Episode #148 - Belinda Granger, Challenge Family Pro Athlete Liaison & Retired Pro Triathlete - Stupid Questions with Seth Hill

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition, the Stupid Questions Podcast.
This is a really special one forme for a number of reasons that
I'm sure you'll start to figure out when she listened to it, but
is with Belinda Granger. She is a legend in the sport of
herself and has been involved inmany ways through the Challenge
Foundation, through these Phoenix camps that she talks
about, and so many other things.And being a professional.

(00:21):
Yeah, she's just a gem. Really awesome conversation.
She's super kind and shared fromthe heart with a number of
different things about her personal and family life.
Obviously triathlon and things in and around that surround this
topic. So thank you so much for Belinda
for coming on and I hope you guys really enjoyed this
conversation with Belinda Granger.
I get home today from the gym and I've got plenty of time.
I'm all ready to go and I openedour fridge to put some food in

(00:45):
because I did some shopping and the light didn't go on.
I'm thinking, oh shit, don't tell me our fridge is broken on
us. I realised very quickly that the
electricity was gone. So we had no electricity in the
house. I'm like, shit, what's
happening? It was fine this morning.
Oh no, Internet, God, I've got this podcast.
Ran down the street, saw that they're doing some work.
They said, sorry, the electricity is going to be up
till 3:30 this afternoon. I'm like, well, no one, no,

(01:06):
there's been no letter note. Well that's Australia Post's
fault. They should have told you.
I said, well, they didn't. Yeah.
So anyway, I've hooked up the computer to my phone and it's
what it seems to be great. But yeah, I'll be, I'll be
devastated if something happened, but it shouldn't.
It shouldn't happen. But this is the story of my life
right now. It's day.
One. No, it's all good.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, well, it's 10 AM for you too.
Like you already had your morning session and got some

(01:28):
emails done I'm sure. Yes, Yep.
So yeah, we're pretty good. But you know, I wanted to
because I knew it was going to be video.
I wanted to not have wet hair and blow drop.
I can't do anything so anyway. No, it's all good.
I literally just got to pull myself.
So I've got still got little raccoon eyes going on here, but
well, what? Time is it for you?
It is 5:00 PM. OK.
For you. See you the day.

(01:49):
Yeah, the day before. So you're on.
Thursday, yeah, Yep, you're ahead In the future I.
Love it always. Yeah.
Well, hey, First off, just thankyou so much for taking the time.
I know you're super busy. You got a lot going on, so
really appreciate you jumping on.
Thanks for being here. Look, no problem.
I, I don't, I tend not to do that many podcasts.
I used to do them a lot back in the day.

(02:10):
And then I, I don't know, life just got in the way.
And, but recently, yeah, I, I really enjoy talking to people,
particularly new people like yourself, talking about, you
know, subjects that are exceptionally close to my heart.
So it's a good thing. Yeah, a good deal.
Sweet. Well, my first question for you
is an introspective question andthat is who is Belinda?

(02:34):
Oh Gee whiz, that that's actually probably one of the
hardest questions I've ever beenasked.
And to do it straight from the gun.
Who is Belinda? Belinda is someone that is
extremely passionate about what she does and has never taken her
job for granted or never has never taken any opportunities

(02:58):
that that have come her way for granted.
I love what I do. I think I'm one of these rare
people in the world that actually got to make up their
job descriptions. So a lot of people don't realise
that when I started working for Challenge Family Challenge
wanted me to work for them and they didn't actually have a job
for me, but they sent me home and said, you make up your, the
job for you that you want to do and you'll do that.

(03:20):
I don't think there's many people in the world that get
that opportunity. So I, I'm, I'm doing what I love
to do, which is helping people. I'm extremely passionate about
professional triathlon and keeping as many professional
triathletes in a, in, in a job as possible.
And yeah, I, I'd like to think that I'm, I'm like the mother
hen of triathlon for the, for the professional men and women.

(03:44):
That's just one part of me. Another part of me is, is
obviously I'm I'm a wife, I'm a friend, I'm a puppy mum, a doggy
mum. I love life.
I love being fit, I love being healthy.
It it is such a huge part of my life.
I'm routine oriented so I love routine.
When I'm out of routine, I'm nota particularly nice person to

(04:06):
be. Around.
I've been there, yeah. Oh, and I think, you know, and I
think The funny thing is when you, when you've been an
athlete, regardless of whether you're a professional athlete or
an age group athlete, I think when you're an athlete, So
someone that likes to keep themselves fit and healthy,
someone that is competitive, hasa competitive drive, you're
attracted to the same sort of personality, same sort of
people. And I know all of my friends and
I've got an incredible tight knit group of girlfriends here

(04:29):
and we're all very, very similar.
And I don't know what I'd do without them.
So I when I say I'm a friend, I think it's an very important
part of me. I love my friends dearly and I
love being around them. And yeah, I'm also a sister.
I've got one sister, and she's exceptionally important to me as
well. And I think that's it.

(04:50):
I'm sure you know, as it goes, as this goes on, I'll think, oh,
I should have said that and I should have said that.
You can interrupt me at any timeand throw something that
basically. In a nutshell, in a nutshell,
that's me. But I'm a person that that will
go out of my way and then some to, to help anyone in the sport
of triathlon, not just triathlon, anyone in sport.
I don't know if you know, but I also have have this job that I

(05:12):
work for the Phoenix Foundation,Phoenix Futures camps.
And we take on young, young up and coming athletes in a, in a,
in an array of different sports.And that's probably the most
satisfying, rewarding job that I've ever had.
And again, same sort of deal, just helping and assisting young
athletes live their dream. And for me, that's incredibly

(05:34):
important. Tell me a little bit about the
like, what does it mean to be rewarding when you work with
these young kids? I mean, I'm sure you have quite
a bit of stories of moments thathave just like, really turned
into gems for you. Honestly, I, I, I literally get
goosebumps. So we recently we just put a
reel up or, or the Phoenix Foundation just put a reel up.
And it's of all the athletes that we've taken through these

(05:56):
camps over the years and where they are now, and some of them
are truly, they are at the top of their game.
They are world class. They're they're, they're our
next Olympians. They're breaking records in, in
their chosen sports. And to see these and they're
still kids in my eyes. I mean, I'm 54 now and a lot of

(06:17):
these, these athletes are in their late teens, early 20s now
and they are living their dream and they're doing it so
incredibly well. And just to watch what they're
achieving and know that I had a tiny, tiny little part in that,
in helping them realize what it takes, what it means to be a

(06:37):
professional athlete in their chosen sport.
It is without the doubt it, the most rewarding feeling ever.
I don't know if I'll ever quite get used to it.
And I feel incredibly lucky to be given the opportunity to be
able to do such a such a wonderful thing.
Yeah, Well, that really speaks to, I think one of the key

(07:00):
pieces of who you are that you spoke to in the beginning about
being sort of a mother hen, which I really appreciate.
My my mother was, is definitely the mother hen was friends with
all of my friends, just very energetic, outgoing.
You guys seem to have some of that in common.
So I'm curious for that character trait and just that
personality that you have that is so bright, bubbly and able to

(07:22):
just like bring people in. Where does that come from?
Is that is that nature? Is that nurture?
Yeah, that's a really good question.
And look, the first thing I do is look at my parents.
Obviously you are a product of your society, a product of your
upbringing. I I truly believe that I have
incredible parents. My mum and dad were very sporty
when they were young and they encouraged me to be very sporty.

(07:44):
And I think the most important thing that they taught me is
that, yes, I'm, I'm competitive by nature.
I don't know if that was them orwhether I was actually born with
that trait, but I'm, I compare myself to my sister who was also
a very talented sportsperson when she was younger, but she
was not competitive at all. That is the sole difference
between the two of us as sistersand where that came from, I

(08:05):
don't know. But one thing that my mum and
dad did teach me from very earlyon was there's nothing wrong
with being incredibly competitive, but just also be
respectful of your competition at all times and never, never
let the competition or the competitive side of you take
control of everything. I mean, it's important.
Obviously as an athlete, you want to win, you want to be the

(08:28):
best you can be, but not at the expense of others.
So I think that was something they installed at me from a very
young age and something that I've carried with me for a long
time, forever and I still do. And I think that's, you know, I
remember back when I used to be racing on the racecourse.
And I think there's that, that, that one clip, I remember when

(08:48):
Chrissy Wellington in Kerner, when she got those flat tyres
and I think Didi Grisbauer and Iwere the first ones to actually
catch her while she was on the side of the road.
And I remember almost feeling guilty that I didn't stop and
give her you some help because that's the sort of, even though
my husband's after, it's like, no, no, no, you're a competitor.

(09:08):
You were there to race, but I lived with I never really, I've
never really spoken about this to, to anyone apart from my
close friends that because she was also a training partner of
mine at the time. And I the the guilt I felt
because I didn't stop and help her, you know, I carried that
for quite a a while. And I know Rebecca Kate, who's
also a good friend of mine, she did end up stopping and and

(09:29):
throwing her a gas cylinder, which helped basically help
Chrissy get back in the race andwin the race.
And I remember thinking for a long time that should have been
me. She was my training partner.
Why didn't I help her? And I almost felt like the
competitiveness of me took over that day.
Is that a bad thing? I mean, there'll be 50, you

(09:51):
know, 5050% of people say no, no, you did the right thing.
You were racing a world championship.
There'll be others that say, oh,maybe she should have stopped
and helped. It's irrelevant.
It was a long time ago. But I remember that day
thinking, you know, next time I'm, I'm not going to do that.
I am going to help my fellow competitors.
And I've done it before. I think there'd been a few, a
couple of races after that whereI actually slowed down and

(10:11):
helped. I remember talking a girlfriend,
girlfriend of mine who was raised, we were racing together
and she was suffering badly. And I remember slowing down and
just pulling her through. And we end up both finishing
really well that day. But she came up to me at the end
and said, you know, if it wasn'tfor those words that you said in
my head, I think I would have pulled out.
So I think it's just been me forever.

(10:31):
I like helping people. All of my friends that I'm with
now, others are very similar. They're not takers, they're all
givers. And yeah, I think definitely it
was something that my parents installed in me from a very,
very young age is to to be awareof people around you and help
when they need help that. Was a beautiful story.

(10:52):
Thanks for sharing that. And I'm curious to know with the
conglomerate of these different character traits and pieces of
who you are, would you say that when you look at yourself as a
total, are you more like your mom or more like your dad?
Oh, that's a good one. And I can, I can answer this
almost immediately. I'm definitely more like my mom.
And I think that is why for a long time when I was younger, we

(11:15):
clashed a lot. So you know, obviously
throughout my teens and even into my early 20s, even though
my mum and I love each other dearly, we clashed with
personality because I think we were too closely matched.
Whereas I got on a lot closer tomy dad a lot.
I was a lot closer to my dad, got on with him a lot better.
My sister is more like my dad, but my mum is very competitive

(11:36):
by nature and she was also a very good swimmer back in the
day and then obviously took up diving and was very competitive
at that as well. My dad was also very
competitive. He was a, a rugby union player
and loved it. But I think he loved the
camaraderie and the team team like being part of a team more

(11:56):
than he actually loved to win. Whereas I was a little bit more
like mum in that, you know, I, Iwas very competitive.
I wanted, you know, nothing was ever good enough.
I always thought I could do better.
I get to the end of the race andI'd never quite be satisfied
thinking I could have given it alittle bit more.
And I look at my mum and that's how she is in every facet of
life. So, you know, obviously I'm, I'm

(12:17):
a lot older and rising now. So mom and I, we laugh about it
a lot. But I think definitely closer to
my mom in personality traits than I am to my dad.
But yeah, I, I, I like to think of it now as a nice mix of both.
Yeah, yeah, I, I appreciate you sharing that too, because it's,
it's really fascinating to me that you shared a little bit.
You know, when you start to get connected with your mom and dad

(12:37):
in a different way, you know, some of that wisdom age and
experience. Something I'm really fascinated
with is this concept that happens to, I don't want to say
everyone because some people arestill estranged and you see like
the the children and and the parents kind of have this just
disgruntled relationship for so long.
So for you, when or how did it happen that you started to see

(12:59):
them less as like, oh, this is mom and dad, you know, on the
pedestal that they're kind of over there and you kind of saw
them eye to eye. It's like, oh, they're another
human. They were a kid at one point.
Yeah, it's, it's interesting. I look back now, I distinctly
remember my mum's 40th birthday.It was a massive big deal.
And I remember thinking, oh, wow, mum's 40, she's so old now.

(13:20):
And you know, I remember when I turned 40, I thought I was still
a spring chicken. And it's, and it's, it's
interesting. Definitely back then I thought
that, you know, when my mum turned 40, they were just my
parents and they were old and they they did old people's
things. And it's only now that I look
back at that, I think, well, youknow, they were actually pretty
cool. I remember my mum's 40th, we

(13:43):
were all in this, in this beautiful.
I don't even know what it was along this Creek.
And my mum made this grand entrance by coming in in a
canoe. It was a two person canoe and
one of her best friends was, wasstill like actually paddling and
she was in the back of this canoe with all these streamers
and make this grand entrance into it.

(14:03):
I know I think back now and I think, shit, that was pretty
cool, mum. But you know, at the time all I
could think it was, Oh my gosh, my mum's 40s.
She's so old. And it's only when you look back
now as an older person yourself that you think, you know, I had
such an incredible childhood. We used to go camping every
weekend. We had a fantastic community
around us, group of people around us.
We were all sporty. Mum and dad spent most of my

(14:26):
childhood driving me to different sports, whether it be
T-ball, netball, water polo, athletics, swimming, because I
was one of these people that I could bored really quickly.
So every every couple of months I wanted to try something
different. Tennis one month and then you
know, netball the next and then athletics.
Then gymnastics was the big one.Gymnastics was, you know, that
was four days a week. So I think I was really lucky

(14:50):
that, you know, that my mum and dad loved me being active and
like wanted me to be active. But when did I actually, when,
when did we become best friends?Because that's what we are now.
I would say it was when I was when I actually turned 40.
So I reckon either late 30s, early 40s was when I think I
really had such a strong connection.

(15:12):
I mean, I've always had a strongconnection with my family.
There's only the four of us. There's only my mom and dad and
obviously myself and my sister Danielle.
And we've always been incrediblyclose.
But probably when I turned 40 was when I could really like I
wanted to go out to dinner with mom and dad.
I wanted to spend legitimately spend time with them.
This Christmas, we actually for the first time, we've rented

(15:35):
this insane property down near Byron Bay and it's just going to
be the six of us going. So my husband also my sister's
part, sister's partner. And even though you know, it's
December, it's it's months and months and months away.
We can't stop talking about it. I'm so we're.
We're all so. Excited to do it.
And, you know, if you had of asked me that 20 years ago,
there's no way I'd be spending Christmas, you know, down in the

(15:57):
hinterland of Byron with my parents.
So yeah, it is funny how things change, but I, I couldn't think
of anyone that I'd rather spend Christmas with.
And yeah, I, I love my family, really.
That's such a a gift and joy to have to be able to have those
moments as we get older. So I'm 32 and it probably was

(16:18):
around 26 or 27 when I started to kind of see my my mom for who
she was as an individual. Yeah, yeah.
And, and really started to like realize, oh, man, like she was a
little kid too. And she went through these
things. And you know what?
What are all parents, if I wouldsay 90% of all parents want to
better their lives for their kids, but to have your kid grow
up and then to for me to get to a point where I was able to kind

(16:40):
of circle back on some of the moments that I hated, you know,
as a kid thinking, oh, this is so dumb or oh, you're so crazy
mom, or this is useless. Getting to thank her for those
moments has been probably some of the closest bonding moments
we've been able to kind of sharewith each other.
Absolutely. And I wish that everybody could
experience that from as young age as possible at sometimes,
sometimes you have to get an education of the school of Hard

(17:02):
Knocks to figure out like, Oh, my parents actually knew a
little bit of what they were talking about.
Well, I think about my mum, you know, as I said, you know,
having a 40th birthday and having at that particular point
in time, you know, two daughters.
She was a full time teacher, my dad was a full time engineer.
And what the things that they were doing at that age was I, I
look back now and there's no wayI was doing, I think I was quite

(17:24):
successful at 40. But when I look at what they
achieved at that that same age and the responsibilities they
had on top of that, it's pretty damn impressive.
And I think sometimes it's, yeah, as you said, when you're a
child and you tend to have that,that focus, that focus just on
yourself as and everything's so unfair.
And I remember the funniest story for me is when I was very

(17:45):
young. And this is probably where my
mum and I clashed the most. All of my friends, this is
primary school, all of my friends were getting their ears
pierced. My mum, No, Belinda, sorry.
You're not getting your ears pierced till you're 16.
I'm like 16. I mean, when I was in primary
school, 16 was year 10 in high school.
I'm like, I'm not waiting that long.
This is insane. And I just said you're so
horrible. You're doing this on purpose
just to hurt me. I'm going to be the odd one out.

(18:06):
The only one without earrings. Anyway, she she did cave a
little and I was able to get them done when I turned 15.
But I'm such AI was such a cunning kid and I really was
handful back in the day. Not anymore.
Yeah, sure. I remember she distinctly said
you can go down to the hairdressers because that's
where you got your ears pierced back in the day and you can get
your ears pierced. But she never told me how many

(18:29):
times. So I went down and I got 4.
I got 2 sets of earrings. That's just just to say, huh?
Stick it to the man. I remember, I remember coming
home and she's like, what have you done?
I said you could get your ears pace.
I said, oh, no, no, you never you, you said I could get my
ears pace, but you never said how many times.
So, you know, that was me cheating the system.
So I was, I was, I was a bit of a brat of a kid, particularly

(18:53):
when it came to my mom. I was constantly trying to find
ways to, to, to make her angry. And we do.
I mean, we laugh about it now. And that's the greatest thing
about growing up. And now we can look back and
have a good chuckle about it. Yeah, for sure.
So I have read that you have said in the past that when you
were making the decision to kindof take triathlon seriously and

(19:15):
this be your professional career, you were a little bit
trepidatious in the in how your parents would support you.
And you said that they ended up being very supportive.
So I'd love to hear that story. But the question I'm really
curious to know is had they not been supportive at that time,
how do you think that would havechanged your path and direction?
That's, that's interesting. So first up, yes, I remember I'd

(19:35):
finished university. I, I went to university and
became a phys Ed teacher and I did teach phys Ed in school for
12 years. I was also competing at the same
time and I fell into triathlon by accident.
To be honest. It was, I was I think in the
second year of university and I looked in the mirror one day and
I did not like what I saw. I just saw a very unhealthy,

(19:58):
unfit individual and I'd never been like that my entire life.
And I think first two years uni just got away from me.
I also discovered, you know, going out and nightlife.
I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to that.
And you know, I liked it. But then I distinctly remember
waking up one day and just looking at myself and thinking,
I do not like what I'm, what I'mseeing right now.

(20:18):
And I thought, I need to find something that I, that I can
really wrap my arms around that I'm, it's going to make me want
to get out of bed in the morning.
And lead a fit and healthy lifestyle, which I'd done my
entire life. And triathlon was that sport.
So I only really took it up in the beginning just to get my
life back on track to get fit and healthy.
I, I never thought that I would be good at it.
I'd never ridden a bike before. I'd swum of course, and I'd run

(20:41):
my entire life, but I'd never ridden a bike and I loved it.
I fell in love with with it fromday dot.
And then I met my now husband Justin, who actually was
competing at a quite a high level at that stage.
And he said, you know, you couldactually be really good at this.
And if you wanted to, I think you could race professionally.
And I remember laughing at him thinking, don't be ridiculous.
I'm, you know, 22 years of age. I'm, it's gone that, that, that

(21:03):
ship sailed. And he said, no, no, no.
The great thing about triathlon is it's, it's an older person's
sport. And he was right.
And I remember when I told mum that I was going to be giving up
teaching. And she was a teacher for many,
many years. So she loved that I'd followed
her footsteps. And I thought, she's going to
hate this. She's going to give me every
reason not to do it. But she said, no, this is
amazing. Follow your dreams.

(21:24):
You should do it. You'll get to travel the world.
And that's all my mom ever wanted me to do is to to create
new experiences for myself, to meet new people, to travel to
new places, to experience new situations.
And she knew that this sport wasmy way of doing it.
So and they loved it because it gave them an excuse to come and
travel the world with me as well.
And they became my greatest advocates and they travelled the

(21:46):
world with me. My dad became my stats man.
He knew all my competition. If he was here now, he could
rattle off my results way betterthan I could.
I, I know what races I won, but I couldn't tell you times or
positions half the time. He knows it all.
And so they were incredibly supportive.
And we actually, for the first, for the first probably five or
six years, they were, they travelled to nearly all of my

(22:09):
races around the world with me. They travelled to Roth with me
at least 10 times. It's crazy.
So rolling back to the second part of that question, if they
hadn't have, I would have provedthem wrong because that was the
sort of stubborn mule I was. I would have said, well I'm
doing it anyway and I'm going tobe eating your words.
Yeah. Do you think it helped you be
more successful having that support or are you driven

(22:31):
enough? Do you think like you still
would have figured it out? Look, I still think I would
have, I would have figured it out.
It wouldn't have been as much fun.
I, I did have a good team aroundme.
Obviously my boyfriend at the time, my husband now, but my
boyfriend at the time, Justin was my biggest supporter and he
was incredible to have. But definitely, you know when
you go to a race and you've got your mum and dad cheering on

(22:53):
course? I remember once, I think it was
my second year at Roth or third year at Roth, I remember mum and
dad being there as I got off thebike and seeing their faces and
hearing them cheering me on and calling my name.
When you're, you know, running out to start the marathon, it's
no better feeling. And just looking at my dad, you
know, when you cross the finish line, regardless of whether I

(23:15):
won or not. But obviously, you know, if I
just won a race and to see the look on my dad's face, how proud
he was, it's, there's nothing like it.
And I got to experience that many, many times.
So yes, I still think I would have been as successful as I was
and I would have, I would have enjoyed the process.
But there's no doubt that it waseven more special because I was

(23:36):
able to share it with my with myparents.
Yeah, a deeper level of joy. So the coolest thing I'll just
share really quick to relate a little bit.
So I got to race it Worlds this year for 70.3 back in just a few
months ago in New Zealand and had the opportunity to have my
mom come. And that was her first
international trip ever. And so she was there and she she

(23:57):
thought for all intents and purposes, she thought that I was
the fastest man alive, you know,and she was just telling
everybody, oh, my son's going to, you know, So but it was such
a cool experience for me to comeout of the water, which I
already was like having such a beautiful day.
I don't know if you swam there before but it's just like clear
all the way down new. Zealand's one of my favorite
countries in the world. I absolutely adore it, love it.

(24:17):
I was literally crying as I was swimming because it's just, it
felt good. It was so beautiful.
And I come out and see my mom going on the bike, come back,
she's there again and she's screaming.
And yeah, that was just one of the the coolest feelings that
you can have. Like, I don't know if there is a
better feeling. Maybe one day, I don't know,
having kids or who knows what could happen.
But yeah, that was to to this point in my life, that's been

(24:37):
one of the greatest. Just to see their face and to
see how proud, I can only imagine how it does feel for
them as well. You know, I mean, they brought
you up, they created you, you know, you are a product of them.
And then for them to see you doing such incredible things,
whether you're racing as an age group or as a professional
athlete, I don't think it makes an ounce of difference to be
honest. You're still doing the same

(24:58):
thing and achieving the same goal.
And that's to get across that finish line.
And I, I think it must be such aspecial thing.
You know, my dad now he's 85 andhe's, he's, you know, he's had
two knee replacements, he's had a hip replacement.
He finds it hard to move around.And it's, it's difficult for me
at times to see him like this because he was the one that I
used to run with as a kid. He was the one that took me on

(25:19):
my first 5K run. He was the one that took me on
my first fun run. So I hear he had a huge role to
play in me getting into sport ingeneral, in particular running.
And to see him now struggling a bit.
But you know, I, I go and see them regularly 'cause they
don't, I live in Noosa, they live at Parisian beach.
It's about 1520 minute drive. So I'm, I'm often over there and

(25:40):
he'll, I'll go over there some days and he'll be on the
computer. He goes, oh, guess what?
I, he goes, I just Youtubed you.I just Youtubed Yeah.
Well, 2004 and I'm he's like, did you know that Belinda, you
can find your, you know how manyvideos there are on you, of you
and you on YouTube? I said no, Dad, I haven't.
I'm sure you know you again. It's he's still he's still
living the dream. And I've been retired since

(26:01):
2015, but he's still every now and again likes to go back and
see what his little girl did. And you know, that makes me feel
really good. Proud that it.
Yeah, we could share that together.
So the greatest gift I think that a a woman can have growing
up is to know that her father loves her.
Yeah, absolutely. And my daddy, my dad, I still
call him my daddy. My gosh, my dad is incredibly

(26:23):
special to me. He's.
Yeah, he's he's such a good man.And I yeah, I know, you know,
obviously he's 85. And I just even as he's a little
girl now, I want him to live forever.
And I still refuse to think of anything otherwise.
I think we all think that our parents are invincible.
And when you start to see at my age, when you start to see
little cracks start to develop, it's, you know, reality starts

(26:46):
to set in and it's I just want to, I want to rewind and go back
to it and do it again. Yeah, that's definitely a
different season of life. I've I've interviewed different
people across the spectrum from just getting the sport and the
sport, you know, at a point in life when they're, you know,
having kids and post kids empty nest.
So for you in this season of life, like, how is that like you

(27:07):
said, obviously it's it's a bit difficult, but does it change
the way that you perceive life and just like where you are and
the age that you are and how youwant to live the rest of your
remaining time on this earth? Yeah, that's, you know what?
It's something that I've, it's so interesting that you bring
that up right now because it is definitely something that I've
only just started questioning since the beginning of this

(27:29):
year. And for, for a variety of
reasons, obviously when my dad turns 85 in November, I turn 55.
So that's how it works. So I'm, I think there's only
like he, I think there's a handful of days in between our
birthdays and seeing him now, asI said, he's, he's less mobile
than he used to be. And then my mum unfortunately

(27:50):
has just come out of hospital. She's had a pretty big scare.
It's the first time that something like that's happened
to my mum. My mum's been invincible while
my dad's had to get, you know, knees replaced, hips replaced,
my mum's been rock solid. So to now have her, she was in
hospital for four nights. I think the last time she was in
hospital was when she gave birthto my sister, which is, you

(28:10):
know, my sister's 52. So that was a bit of a reality
call and a bit of a wake up call.
And I do spend a lot of time overseas.
I'm about to go in, in just under two weeks time to Europe
again for two months. And I never used to question it.
So what? That's just what I do.
I go to over there for two months, I work all the races, I
come home and then I go to Europe again for another month

(28:32):
towards the end of the year. And I never questioned that.
But now I'm starting to think, you know, what, can I afford to
be overseas for that amount of time with my parents at the age
they are and with things happening that are out of all of
our control? And I actually think that for
next year, I will start to just think, OK, I'm just going to go
over the races and come back. I'm not going to base myself in

(28:54):
Europe just because time is precious and life is precious.
And I want to be able to spend as much time as possible with my
mum and dad. And yeah, it's literally, this
is the first year that I that myhead's been thinking like this.
It's because every other year I just refuse to let it be part of
the equation. Yeah, yeah.

(29:15):
It becomes a part of reality. Yeah, it reminds me.
So I'll just tell this short story because I think it speaks
to what you're talking about andthe importance of it.
Unfortunately, have had death touch my family in a number of
ways since a relatively young age.
And, you know, there's obviouslya ton of negatives with that.
But the positives are I've realized, well, you never know

(29:36):
when today may be the last day. And it's it's you really don't
like life is so precious. For example, this a couple 2 no,
almost three years ago now, I was spending Christmas with my
wife's family. And so I came from a family
where pretty broken up across the US.
We didn't do a whole lot of reunions.
My wife's family, it's like 10 cousins and, you know, aunts and

(29:57):
uncles and they all get togetherand it's like this big affair.
Yeah. And I just I love that when I
got involved with her family. In fact, when we broke up for
all of like a week, the the biggest thing I think that I was
mourning was like the fact that I was losing this entire family
that I just. Absolutely, yeah.
So anyway, we, we did get married and we've been married
almost eight years. And so a few years ago was

(30:19):
spending Christmas with her family and her grandfather was
85. Now this man was fit and could
barefoot ski, you know, at 8085,just like farming man grew up on
a dairy farm, then had his own cattle farm and was a surgeon,
just really out of this world guy.
And so he had actually invested quite a bit of money, like in
one of my startups when I was just fresh out of college, like

(30:41):
asked him for money. He ran me through the wringer a
little bit. He gave me the money and just a
very awesome guy. Well, that business ended up
collapsing due to COVID and someother things and had to had to
tie up those ends. But there was a part of me for a
long time that was just like, man, like I feel like I burned
his cash and he and I told him that several times, but he was

(31:03):
always saying like, hey, like that was your education.
I was happy to supply some of that education and he was just a
real mentor in that way. Well, this Christmas we were
spending some time with him and the day before I was just this
really cool experience. One of these girls that lived in
the valley where they live had ared tailed hawk and she'd or
Falcon, excuse me, and she did falconry so she could like send
it off when it back. Anyway, I we had this really

(31:23):
special day where we got to interact with this Falcon and
he's like holding in. I got a really cool video of
him, just one of the coolest videos ever.
Have to send it to you if you care to see it.
So neat. But that evening was supposed to
go back on the farm to go pick something up from him and we
didn't. And I should back up just a
little bit right before we left the house that afternoon to go

(31:46):
run some errands before we're going to come back.
I felt like telling him just onemore time, like, hey, like, just
want to say like, thank you so much for all you've done for me.
And there was a group of people and truthfully, like I was a
little embarrassed to like trying to approach him in that
setting for whatever reason, I didn't say it.
Well, we left and that evening didn't end up coming back until
like midnight. And he had died in like this

(32:08):
tragic tractor accident. And and it was just like, it hit
me square in the eyes because like I had lost my father even
when I was relatively young and I experienced that.
And from this moment and he I don't think that he would call
him pop up. I don't think that he would have
been anymore, like, upset. He was in a real good place.

(32:28):
Like, really loved the life thathe was living and went quickly
in the way that he did. But I just realized from that
moment on, like, I am never going to let these moments go by
again without telling people that because you truly never
know. Like, it can be.
Life is just so valuable and so fragile.
Yeah. So not to totally dumb down the
conversation. No, but you know, as you said,

(32:50):
it's, I think particularly when you have a great relationship
with your parents, you put them up on a pedestal and they are
Superman and Superwoman. And particularly with my parents
where they've always taught me, you know, no excuses, get stuck,
get shit done, just do it. Don't procrastinate, don't make
excuses. Particularly when it came to
work ethic and, and my sporting career.

(33:13):
And they've always been like that.
And so I think of them as being invincible.
And as I said, it's only since we've started to see a little
few cracks as they've gotten older that you start to see that
they are fragile just like everyother human being on this planet
and that they're not going to behere forever.
And I, I still, I almost chucklewhen I say that because I don't

(33:34):
know if I truly, but still, I actually do believe it.
I think there's still that part of me, that little, that little
girl that has this ideal that your parents live forever.
And we know they don't so and particularly when like you said
about your grandpop, he was still doing things that that a
50 year old would do. It's hard to see him as as
someone that's in his 80s or 90sor all you know is that this is

(33:57):
this incredible man that's done so much for you and it wasn't
supposed to be his time to go. And I just now with this scare
with my mum, which we are still waiting for the results on.
And I think regardless of what those results are, I've already
said, you know, I've changed, I've changed my tune and I think
I want to spend some more time here now.
And for example, I mean, when we, when I finished up here,

(34:20):
I'm, we're going over to mum anddad's to go and spend some time
with them and see them because Iknow I go away in, in a, in a
couple of weeks time. And I want to spend as much time
as I can with them now. Yeah.
And that goes, that goes with everyone.
It's not just my parents. It's it's all of my friends.
I just don't. It's so easy.
Life often we let life get in the way.
We we get. I'm one of the worst offenders.

(34:40):
And I think that's where my husband's been so great.
He grounds me, calms me down. I, I am one of these
personalities that is always up.You know, when I'm at an event,
I run on fumes and I, I, but I love it because I love what I'm
doing. But I'm, you know, I think with
personality is like that. When they're up, they're up.
They're up, they're up. But when they come crashing
down, my God, do they crash downhard.
And that's me. And there are often times when,

(35:02):
yeah, I, I wake up in the morning.
I mean, this probably happens once in a blue moon, but I wake
up and I just don't want to. I don't want to face the day.
I just want to stay in bed and let that day go because it's
just for whatever reason, it's just all too much.
And I, I don't think that's a bad thing.
I think, I think we often need to talk about this.
I don't think we talk about it'sIt's still taboo because as

(35:23):
athletes we're supposed to always be in control, always
know what we're doing, determined, strong.
Always motivated. Always motivated, everything
always falls into place and it'sjust that's, it's garbage.
It's not like that at all. If anything, I think we're,
we're, we're the reverse in thatwe, we set ourselves and, and we
think others set such high expectations for us that often

(35:46):
these expectations are virtuallyimpossible.
And it's what we what we put on ourselves in this.
Every now and again, I just, youknow, that alarm will go off and
I'll say, you know what? I just, I just want it.
I want a day out and I'll turn my phone off, I'll turn the
Internet off and I will, I won'tleave the house.
I just, I'll stay in bed, I'll have a sleep in and then I just,
I just let that day go and that's all I need to.

(36:06):
And then I reset and I realized come up Linda, you're being
silly. Just get on.
But life's not that tough. It's you know, nothing crazy is
happening here. Just get on.
But yeah, I, I think sometimes you see yourself as a failure if
you have those feelings and you go through those moments in
life. But it's not a failure.
I think it's actually, I think you're being strong.
If you can recognise that sometimes you know what, life

(36:28):
just doesn't feel that great. But going back to because I I
have a bad habit instead of going off or down a pathway.
No, you're fine. But you know, with, with my
parents, yeah, I think literallythis is the first year I've
really started to realize that they're not going to be around
forever and that I need to make every day and every second
count. Are you a spiritual person?

(36:54):
You know what define spiritual? I mean, I'm not, I, I, I'm not
really that religious, but spiritual, you know, yes.
I, I sometimes find myself when,when I'm in one of these low
moments or I'm not feeling so great about life or about myself
or about where I am, You know, I, I do talk to myself.
Am I talking to me or am I talking to something else,

(37:14):
something else that I think is out there?
You know, I, I, I don't know. But there are definitely times
when I will talk to myself or I will talk to someone when I'm
asking them what the hell is going on right now?
Why am I not in control? Why do I feel like this?
So yeah, I think in a way I am, I am a spiritual person.

(37:34):
But yeah, I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't do
that much spiritual work, so to speak.
I think. I think maybe as I've gotten
older I do a little bit more. I think as you get older and you
realise that life's not so blackand white, it's every colour
under the sun. It's great.

(37:55):
I think when I was, when I was young, when I was a young girl
in my mid to late 20s, when I late 20s was when I really
started to become like triathlonwas my sole focus.
There was nothing else. I just wanted to be the best
Triathle in the world. I wanted to win as many races as
I could possibly win and it was black and white, you know, I, I
got up every morning, I trained and I went to races and I raced

(38:18):
and that was my life and it was that simple.
And it wasn't till probably my 40s when I was still racing.
I was still racing then. But then obviously I wasn't
doing as well as I used to. I wasn't winning races.
In fact I wasn't even making it onto the podium.
You start to realize that the the the bigger picture and that
there was more out there to thanjust winning or podium podium in

(38:41):
at races. But it took me a long time.
I reckon I was a bit of a lake bloomer when it came to that.
Yeah, Yeah. It's interesting you share that
because so I grew up in AI wouldn't say like super
religious home, but parents werereligious.
They were first generation Christian.
And what was interesting is going through that lifestyle.
And so my my parents being firstgeneration was my dad.

(39:02):
Before that, his grandmother converted him to Christianity
and he had been like on the streets doing the drugs thing,
selling them. And mom was just kind of, you
know, neither here nor there, but dad really like pushed that
and he battled like with this, Idon't know, inner struggle or
whatever you want to call it fora long time to like kind of
leave some of those bad habits behind and try to make a better

(39:23):
life. And to give him a lot of credit,
like he came from way worse of asituation than I did and was
able to create a life and opportunities that unfortunately
he's not here to see. But the fact that he gave those
to me and my sisters is just like, hats off to him.
It's, it's really great to have that.
But all that to say, when I got into triathlon, I was actually
shocked with a lot of the parallels and similarities

(39:45):
between organized religion and the religion of triathlon,
because it's like, we're not going to church, we're going to
these races. That's our community.
You have the dogmatic super fundamentalist, like I get my
training and no matter what, rah, rah, rah.
And they kind of run over peopleand you have the other people
are like, I'm here for the experience and the joy of they
have no idea. They don't care about the time.

(40:05):
They're just here to love peopleand to be loved on and.
They're humans are so habituallysimilar in so many different
ways, like we're all looking forto fulfill our life.
And it's some of these basic needs.
It's like community food and shelter.
Like what else do you really need?
And triathlon offers a lot of that and that discipline too.
Absolutely. Yeah, Yep, Yep.
That routine, that discipline, it's such AI mean all of I think

(40:29):
about, I think about what triathlon as a sport has given
me. And all of my friends are
triathletes or were triathletes or still are triathletes.
My parents love the sport dearly.
I met my husband through the sport of triathlon.
So everything, I mean, I mean, the house I'm living in now was
because of the sport of triathlon.
It's so I literally owe everything to the sport and what

(40:52):
it's given me. And I think maybe that's why my
job as pro liaison is my way of giving back to something that
has given me so much. And I think even though there
are days when I, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say I
love my job every day, that would be fibbing.
There are days when I do get frustrated and there are days
where I get incredibly frustrated with professional
athletes in the way that they conduct themselves.

(41:14):
But generally speaking, you know, 99% of the time I love
what I do. And I, I receive emails from pro
athletes and I, and you know, myhusband gets rolls his eyes
because he gets sick of me reading them out.
But so many beautiful athletes that I deal with on a daily
basis that are just living the dream and living the dream that

(41:34):
I had once and I love, I love. The more I can get to do that
and to experience what I did then, then my job is done.
I've succeeded. Given your experience with being
a professional triathlete, even the world before that to what
you do now with Challenge and the Phoenix, what's it called?
Phoenix, Phoenix pitches. Yeah, Phoenix.
Pitches, yeah. Given those things, in

(41:58):
consideration for all of your experience, what do you think is
the most important thing you've ever done in your life?
Oh my gosh, The most important thing. yo-yo, that's hard.
Oh, that's probably the trickiest question I've ever

(42:18):
been asked in my life. It's ridiculous.
I love it. Take all the time you need.
Yeah, well, you know what, I don't think there's one.
I don't think I can name just one thing that's been the most
important. I think what's most important to
me is that I continue working with my arms open and and

(42:43):
offering my experience and my knowledge to to those that want
it. I have a young girl that I'm
going to be talking to next weekand she's she's a young girl
that lives in Thailand. She was on one of our Phoenix
Futures camps in Phuket a coupleof years ago.
Absolutely. You know, when you meet a young
person that's wise beyond their young years.

(43:03):
I think she was only 15 at this camp.
She and she's a couple of years old now, obviously.
But you, you meet these and I always, at every camp, I meet at
least one or two and I have to keep asking them what their age
is because they're so insanely wise for their young years.
I'm like, how can you be this wise when you've only been on
the planet for 15 years? It's crazy.
But I think when you meet these young, the athletes that we get

(43:27):
at these Phoenix camps, they areso incredibly special.
Tim Ford, who runs the camps, hedoes these videos when they're
choosing the, the young athletesto come on these camps, they,
they fill in in a quite a, a significant application form.
But then they have these interviews, online interviews.
And so the final pick comes downto Tim.
So we know we are getting some pretty special young athletes,

(43:49):
but they're special. And then you've got this little,
next little group. And, and I look at this and I, I
remember saying to this young girl, you know, you are a, you
are a special girl. She, she, she has this empathy
for, for people that she's around or the athletes that
she's around. And I, I watched her on camp and
I watched her giving help to allof these other athletes that

(44:10):
she'd never met before, that most of these athletes don't
know each other. They meet for the first time and
they bond almost immediately. And to see her, you know, a
girl, a young girl that should be nervous herself, but there
she is helping others. And, and I remember saying to
the end of camp, I said, you've got what it takes you.
You're an incredibly special young human.
And I said, you know what, even if you don't end up making it in

(44:32):
your sport, you are going to make it in life because you have
got something incredibly special, which I've only seen in
a handful of of young, young people.
And I'm talking to her next weekbecause she's obviously at a
point where she needs someone totalk to for her next steps, for
her next moves. She's not not in a situation

(44:52):
where she doesn't know what she's what she wants or whether
she's good enough. So we are going to have a talk
next week. And I think that's probably the
best thing that that the most important thing that I can do
that I have done in the past that I will continue to do is
make time, make time for those people that need it, whether
they're my friends who are having issues at home or whether
they're these these young athletes that I meet that are

(45:13):
trying to, you know, navigate the way of life and the next
steps of becoming an athlete or,or whatever they decide to do is
just taking the time. We're all busy, we're all tired.
That's life these days. But I think as long as I keep
giving myself, keep keep giving myself to these to these young

(45:34):
athletes, to these people that need me and giving them the time
that they deserve and listening.I think it's the biggest thing
that goes on now is people don'tlisten anymore.
It's really difficult because even when we're in the moment
and we're talking to people, half the time your brain's not
there half the time you're thinking about.
One of my clubs for dinner. Tonight, oh, I've got to
remember to send that e-mail. I forgot to ring my doctor.

(45:54):
Whatever, you know, we're all guilty of it.
So I think the most important thing that I've ever done and
will continue to do is to give my time and to truly give my my
full being 100% hearing the lot,not to be present and to
actually listen. So I'm a huge believer.

(46:14):
I'm glad you showed that becauseI'm a huge believer in that just
from my background. Like there's the concept that
God created the world or existence with words.
And then we have that same breath and words.
And like whether you're religious or not, the concept of
the words that we speak have theability to give life or
literally to give death. Like on the biological level.

(46:35):
Because when you feel bad, cortisol levels go up.
Like you can go to the science, but when you share that about,
you know, taking her aside and telling her, you know, whether
you're making this sport or not,like you're going somewhere.
When I turn around and look at my past, I can pinpoint I could
sit down and write probably a journal full of a couple pages
of key people who have sat me down, whether intentionally or

(46:57):
not intentionally. And just like these little small
things, like one of my professors in college said he's
this is a time when I really wanted to make something of
myself and really started to take opportunity and, and really
try to grasp it for the first time because I realized like I
had a lot of opportunity after living overseas for year a year,
I just realized, wow, like I have so much to be thankful for.

(47:17):
Anyway, this guy sat me down when I got back and he's like,
hey, like you're going to big places.
And he wasn't like super descript or anything, but that
is stuck with me and these otherpieces of just affirmations when
I turn around, it's like if I, if my past is just a big open
warehouse that's black, like there's these people holding
these candles and like, it's those moments that have defined

(47:37):
how I view myself. And then like how I want to like
impact others. So the fact that you're sharing
that and you do that with these kids, like I would, I would
agree like that is the most important thing.
It's not how big of a company that we make.
It's like those small moments that we offer to someone that
become a point of belief and a moment of motivation or a source
of just gratitude and love as they go through life.

(47:59):
Like the. It's those things that during
World War Two, I'm sure that people pulled out of like that
one memory or that one thought of that person that they loved
or whatever. And like, it's those little
small things that fuel hope and allow you to go through an Iron
Man. Like it's just, yeah.
I totally agree. And and I've even found myself
over the last couple of years, which I never used to do is even

(48:20):
when I'm walking in the street and I remember the other day I
was walking up the street, I just got a coffee and these two
older women and when I say older, they were just meaning
they were just older than me andthey were dressed so
beautifully. And normally, you know, I would
just walk straight past them. I wouldn't say a word.
I've got no reason to say anything to them, but I just
felt compelled. I just had to pull them up and

(48:42):
just say, you know what, you ladies look spectacular and you
could just see the look on her face.
I'm I'm not saying that my wordschange their life.
They are probably already in a good place, but I wish as humans
that we do that a little bit more often.
It's like when you get great service.
I never used, you know, when youget sick, you, you go to a
restaurant, you get great service and then you'll get a

(49:03):
can you do this Google, Google review or you whatever.
And I never, I used to delete, delete, but now I find myself
taking the time. If I'm really happy with
somewhere and I and I get something like this, then I
will, I will jump online and I will say, you know what, I just
had one of the best experiences of my life.
It was fantastic. Service was incredible and yes,
it takes a little bit of time, but not only does it make you

(49:23):
feel good for doing something nice, you know that it's going
to make their day and and they're going to feel
appreciated. So in my eyes, it's a win win
for everyone. And I just wish sometimes we'd
take a little bit more time to, to just slow down and appreciate
things and to tell, but you know, and to give people
compliments when they deserve them.
It takes 2 seconds and you walk away feeling good about yourself

(49:45):
and they walk away feeling amazing.
And you just, yeah, I, I think with all the rubbish that, you
know, I turn on the news. I, I, I refuse to turn on news
anymore because it's, it's just so horrendous these days.
And I just look at all the things that are going on around
the world and I just think, Oh my God, I wish.
I don't want to live in a perfect world, perfect, boring.
I, I'm not after perfect perfection, but I just want to

(50:07):
live in a world that is nice andnice to each other.
And I think if we could all justbe a little bit nice, if
everyone just went out and was alittle bit nicer to someone
every day, could you imagine thechange in the world it would be?
It'd be perfect. It would not wouldn't be
perfect. It'd be a beautiful place.
Yeah, no, I would. I went to this really amazing
for one of my friends sent me tothis three day retreat where we

(50:30):
had probably 40-50 people from all over the world, different
walks of life, from a girl who had been through like literally
60 foster homes growing up to somebody who was a very
successful CEO of a very large company.
And the whole point of the weekend was to get people to
open up and share. And what I realized was even the

(50:51):
people who I kind of, you know, we, we have these judgments we
kind of cast on people. We're profiling those.
Yeah. After three days of getting to
know these people's stories, youcan't help but not fall in love
with people. When you take even the, when you
take even 15 seconds to really just look at someone in the eye,
like there's even science that shows the longer you look at
someone in the eye, your body, you start releasing these

(51:13):
chemicals, which are like love chemicals to where you start to
create a bond with that person. So it's like if you do that and
you hear them for what they havegone through and what they want,
like no one is coming out of thewomb wanting to kill the world
and just drown people And, and you know, like nobody.
But because of the lack of like you're saying, the lack of
kindness, the lack of love, you can turn into a monster.

(51:35):
But it even at the hardest person on this Earth, I think
that has a soft core that can bereached if they're able to like
have that, that love like bestowed upon them or so.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, it's incredible. And just listening to people's
stories, a little while ago I had to do some voice overs for a
documentary on, you know, the triathlete Els visa.

(51:58):
And for most people she's she's obviously from the Netherlands
and she's a very good triathlete, long distance
triathlete. And she her story is remarkable
where she almost, you know, she was in a shipwreck in Bali, out
on the off Bali. Sorry, in in they were going
scuba diving. Yeah.
And bowed on to overturned and, you know, people died.

(52:18):
It was horrific. And, you know, she basically
swam for a life. And because this, this
documentary mentary which Red Bull is is bringing out, goes
through it from beginning to end.
And I, I can't, I cried maybe 3 or 4 times watching this
documentary because it was just so unbelievable to, to learn

(52:40):
step by step what elves and her and her friend had, had been
through, had gone through. And to look at where elves is
now today as an athlete and, anda doctor.
I mean, what she's achieved is mind blowing.
And, but, and I'd, I'd heard about a story before, you know,
I knew about the shipwreck, blah, blah, blah.
But to actually go through it piece by piece, almost hour by
hour, what she went through and to see how she's come out of it

(53:04):
the other side. And it gave me a whole new.
I mean, I already respected and loved else, but then now I just,
I, you know, I, I almost, I put her on a pedestal and think, Oh
my gosh, this woman is incredible.
And yeah, you're right. It's because I, I actually sat
down and, and took the time to, to, to learn her story.
I mean, if I sat down, say with Lionel Sanders and went through

(53:25):
his, his full story of when he started what, when he was young,
when he went through university,how he became a triathlete, same
deal. I mean, it's just it's
remarkable. And these are these are two
standout stories, obviously, of people that have overcome or
defied death, so to speak. But everyone's got a story and
no one's done it easy. There's no one out there that's

(53:47):
that's got to where they are nowwithout having to climb
mountains or have things that have taken them out for a while.
But yeah, you're right. I think again, it comes back to
actually sitting down and truly listening to to this a human
story, to a person's story. And you're right you that the

(54:07):
bonds that you create so quicklyas humans, it's, it's quite
remarkable. Yeah, it is remarkable.
How has your definition for, andI'm not looking for any
particular like in sport or anything, but just in general to
be successful. How has that definition changed
for you since you came into adulthood to where you stand

(54:30):
today? Yeah, it definitely.
I'd like to say that the successI've had has has given me an
incredible amount of confidence.But I also think that I, I went
into the sport with probably more confidence than what than
what IA normal human would, because at the end of the day, I

(54:51):
came in as an age group athlete with no inclination of, of
turning pro, not realizing that I was actually quite talented.
It was someone else that told meand I thought, well, I've got
nothing to lose. And I think I was able to have
that attitude because the my parents had brought me up to be
a confident young woman where there was no such word as
impossible. Impossible just did not exist in

(55:12):
my in in my household growing up, everything was possible.
My mum and dad taught me that itwas only impossible if you if
you thought it would be, if you thought it was impossible.
And that just as she said. And that's just not the way I
brought up, I bring up my daughters.
So both my sister and I are not scared to try anything.

(55:33):
We'll, it doesn't matter what itis, we'll try and I'm not.
I think on the flip side of that, I'm also not scared of
failure. I will say that probably since
I've been in my early 50s, I don't like to fail.
So I do find myself playing it alittle safer.
And what I mean by that is obviously I'm sure you've heard

(55:55):
of high rocks the whole world, sort of high rocks.
It's a big deal. Who hasn't?
Yeah, every, every retired athlete triathlete I know is
doing high rocks. My gyms doing high rocks.
My friends, friends are doing high rocks.
And I train for high rocks practically every day because my
gym does it. But have I competed in it?
And the answer is new. And if I'm to be rudely honest,

(56:17):
if I'm to be brutally honest, why haven't I?
Because we, I've had ample opportunity.
We have it here on we've had it here in Brisbane and we've had
it in Sydney. We've got high rocks is
everywhere in Australia. I it may be that because I was,
I have been so successful and and I have done well in my sport
and everything that I've ever done am IA little bit scared

(56:38):
that maybe I won't be successfulat this because of my age.
I don't know and I've never, I've never use my age as an
excuse to not try something likeif you see me in the gym, I'll
try whatever they asked me to try.
But for some reason I I won't, Iwon't line up on a High Rock
start line and I, I'm not sure IA 100% know the answer.

(57:00):
Is it because I'm scared that I don't have it anymore or that
I'm not going to be competitive?I don't want to be
run-of-the-mill. It's not the way that my mum and
dad brought me up. They brought me up to to to do,
to be the best I can be. And that doesn't mean
necessarily being mean winning. It just to means to be the best
that you can possibly be. And I'm probably I'm I'm
probably. Being very no, you're fine.

(57:21):
And I'm like, like, But, you know, sometimes the thoughts
that come into a human's head don't always need to make sense.
And sometimes they contradict each other.
And I think, you know, there aretimes, particularly when it
comes to this hierarchy, that I do contradict myself because I,
I say I'm not scared. I've got confidence, which I
think I do. I'm, I'm confident.
I know I can speak in front of acrowd.

(57:43):
It doesn't matter. I've never met anyone before.
I could speak in front of 10,000people and it wouldn't make me
nervous. But lining up on another start
line in a new sport when I haven't for so long, I mean, I
haven't raced since 2015. I'd be lying if I said I there
wasn't a little bit of me that thinks maybe I might not be
competitive and I'm not sure I can.

(58:04):
Handle it well, Belinda, I thinkit's time to sign up and push
yourself a little bit. I've.
Just I've just put it on the line now.
Oh gosh, yeah. But it's it's an interesting
concept, isn't it? Because you know, I know I'm
competitive and I know even whenI do gym classes and we have
little we set little goals or little semi competitions and I

(58:25):
still give my everything. So I know that that competitive
spirits always there. I don't think that dies just
when you retire. And I know when I go to all my
classes, I never go to class andjust phone it in.
I go to class and I give 100% every single time.
I don't just go there and go through the motions.
So I know I've still got great work ethic.
I don't miss sessions. I don't sleep in that often.

(58:47):
And I, yeah, I give 100%. So I've got no reason to believe
really why I couldn't be competitive.
But I don't know. It's I'm a little bit, I'm a
little bit scared. Yeah.
No, that's OK. I'm glad that you're sharing
that. It's really interesting to me
because you know, like I said, I'm 32, I'll be 33 this year,
have been doing the sport, you know what, 4 1/2 five years now.

(59:10):
And for me growing up, like I placed a lot of probably too
much stock in like, this is gonna sound kind of funny, but
like I grew up and my mom hung out with a lot of younger women
and a lot of them were like telling me all the time, like,
oh, you have beautiful eyelashesand you're good looking and all
the stuff. And so I grew up thinking that I

(59:31):
am relatively good looking and there's some positives to that
and there's some negatives to that.
But I had a lot of the, I had a lot of stock and value placed in
this like, Oh, I'm going to be handsome when I get older and
I'm going to be athletic when I get older.
And as I start to get older now,I wonder because I realize, like
beauty is fleeting. It only lasts for so long,
right? And athletics only can last for

(59:52):
so long. Like you can always be athletic,
but you know you we all taper off and then we come to the
sunset of our of our lives and. With the ability and I've
thought a lot about like what, what is it going to look like as
I start to get older? And luckily I don't think I have
to worry about feeling that for quite a while, But I'm curious
like for you, like you are aheadof me bet like you are, you

(01:00:13):
don't want to sound weird, but like you are a beautiful woman
and and you've been a professional athlete.
So like, how has that been for you as you've gotten older and
you've come to this place where you're like, well, and now I'm a
little afraid to do high rocks because I don't know if I can
be. Athletic because I don't know if
I've got it anymore. And oh, you, you've nailed it.
It. It's true.
And and I'm, I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and say
I, I love getting old. I hate it.

(01:00:35):
I mean, think about what I do for a living.
All of my friends, I'm the oldest of all of my friends.
So we have this awesome group here.
We call us ourselves the Noosa Run babes.
And you know, Beth Mckenzie's inthis group, Jamie L Jacobs,
who's married to Pete Jacobs. She's in this group and all of
these magnificent women. Like there's, I think there's
like 10 of us and we run every Sunday.

(01:00:57):
We're very, very close. We, we see each other nearly
every day because we're at some training session together.
We go away together. We're all going, we're all going
away this weekend down to the Gold Coast to, to see Fisher,
who was a DJI already know I'm going to be one of the oldest
ones at this bloody festival because, you know, 54 still
going to hang out with 20 year olds.

(01:01:17):
And, you know, with my job, I'm hanging out with young athletes
all the time. I mean, Milan Agnew, who's going
to be staying with me at the championship, she's 2425.
And she, yes, she's a professional athlete, but she's
a friend, a good friend. And all of these athletes are
young. And I'd be lying if I, if I said

(01:01:39):
to you that I, I, I, when I'm around them, I act their age.
I'm, I am 2526 years of age in my head and I don't think of
myself when I'm around all thesepeople.
I never think of myself as the, as the oldest or 54.
But then, you know, there are times when I'm at home or when
I'm recovering from a session orgetting up the next morning,
walking down stairs for breakfast and I'm like, Oh my

(01:02:00):
God, I really am 54 because thisis really hurting me and I hate
it. I, I don't want to get old.
And when I said I just don't, I don't, I know I'm going to get
old as in 545556. I don't mind that part.
I just don't want to get old. So I'm never going to let it
define me. I'm never going to let it stop

(01:02:21):
me doing something apart from Horux.
But you know, I, I never use it.I never use as an excuse.
I, I still, I one of the I was talking today because I went to
another concert. I went and saw Fred again when
he came to the Gold Coast last year.
And I went with my husband and we were, we got there and it was

(01:02:41):
just the two of us. And I, honestly, everyone around
us was in there was either teenagers or in their early 20s.
And it was the first time I looked around on Justin.
I started laughing like look at this, look at the 2 old grandma
and grandpa with all these youngsters.
But we had the best time of our life because I think these
youngsters look at us and think how cool are they?
You know, it's obvious they're alot older than us, but they're
here dancing and having the besttime.

(01:03:02):
And we met this young group and there was one guy and he was the
most beautiful young boy. He was about he was about 6 foot
8 giant. And he said to my husband, he
goes, you're tiny. You want to get up on my
shoulders. You'll get a better view.
So much your husband jumped up on this guy's shoulders that he
never met before and spent like half an hour up on this guy's
shoulders and I'm like down there.
This is the so I think, yeah, itdefinitely there are times when

(01:03:28):
I, I do, I get, I get, I wouldn't go as far as saying
depressed, but I definitely get sad because life just seems to
go so quickly. And I'm still, I still enjoy it
so much and there's still so much I want to do that I just
wish we could we could put it onhold for one year, just hold it
for a year. Funny story.
Last year, every year I celebrate my birth birthday,

(01:03:50):
Laguna Phuket Triathlon. It's one of my favorite places
in the world. I think this year will be my
25th time something absurd goingto Phuket.
I raced it 12 times and I've been working the event ever
since and I absolutely love it. It's in November end of the year
people that put the race on a spectacular and I always
celebrate my been celebrating mybirthday there for forever.

(01:04:12):
What seems like forever. And they treat me like royalty
because they all know it's my birthday.
And I remember going there last year and it was my birthday.
And I'm saying, telling everyone, oh, my God, I'm
turning 55. I'm 55.
This is crazy. This is halfway to 60.
I cannot even comprehend this. And then everyone's looking and
they said, oh, were you born in 1969?
I thought you were born 1970. I said, yeah, I'm 1970.

(01:04:33):
They said, well, you're not turning 55, you're 54.
And the relief like I can't tellI'm I started crying the relief
I'm only 54. I'm still closer to 50 than I am
to 60 yes. But now, of course, this this
year's come around and I'm goingto poop head of course again
this year and I'll be celebrating my birthday again,
but this time it's back to you. I'm 55.
Oh. My God, I've had a.

(01:04:55):
Whole year to get used to it. Oh absolutely.
And I, you know, I don't think, I mean, you ask anyone that
works with me, I'm never, I'm never going to act whatever I'm
supposed to act. I am who I am.
And yeah, I, you know, I've got,I've got 2 Cocker spaniels, MY2
babies and they're both 11. And it's quite incredible the
difference in their behaviour. We've got one that's slightly

(01:05:17):
older. She's two months older than the
other. Her name's Mackie and she, she's
still very fit dog for age, but she acts like an 11 year old.
The other one, Millie, who is apparently she's my dog.
Everyone knows she's turning. She's 11 and she'll be turning
12 at the end of this year and she's a puppy.
She acts like a puppy. She looks like a puppy.
She still plays with the toys, still pulls the, you know, pulls

(01:05:39):
the lead with me with a mouth. Yeah, and I.
Just said Yep, this is my dog because this is me.
This is always going to be me. Yeah, that's amazing.
Oh, man. So let me ask you one final
question. You obviously spend a lot of
time with younger athletes and especially ones that are coming
up in the sport. So you have the opportunity to

(01:06:00):
give them guidance and just share your experiences, which I
think is so cool. But when they hear your story,
what do you want them to feel? Because I think, I think feeling
is what really the core is at the core of motivation.
When someone can give you a story, you take away what you
felt from that or you watch something or listen to something
and they that's what fuels us. So when people hear your story,

(01:06:20):
especially the younger generation, what do you want
them to feel? Just never be afraid of, of
trying. You know, one thing I often say
to, to professional athletes, and this goes across everything.
I think it's especially with sponsors, with asking races for
pro assistance. I always say, hey, always ask,
always ask, always reach for thestars.

(01:06:42):
Because the worst, I mean the worst thing someone can say to
you is no. And, and what does no do?
No doesn't kill you. It doesn't stop you doing what
you want to do. And the one thing I want from
these athletes is to don't ever put a lid or, or a or a or a
stopper on, on what you can do and what you can achieve.
So keep reaching, keep trying and never, never say, Oh, well,

(01:07:08):
I'm not even going to bother asking because I know the answer
is going to be no. Always ask.
You always ask. And you know, I've got athletes
now that that e-mail me not for for work reasons, not to get
into races, not to ask what sortof pro package I can offer them
for a race, etcetera. They ask for my opinion, For
example, if they're changing coaches or managers, what do I

(01:07:29):
think? Who would I go with?
Should I stay with the same one I've got?
Should I, should I move on? Can I do this on my own?
And I, I love getting those emails and I love getting those
messages. I love having those phone calls
because I think the one thing that I've, that I've got with
these athletes is their respect.And they know that I'm going to
give them a truthful answer and that, that I have their best

(01:07:49):
interests at heart. So when I give information or
when I give advice to these athletes, they know that that
it's for them and them alone andthat I truly mean what I say.
And yeah, the one, the one bit of advice from Meister is I
never thought I was going to be a professional.
I thought I thought I was going to be a teacher for the rest of
my life. So don't ever settle is what I'm

(01:08:11):
going to say, because I could have easily said, you know what,
I'm just quite happy to do triathlon to lose a few kilos,
which is what I originally did it for because I didn't like
what I looked at saw when I looked in the mirror and, you
know, realized I was quite good at it, but even then wasn't
convinced. But to see where I started and
where my mindset was then and tosee where I finished, you know,
at the end of the, I think I hada almost a 20 year career, I

(01:08:33):
think 18 year career or something ridiculous.
And I won way more titles than I'd ever given myself a chance
to, to win. I think it was 15 Iron Man
titles in the end. So, and there's no way if you
had have asked me back when I first started, when I decided to
start racing professionally, that that would be my life.

(01:08:55):
So every triathlete now, I thinkthe best story I can give, all
the best, best advice is just toreach for the stars and then
some. And don't ever be, don't ever be
willing to just settle and always ask.
Always ask. Yeah, always never be afraid of
the no. Yeah, that's a very good
entrepreneurial advice, honestly.

(01:09:17):
Like I I think of that. That's the stories that I've
heard. And it's usually, yeah, you, you
miss 100% of the shots you don'ttake like that.
That old ad, that just beautifultruth.
You know, and I think The thing is, as humans, we don't like
feeling like we've been let downor, you know, it knows people
don't like to hear the word. No, we don't.
It's just it's a horrible word. No, but I think as athletes, you

(01:09:38):
learn very quickly that no, doesn't it's not as as intense
as, as, as we think it is. You know, I still, even, even
now, I, I, I go into battery athletes all the time when we've
for, I'll just give an example for, you know, if we've got
rooms to give to athletes or propackages, even though I know
I've used up all the pro packages that a particular race
will give me, if I've got athletes still asking that I

(01:10:00):
think are worthy, I will still, even though I know there's none,
no, no packages left. I will still go to the race
director or to, to the boss of the whoever's in charge.
And I'll still ask for more, probably knowing they're going
to say no, but I'll still ask because you never know.
I mean, I've, I've been in situations when they've said,
you know what, Yep, we'll give you, we'll give you 2 more

(01:10:22):
packages. Then I can go back to the
athletes. But if that athlete hadn't
asked, that athlete hadn't asked, I wouldn't have bothered
doing it. So it's, I just think, you know,
always ask because the worst thing someone can say is no, but
you know, worse off than where you were if you didn't ask at
all. So I think for all up and coming
pro athletes, it's, it's, it's worth, it's worth it.

(01:10:42):
So, yeah, and you know, this is one of the most important things
we teach these these young athletes at these Phoenix camps
as we teach them not just that, but we teach them what it takes
to be a professional athlete because I think for most
athletes, they think they just have to train well and race
well. And there's not much more to it.
But you know, as well as I do, particularly in this day and age

(01:11:03):
with social media and technology, there's much more to
it. And the demands are so much more
than what they were back when I was racing.
And so I think these camps, I wish, I wish I could have been
on one of these camps when I wasjust turning pro because we, we
teach them every facet of what it takes to be a professional in
your chosen sport. It's brilliant.

(01:11:24):
I I love it. Very well articulated and it has
been a joy and an honour gettingto know you.
I always love going into these interviews because I tried to do
a little bit of research, but not too much to where I can
start to get to know the person.And so again, human, I always
have a little bit of an idea of like who I think they're going
to be like. But you've exceeded
expectations. I love talking to you.

(01:11:46):
I would love to have you on again in the future, but thank
you so much for taking the time to thank you.
Share from your heart. Yeah.
And, you know, it's just lovely.Obviously I've done podcasts
before, but it's basically talking about triathlon and
triathlon alone racing, which, you know, is great.
We all, we all love that too. But it's just it's so it's so
it's a lot closer to my heart totalk about the, the heavy, the

(01:12:08):
heavier hitting stuff these days.
I mean, maybe because I'm a little older and wiser.
So I. I I get.
So much out of this sort of conversation.
Yeah. So it's wonderful.
And I know listeners will too aswell.
I look, I continue, I'm in the in this game for the long haul.
So hopefully we'll continue to reach more and more people.
But I just, yeah, I think these these conversations are the ones
that really make the difference and make some long lasting

(01:12:30):
impact. So thank you so much for taking
the time. No, thank you, darling, Thank
you. Thank you so much from the
bottom of my heart to Belinda for coming on, sharing time with
me to share about her life and the things that she's going
through, the things she has experienced, and just the values
and character traits that she holds.
It's really special to me to be able to learn about people and

(01:12:52):
get to know them on this podcast.
So I just want to leave you withthe last few words that she was
sharing at the end. And that is don't be afraid to
ask. Don't put a cap on yourself and
do not settle. Remember that you miss 100% of
the shots that you do not take. If you made to this point the
podcast, thank you so much for being here.
Check out the show notes. If you want to sign up for a
newsletter and any of the sponsor information is down

(01:13:15):
there, make sure to check that out.
If you are on YouTube, if you could like comment, subscribe,
turn on the notification bell continues to help grow the
podcast on that platform. And if you are listening on
Spotify or Apple podcast, if youcould drop a review would really
appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here
and I will catch you guys in thenext one.
Peace.

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Episode #148 - Belinda Granger, Challenge Family Pro Athlete Liaison & Retired Pro Triathlete

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode #148 - Belinda Granger, Challenge Family Pro Athlete Liaison & Retired Pro Triathlete