Fighting Therese!

Do you know that I recognized you? You started off by saying "like" to a few of our training or competition photos on Facebook, and then you became a silent member of a few discussion forums that my friends and I also participated in. Quietly, you were doing your classes. Don't worry, I'm not following you, nor am I investigating you. Only, I admire you out of the corner of my eye and watch your progress since you joined my triathlon club. In fact, since before that. Since the time I noticed that you were riding at the same time as us on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit, and the other time when you had also passed us while running on Mount Royal. And I'm not talking about swimming, because there, frankly, I don't remember going to the swimming pool without noticing you, often alone, sometimes with your girlfriend who seems to give you stuff, and always in the hallway from the end with all the necessary accessories. I noticed you because at first you wore a t-shirt to swim and it's rare (I even wondered if it was allowed). I also noticed you because, you may be discreet, but you were watching us all the time! In a way, you were a role model. The thing is, you're the role model.

Are you surprised to be a model? Wait a minute, you don't seem to know all my complexes and those of my gang of "crinqués". Don't you know that slow the same (and yes, I saw that you were swimming very slowly, sorry, but it doesn't matter!), slow the same I say, I would never have dared to try triathlon and that just for that, you have all my admiration? In fact, to be completely honest, I must say that I lie a little. The truth is that I was slower than you at swimming when I joined a triathlon club, but I was too proud, too silly, to show up for club training. It wasn't so much that I was afraid of revealing myself in all my slowness, but rather that I was afraid of slowing everyone down, and that I wanted to avoid hyperventilating on the edge of the swimming pool and having the air of a dying yak far from his native Tibet. Damn I'm sorry, because if I had trained with the club, it would have taken a lot less years (yes: years!) to make any progress. At the time, I didn't want to see that there was room for everyone and for all levels in a club (read " The group effect "). Finally, we will not refer to the past, but perhaps the reader will be able to avoid certain errors...

You are a model because you do everything you can to move forward in the water and in the past few months, you have gone from sickly tadpole to sunfish. You're not a trout yet, let alone a salmon, but wow, your business is improving. By the way, as I saw that you were reading, take the time to read "The world on the side of the trout" by Robert Lalonde; nothing to do with sport, but everything to do with the glasses one chooses to wear, with the gaze that one can sharpen to the point of discovering in oneself, landscapes as moving as a finish line of marathon.

You are a role model because you dared to start your triathlon season with a steel touring bike in the middle of all those carbon trinkets around you. I confess, of course, I confess, to have been relieved, even touched, when I saw you change your bike...Not for appearances (your old bike was more sympathetic to me), but because I know that despite your budget extremely tight as the father of a severely disabled child, you have found a way to make your life easier with a better adapted bike. That is passion for your sport. If I hate the race for consumption (ordinary races are already quite expensive as it is), I must admit that the specific equipment, even if it is basic, saves us a lot of energy. You get it, even if you feel guilty every time you spend on anything other than your family. Your family will thank you one day for thinking of you too. In fact, your tribe probably already does, but you're not listening, god damn it. So at least read me.

You are a model because you run fast as a dog. Do you think I'm being ironic? Give me your extra fifty pounds and we'll talk about my speed and my endurance! Don't you know yet how much harder it is for you than for me? And besides, you always come to training! You do your intervals! Hat. You should change your shoes though: they're finished! I know, you think you just bought them, but they wear out, shoes. Especially at your weight. You could hurt yourself… Finally, you are there, you run and you impress me. Every time we pass by you, we hear a gazelle from the peloton whispering; "He's a king, he never gives up", and that's one of the reasons why you have the admiration of the whole club. And here we are not talking about your girlfriend, she, she could overshadow you and today is your day, and it is also thanks to you that we know this other fighter who, at the base, you you may have followed to make sure you weren't mistreated. An angel.

You are a role model because you have very difficult but realistic goals. At first I thought the opposite (it's a bit also for you, by the way, that I wrote " Anything is possible…really? “), but I realize that you are so diligent, that you put in the hours and that you are building an impressive progression. Ok, you took the elevator a few times, took a few shortcuts that I don't find desirable, but in the end, you respect discipline and look good. Really beautiful. Be proud.

In fact, don't take this the wrong way, but you look like my aunt Thérèse (peace be upon her) whom I adored. My aunt Thérèse only had one functional eye (she had lost the other playing bolo, I believe, a toy from the days when children didn't wear protective helmets to go down the stairs), but that didn't stop her from walking faster than everyone else, from fixing the electrics or the plumbing herself while she was stirring spaghetti sauce, it didn't stop her from raising children, but above all, that did not prevent him from taking his bike every day despite his handicap. It's true that there weren't many "machines" passing through his row of Scott-Junction, but being able to ride with one eye is not glaring at the angle already dead. It is to look ahead, it is to concentrate on what is beautiful. It is to be alive.

Now that you know you're a role model, don't worry about it. Have you seen Michaël in the club? He, well, he's deaf. But he is truly "one of the boys" despite his other challenges. He's so "one of the boys" that I just told you he's deaf. It's crazy, huh? So sometimes, instead of listening to us brag about our times, seemingly without regard for those who are struggling to finish their race, we should rather "better" talk, get to know each other better. We would make new models! But we shouldn't blame ourselves, what we know about us and what brings us together, well that's sport. "You always have to see beyond, take everything for a window" said the poet Roland Giguère, so let's take sport for a window, take even our handicap for a window, and see beyond!