| The Measure of Success |
Olympian Carolyn Murray’s career in triathlon.
Carolyn Murray holding up the finishing tape at the 2008 Richards Bay World Cup.
When you come twenty-ninth at the Olympic Games, not many people take notice. In fact, there is often the disgruntled buzz about how Canadians should do better and “what happened with another one of our great athletes.” But the truth is, twenty-ninth at the biggest sporting event on the planet is really nothing to hang your head in shame about. Getting to that level of competition alone is a mark of courage and determination that few people ever muster in their lives. Murray started competing in triathlon over ten years ago. She had a strong background in endurance sports, which focused mainly on running. Too many laps on the track, however, had left her burned out, so a good friend convinced her to do a woman’s-only triathlon in Vancouver. Murray’s triathlon roots are in the age-group section, an exceedingly rare birthplace for future Olympians as the sport grows. It is a testament to the idea that dreams aren’t just reserved for kids. She made a move to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2001 and was coached by Barrie Shepley. Shortly thereafter she made a switch to work with Paul Regensburg at the National Triathlon Centre in an attempt to make the Olympic Games in Athens but did not meet the required standards. Despite countless hours of hard work, Murray was stuck. She was caught in a comfortable spot between good and great. It’s easy to become attached to a level of success that makes you better than most but still leaves your ego intact for not being the best. But time doesn’t stand still, and before long you realize that in order to move forward you have to vacate the comfort zone and move on to new challenges. So Murray did just that. In 2007 she realized that she was in that comfortable place and it was now or never. She moved forward and set in motion a most favourable series of events. First she moved to Australia and then to Europe, under the guidance of coach Darren Smith, who enforced the “Brett Sutton” methodology of training and work ethic, which involves an all-or-nothing approach. Athletes are required to move locations and become fully immersed in the program. Life takes on a Spartan structure of eating, sleeping, and drilling for miles in order to maximize performance. If you don’t crack mentally and you manage to stay physically healthy, there is a great chance you will make it. Murray credits this approach as being the defining criteria between making it and not making it. She admits that it’s also the same reason that made the decision to pack it in a year and a half later quite easy. Throughout her career, Murray struggled to gain support from the sports governing body. It is fair to say that organizations are largely focused on athlete success, and they have to have some objectivity in their decision-making processes. Murray was an athlete whose results were always on the bubble. She was never fully supported but did receive funding for events that she qualified for. Like many athletes she continually walked a fine line of garnering support and being left out—a tough position to be in. The political dramas involved in any sport can become tedious and frustrating, and Murray was no stranger to these highs and lows. Numerous times she found herself in fights over team selections and funding issues. Hours upon hours were spent filing appeals and submitting protests in order to get what was needed. The stress can take an unrecoverable mental toll. Team selection for the 2008 squad in Beijing couldn’t have been more difficult. Neither the men’s nor the women’s teams offered easy choices. Add to this the growing numbers that believe triathlon is becoming or should be a team sport and you have the makings of a political firestorm. And then one sunny day in South Africa Murray produced the kind of amazing result needed to edge past the other women. She did something nobody could possibly have predicted when she won the Richards Bay World Cup. Murray’s best prior finish in a World Cup was eighth, and it happened way back in 2005. She won Richards Bay with an inspired bike leg that put her back into the race. She took control of the far-trailing second pack and fiercely pulled them all back to the front group and back into the race. It took twenty-eight kilometres and a massive effort. “I had to work my butt off on the bike, and it paid off. It finally paid off,” said Murray. “I really had a terrible swim, and I didn’t realize how far back I was until I got to the bikes and there weren’t any left. I knew if I didn’t do anything to get up to the race it was over. I had to go for it. On the run I thought, this is game on. Today is my day, and I’m going for it.” In that one moment she took control of her Olympic dream and made it happen. In that one moment she showed why sport is a beautiful thing. She changed the course of her life forever and virtually guaranteed herself a position on the Olympic Team. “This is something I’ve been dreaming of forever,” said Murray at the finish line. Perhaps it was the external pressures and stressors in the year leading up to the games that made it tough to really enjoy the Olympic triathlon. Murray admits that the race itself was somewhat anticlimactic. “By the time I got to the start line I was tired and slightly burned out, and, to be honest, I was ready to move on.” When she racked her bike before heading out on the run it was indeed for the last time, and she knew it. When Murray crossed the line in Beijing, it signified the end of a lifelong quest and the start of new adventures. It’s trite to say that the biggest fears we face lie not in our current challenges but in the unknown future. The consistency and rhythm of day-to-day life are comforting, even when it means beating yourself up physically to compete in one of the world’s toughest endurance events. It’s the unknown that can scare the crap out of people. It takes guts to move on. Her sporting journey may not be celebrated entirely by the mainstream media, but it will indeed be defined by the underlying and pure values of sport itself, that moment when the pressure is on and the outcome you want lies solely in your hands. The decision to move forward into the realm of greatness and recognize an opportunity to seize it while you have the chance is the measure of an athlete’s success. We don’t get many such opportunities in life, and we are often not smart enough to grab them. Murray seized one in Richards Bay, and as a result she will always have Beijing. About the AuthorJasper Blake was the winner of 2006 Ironman Canada. |
