DGTri Athlete Report - Johanna Calleja

National Triathlon Championships

“Will I be in too much pain to finish the 10 km run?” Not quite the worry I thought I’d have the night before the National Championships.

About ten months before we had finally figured out how to completely eliminate the problem of chronic fatigue caused by artificial sweeteners. I had been training consistently in Chester, still under Dermot’s guidance, but also swimming with Chester Academy, doing some sessions with Chester Tri Club and going out cycling with friends from the club. I had some good results in triathlons and also across all three disciplines, so I started to become confident that on a good day, I could be one of the challengers for the championship title.

So I thought that the night before I would worry about whether or not I could perform well enough to be a serious contender for the title, rather than whether or not it would be possible for me to finish the 10 km run, usually my favourite part of a triathlon and where I often make up time over other competitors.

But an injury which developed around my ankle meant that I could only run twice in the three weeks leading up to the big day, and both times in significant pain both during and after the run. I supplemented the missed running sessions with aqua-jogging sessions in the pool or sea. Although I had believed in the effectiveness of aqua-jogging for some time, I was convinced that I would lose quite a lot of my running fitness, and slowly doubts started creeping in and I began to think there was no chance I could be one of the contenders, but consoled myself in the fact that at least if I was second Maltese female, I would qualify for the National Team.

But Dermot was having none of that! He has believed in me since before I even started doing triathlon and kept telling me that I shouldn’t give up when I had come so far and that I could still do it. A few days later I did my last hard brick session before the race (usually cycling followed by running – but in my case cycling followed by aqua-jogging!) and during this session, Dermot’s words of encouragement kept popping into my head and I thought “No, I won’t give up when I’ve come so far and trained so hard!!” I remembered the words of professional triathlete Mac Brown, who wrote in a blog that the finish line does not care about injuries and excuses and that as soon as you start making excuses with yourself for your performance, that is when you are defeated.
So a week later, after words of encouragements from my parents and sister, Dermot and other fellow athletes, I was on the swim start line and trying to remain as positive as I had felt in that last hard session. Off we went and after all the hits, kicks and being swum over at the start, I managed to get into a reasonable rhythm. A good swim for me, but not good enough to be close to the three leading girls!

Onto my bike amidst very welcome cheers from family and friends and I kept trying to work hard and convince myself that although I used to be quite a weak cyclist, I could now make up for lost time on the bike. Sure enough, towards the end of the cycle segment, I could clearly see that the gap between me and the girl in front of me was decreasing.
As I exited transition, I could see her running ahead of me and held on to the hope that I could move up into third place if my ankle did not play up too much. The first few kilometres were relatively pain-free, apart from a background pain which I could ignore enough to run at a reasonable pace, so I started feeling optimistic: “Maybe my ankle will be ok after all. Maybe I haven’t lost my running fitness. Maybe it’s true that the race isn’t over until the finish line.”

But after about 3 or 4 km, this all changed. Suddenly, every step I took became painful and I had to slow down just to be able to keep running. The gap between me and the girls in front was growing and the only thing I could think about now was to trying to get to the finish line and wondering whether I could make it. William ran past me and shouted encouragement and also told me that the gap between me and the girl behind me was quite big. Good reason to try to keep running – finish the race second Maltese and qualify for the national team!

The next big motivator came when Barry told me that Dermot had won his tenth title! We had spoken about this so many times and if he had fought to win so hard and succeeded, I could fight to finish the race!!
So as I ran slowly, feeling pain with each step I took, I thought about being on the national team, I thought about my swimming coach in Chester, Barry, telling me and Ide to be tough, I thought about Ide telling me all about her first Ironman and breaking through the pain barrier to get to the finish, I thought about Maria and Marica reminding me that pain is only temporary, and of course I looked forward to celebrating Dermot’s tenth win!!
I focused on getting to the finish line and just hoped no one would overtake me because no matter how badly I wanted to finish second, I just knew that the pain wouldn’t allow me to run any faster than I was running. And finally I could hear Dermot’s mother cheering me on and knew I was approaching the finish line. Then she was running next to me, forgetting her own tiredness and just supporting me. By this point, I knew I could make it. My parents and sister were cheering me on by the finish line, and I approached it smiling and laughing.
Crossing the finish line felt amazing, even more so when I realised that notwithstanding the fact that my run was about seven minutes slower than I would have expected on a good injury-free day, my time was still a pb by about three minutes! And it was amazing to run into Dermot’s arms to congratulate him on such a great win and to thank him for always supporting me and believing in me, even when I had stopped believing myself.
I would like to thank Dermot once again for being such a great coach and boyfriend. I would not have achieved so much without his support – I probably wouldn’t even have discovered triathlon without him – and even if sometimes the simplicity of running is appealing, the beauty of triathlon is now unbeatable in my books! I’d also like to thank my family for all their support, Barry and all at Chester Academy, my friends in the Chester Tri Club, Bill and Pam for their constant support, Giuseppe at Starbene shop, Joseph St. John and everyone who believed in me and supported me before and during the race. And thank you to all involved in organising such an enjoyable race!