My home town of Morden, Manitoba has the longest running triathlon in Manitoba, Canada and I have been intrigued with the sport since I first volunteered and participated on a relay team (run leg) as a high school student.

For me it was a good experience but unfortunately I allowed myself to be limited from triathlon due to a fear of swimming.  Although I could swim (barely), I thought it was too difficult of a skill for me to learn properly; thus I couldn’t do it because “I am wasn’t a swimmer”.

This thinking error prevented me from getting involved in a sport which I was interested in. I had this belief blown out of the water by a friend of mine over a cup of coffee in Dharamsalla, India.

My friend had completed an IronMan and many other distances of triathlon so we began discussing the sport.  He sensed my excitement about participating in triathlon one day but I explained my reluctance with swimming and my belief that swimming was something I “couldn’t do”.  My friend asked “if you want to do the sport why don’t you learn how to swim?” to which I responded “yeah, I should do that someday”.  He then asserted “you just said should; why don’t you make a promise to yourself and do it?”

Right then and there I took on his challenge and set a goal to participate in a triathlon within the next few months. Click here to read more.. »