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The #TriAgainProject:
Going Mental and Coming Back: 3 years hiding in bed, a mental health advocacy campaign; Ironman Canada 2018
Going Mental and Coming Back: 3 years hiding in bed, a mental health advocacy campaign; Ironman Canada 2018
Asserting yourself is one of the most difficult aspects of dealing with mental health "issues" and paradoxically the most important for finding your way back to the life you want. The #TriAgainProject (TAP) was born out of this dilemma; we've been there, (not) done that and got the tshirt... so to speak.
Why not? Philosophy and clever (?) play-on-words possibilities aside, tri(athlon) is not simply three sports stuck together. The
For us, it's tri(athlon). Anxiety and depression got in the way and we wandered from the path towards our goal of finishing Ironman Canada. But we're back, with this. Tri. Again.
The #TriAgainProject Founder
The #TriAgainProject has been several years in the making; the dream of completing Ironman Canada has been almost twenty. I have a lifelong history of fighting mental health issues; although it wasn't until the past several years that life revealed just how far I needed to fall before I would experience the proverbial breaking point. Social anxiety reduced me to a cowering individual, hiding in bed most days and I'd lost touch with what "lights my heart on fire" - triathlon. Out of this "Implosion" as I now refer to it, was born The #TriAgainProject: to "Tri. Again." Return to my beloved sport, only this time with a vengence. For the first time I am ready; the peices are falling into place: industry connections, friends and family exeprts in web development, athelte management, bike mechanics; and the chance to be coached by an Olympic calibre coach.
Head Cheerleader
I'm so happy to have the support of my partner, Adam. He has experience as a UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) race bicycle mechanic. He has traveled all over the world, supporting the Canadian National Mountain Bike Team at the Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games, and the Olympics.
TAP Sponsored Athlete
Sharon is hardcore. She scratched her cornea in the Victoria half Ironman in 2016, and still finished. Eye patch and all. Mad respect for her. She has experienced half marathons and plans on doing a half Ironman distance triathlon in 2017 in the US.