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Summary
On episode 119 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Diane, a blind triathlete whose goal setting approach has helped her take on Ironman distance races that would challenge anyone with full sight.
Diane was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a child and lost all of her sight by her mid 30s. Rather than accept the limits people kept setting for her, she rode her bike against doctor’s orders, tried synchronized swimming and diving, then in her 40s worked her way through skydiving, stock car racing, and rappelling before a friend talked her into her first triathlon at 47.
The conversation covers how she races guided (a tether for the swim, hand over hand contact for the run, and a tandem bike), the three tiered goal system she uses for every race, and the day heat stroke forced her to step off the course during her first Ironman attempt, and how she came to see that day as a win instead of a failure.
Links
- https://www.cnib.ca
- theblindtriathlete@outlook.com
Key Takeaways
- Vision and sight are not the same thing. Diane leans on a line from Helen Keller: the most pathetic person in the world is one who has sight but no vision. She lost her sight to retinitis pigmentosa but never lost her vision for what she could do.
- Diane’s parents were told to take away her bike. Her mother tried it for three days and gave in. Diane rode that bike until she was 18 without an accident because she only rode when conditions were safe.
- She built toward triathlon through a string of smaller challenges. A tandem skydive, a stock car drive, and a rappel down a 29 story building each came one year at a time before a friend suggested triathlon when Diane was 47.
- Guided racing depends on trust and technique, not luck. In the swim she and her guide are connected by a bungee tether so she can feel when she drifts off course. On the run she keeps a hand over her guide’s hand. On the tandem bike she sits in the stoker position in back, matching cadence so her balance does not throw off the steering.
- International rules require the same guide for the whole race, and that guide must be the same gender as the athlete. Diane has used different guides in different cities she has lived in, but never swaps mid race.
- Diane sets three goals for every race, not one. Goal one is a stretch, set higher than she thinks is possible. Goal two is her realistic SMART goal. Goal three is the minimum she can walk away from feeling good about if the day goes wrong, whether that is weather, a flat tire, or a tangled tether.
- She does not treat attainable and realistic as part of her main goal. She argues you cannot know what is attainable until you try it, so she saves those words for her backup goal and reserves her top goal for something above anything she has done before.
- Heat stroke forced her off the course during her first Ironman attempt. The forecast changed overnight from rain to 110 degree heat. She made it through the swim, the 112 mile bike, and half the marathon before her body stopped regulating its temperature, and she stepped off rather than risk a hospital visit.
- She reframed that DNF as a win a few days later. She had swum 4 kilometers, biked 180 kilometers through mountains, and run 21 kilometers in 14 hours of extreme heat, more than she had ever done in her life. She signed up to attempt the full Ironman distance again the following year.
“It’s about being healthy, right? And realizing that you’ve got more in you than you think you have.”
Diane