My Triathlon: Karen Lewis
To celebrate Women in Sport Week, each day we are sharing the experiences of some of the leaders in our community. This week you’ll get to meet club chairs, committee members, coaches, board members and technical officials, and find out more about their journey in triathlon.
Today, meet Karen Lewis, chairperson of Newry Triathlon Club…
I, like many I think, came to triathlon almost ‘accidentally’. I was never sporty at school (quite the opposite!) but I always loved the outdoors. A life changing illness affecting my son made me realise that I needed to improve my health and lifestyle for my family’s sake if nothing else. That led me take up walking and eventually running, as a way of developing fitness and also found ‘space’ for me and my head. I had been running for a few years and took the opportunity of joining running sessions which were being coached by Oliver Harkin, attended by Newry Triathlon Club. I quickly got to know a few people at the track sessions.
They were honestly the friendliest bunch of people I have ever met; welcoming, encouraging and supporting someone who didn’t even do their sport, I realised then that’s what is brilliant about triathlon – it is truly a community of people with shared interests. Of course, I had zero intention of ever doing a triathlon because I couldn’t swim, but I had for years said I’d love to learn to swim so that if I got injured and couldn’t run I could still do some exercise. Despite my protests (many and vocal!) I was eventually persuaded by the NTC running gang to join their ‘Coached to Crooked Lake’ programme – a programme they had run for a few years encouraging beginners to take up triathlon, culminating in them doing the Crooked Lake triathlon in June that year. I started attending pool sessions – reluctantly – and decided to join the Coached to Crooked Lake programme. The people I met on the Coached To Crooked Lake programme – participants and coaches – were like a new family. They encouraged and supported me from the very first session, and gave the best cheer as I crossed the finish line at the Crooked Lake triathlon. And that was that. Hooked.
Newry Triathlon Club’s plans for Women in Sport Week…
We’re kicking it off a little early by encouraging all our female members to join a local ‘dip’ this Sunday (6th March) in Carlingford Lough organised by a few local triathlete friends. NTC has a fantastic female representation in the club and we are going to celebrate that by profiling some of our female members each day of Women In Sport week. Look out for it on all our social media pages – we will be getting to know these female members and their triathlon journey a little better, and hopefully learning one or two fun facts about them along the way! We are also going to be promoting a number of female focused online sessions for our members, including the Triathlon Ireland seminar taking place during the week. On Saturday 12th we are organising a social run for female members – a chance to meet up, go for a run together, and grab a coffee (and cake!) after.
How long have you been a member of Newry Triathlon Club? What does being part of a club mean to you?
I still think of myself as a ‘newbie’! I joined Newry Triathlon Club in 2019. Being part of a club, and not just any club, Newry Triathlon Club, means everything to me when it comes to this sport. The club brings together people from all walks of life, all ages, all abilities – it’s that that I love the most. It genuinely does not matter what your ability is, or why you are doing triathlon, you are equally valued as a member. At NTC we are extremely lucky to have an amazing team of committed coaches. We have two fully coached pool sessions each week, and a coached running session at an athletics track. We are also extremely fortunate to have some of the best ‘playground’ for training right on our doorstep – we have Camlough Lake and Carlingford Lough to swim in; and we have the Mourne and Cooley mountains to run and cycle around. Being a member of the club gives focus and accountability to training because of our excellent coached sessions, but equally importantly gives tremendous support, both peer support and from the coaches. I love the friendships I’ve made with fellow club members, and I love meeting up with members at training sessions, races, and club events. Everything is easier when done with others!
What does being chairperson of your club involve?
As chairperson I have the honour of helping develop and grow our club for our members. I have the best team of people around me on the committee, everyone of whom has a huge role to play in helping us steer the club to make it the best it can be for our members. From a practical perspective, I chair all of our committee meetings – we generally meet at least once per month. I work with our club secretary, treasurer, and PRO on a continual basis to ensure we are keeping our members updated regularly, and that we are compliant with all our policies, legislative and TI requirements. I complete applications for grants; applying for race sanctions, help with event organising, and I regularly bring the coffee and cake for afterwards – that I feel is probably my most important role!!
A lot goes on behind the scenes, but that’s the same in every organisation, and it’s what is needed to make sure we’re doing the best for the members. From past experience, I was fully aware of how much time a role like this can take on, so I knew what I was getting into, and I have great support from my family which makes a huge difference. As a committee we work together to provide the best training sessions, club events, away days, and races for our members; we look to develop new initiatives to encourage new people into the sport in our area; and most recently are just launching our junior club, excited to develop young people within our sport. For the week that’s in it, I love that the NTC committee has an all female office bearing team – myself as Chair, Siobhan as Secretary, Shaunna as Treasurer; supported by other super women and of course plenty of super men!
You’ve also taken part in a Tri Leader programme, which is the first step on the coaching ladder. What did you learn from the programme? How do you feel taking part has helped you at your club training sessions?
I took part in the Tri Leader programme partly because as Chair I feel it is important to have a good understanding of as much about triathlon as possible. I don’t particularly have aspirations to be a coach – there are already lots of fantastic coaches out there – but I felt it was important to do the Tri Leader programme as a foundation to learn as much about the guidelines surrounding the activities we provide to our members, and to ensure the sessions we provide are the best they can be. I’ve previously done a LIRF (Leadership in Running Fitness) with Athletics NI which I felt gave me super insight into how to organise training sessions for runners, so I felt this was a similar programme for triathlon and would hopefully do the same. It was a fantastic course, a lot packed into one day, but an excellent balance between theory and fun practical sessions. One of the things I took away from the programme was the importance of not just being aware of our responsibilities as leaders, working with coaches at training events, but also the responsibility to make things fun and interesting for members to attend!
If you had to choose one discipline; swim, bike or run, which would you choose and why?
To get rid of – swimming! Jokes!! I’m greedy and want to say all three because that’s why we’re in this sport after all! Each discipline gives me something totally different and that’s why I love the sport. Swimming – I’m not a confident nor very competent swimmer, but whether it’s getting into the sea for a dip in the middle of winter with the snow falling on you, or lying on your back in the middle of Camlough Lake on a July evening with the sun shining on your face, it’s hard to not get the positive energy from water!
The bike takes you places quicker than running, you get to freewheel, and you get to go on different adventures! I find cycling is the discipline I have the least ‘head space’ on because there’s so much to concentrate on – traffic, road conditions, weather, not getting lost! That’s not always a bad thing, sometimes I love the focus the bike requires. However, I guess if I have to choose, I would probably still choose running, because I find running not necessarily the ‘easiest’ but it’s something I can do with very little planning, it’s not really weather dependent (no such thing as bad weather just bad choice of outfit type mentality!), and I can run either alone or with others. I can run short, long, off road, in the mountains, wherever; and if I feel bad starting a run I know I’ll never feel bad ending a run.
What lies ahead for Newry TC in 2022?
Great times!! After the devastation of having to cancel our flagship event, Top of the Mourne, with less than 2 weeks notice in 2021 due to Covid, we are super excited for this year’s race! The planning is well under way and we can’t wait to host this challenging race in the most stunning location. The pandemic has obviously caused a huge shift in the way we had to do things, and like many clubs we tried to engage our members in the virtual world as much as possible, but it’s hard to beat real life meet ups, whether it be training, racing or socialising. So for 2022 that’s what I’m hoping to see – lots more of actual people, real conversations, rather than “you’re on mute”! For our members, we are continuing to develop training sessions, club events, and club away days.
I love when you go to a race and there’s a big presence from a triathlon club there, all in their club gear racing and cheering each other on. This year we’ve selected a number of races which we’re encouraging as many members as possible to attend, to get that club buzz going. And most people who know me should know by now, I love the social side of triathlon and where I go, cake goes. We are very excited at the prospect of getting our junior triathlon club off the ground having recently affiliated with a junior section. It would be brilliant to see many more young people choose triathlon, and to see it become mainstream rather than a niche sport, or a sport you come to much later in life. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a young person’s confidence grow to take part in something they’d previously thought of as ‘impossible’, and watching juniors take part in races is something I recommend everyone should do – they face their fears, push themselves, and celebrate finish lines the way every adult wants to but probably doesn’t!
What advice would you give to those who are thinking about joining their tri club’s committee?
Get stuck in! If you want the best for your club, offer whatever you can – whether that’s being on the committee or volunteering time to marshal, giving your expertise in a particular area; just do it, your club needs you. Committees always need a mix of people – the ‘ideas’ people, the ‘doers’, the organisers, the ones who make sure the guidelines are followed, the ones with contacts in other clubs/organisations. I firmly believe that as long as your motivation is to advance the club and the experience for all members, then everyone has something to offer a committee.
