouth, what we missed from home, and why we joined the triathlon team. As for the last question, I couldn’t tell you exactly what made me choose triathlon. Maybe it was my swim coaches’ suggestion, maybe it was my love for sports, or maybe it was a voice in my head asking me “why not?” All I know is that the million reasons for not joining the team were the only things that were stopping me. And they didn’t do a very good job.
Sbr,
Liz 🙂
About the Author
Liz is a ‘21 from Essex Fells, NJ. She enjoys iced coffee, baking, and going to the beach, and is an avid Collis pasta fan.
