Triathlon: Sharon Donnelly

February 28, 2005

EnduranceRadio.com

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Welcome back to www.EnduranceRadio.com.  Thanks for joining us for another interview today.  Our guest today is going to be Sharon Donnelly.  She’s a three time Canadian Triathlon champion and also a 1999 Pan-American Games champion.  We’re going to be talking to her about what’s she’s doing now in terms of Race Director and coaching and that sort of thing.

First thing, the Race of the Day today is going to be actually Sharon’s race; it’s the Limestone Charity Triathlon and its May 29 ^th, 2005.  You can find out more about this triathlon by clicking on the Race of the Day link right below the link to this audio interview.

So we’re going to be right back to speak with Sharon Donnelly in about 30 seconds.

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<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Sharon thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us at www.EnduranceRadio.com, I appreciate it.”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Thank you very much for inviting me Tim.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well I see on your website you’ve been pretty busy since you retired from pro-triathlon.  What have you been up to lately?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Yeah, I’ve been too busy actually.  They talk about the transition period; it’s absolutely true.  I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs actually, kind of almost depressed because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, what I wanted to focus on, so I basically said yes to sort of everything that came my way.  So I’m very happy, but I’m kind of regretting some things; it is a challenge, some of the things of being a Race Director and working on some coaching certification and I’m currently coaching a few athletes, Athletes’ Rep is taking a lot of time.  I’m also teaching some phys-ed classes at a local college in town and the list goes on.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well that’s great.   Was it a difficult transition of training so hard and with these goals in mind in terms of ultimate achievements, and I imagine you’re not training quite as hard now as you were when you were a pro?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “No, I’m not training as much as I was because of the time commitments of many things that I’ve taken on.  With respect to the difficulty, the toughest time was actually, I guess, October – November, my last race was in August, and October was sort of difficult, we were purchasing a house and then also I’m so goal driven and everything was geared towards trying to make the latest Olympic team and I didn’t allow myself to think past that, because I didn’t want to have any second thoughts, and so I was, ‘What am I doing?  I’ve made no goals, no plans.’  I knew that things would come along, but in my whole life I had not been so goalless, so it was a challenge.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Talk about your race that you’re the Race Director of.  Did you come up with that idea to launch to this, or were you asked to be the Race Director?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “I was asked to be the Race Director actually for this race.  I’d heard about the possibility of hosting it in the summer and I never thought anything about it, and then when I came back home to Kingston after some traveling of course, September – October some people approached and asked if I wanted to be the Race Director and I said I really didn’t know and that I didn’t want to commit to anything, and then by the time that October came around I felt, ‘Oh, I need to take on something.  I really need something to focus on,’ and the Base Commander of Canadian Forces Base Kingston came forward and asked me if I could be the Race Director and to really make this a great first race with a file to follow for future Race Directors and possibly even to expand across the Canadian Forces.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now you’ve been involved as participant in a lot of different races, now being on the Race Director side, has it been learning experience?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “The learning curve is like straight up.  It’s an incredible learning experience, and the biggest thing is just, I guess, all the paperwork that’s required for the certification process.  But in a way it’s great because it forces you to look at every single detail, and being an athlete and knowing how the best races are run I am going into those every single details.  I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for someone organizing one of these without the race experience.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Yes, because you know what you liked at all these different races and I imagine you’re probably putting the best of the best all together for this one.”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Yes; also this is mainly hosted by the Canadian Forces Base Kingston and most of the people on my committee are military members and I cannot imagine them organizing this without the race knowledge.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well, let’s switch over to talking about the coaching that you’ve doing.  A lot of our listeners are veteran triathletes, but a lot are also brand newbies as well.  What are some of the common questions that you’re getting from your clients?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “I only have a few right now, because I’m really wanting to start very slow and a lot of them already know me so I’ve already been giving them feedback over the past year or so.  The biggest thing is the programming, they want to be able to follow the program within their constraints, their time constraints, how can they get to the level or the goals that they want to achieve but they have 15 hours available, or 10 hours available, ‘How can I best manage the program in that time?’ and that’s the biggest challenge.  Also what I do is I hold a bike session once a week in a local gym and that really counts off for some of these athletes as well.  Also one of the biggest ones is helping them a little bit with their diets and then trying to develop that plan that really takes into account their daily schedule.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now when you were achieving these great things when you were in triathlon was it difficult for you to keep balance in your life?  Did you feel like you were training all the time and was that a tough balancing act to always do?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Everything’s hard when you’re racing or competing, or even in a job at a certain level because you’re going to have make sacrifices, and the only really difficulty I had was the fact that my husband was back at home with my friends and the time you’d like to spend with the people that you care about, because I would go away for certain races and also too for long period of time, up to two months, to train in a warmer environment in the winter; that was the difficulty.  However, on the other hand, because I was going away for that two months and making those sacrifices, I really make sure that was going to be well worth the time.  I didn’t take it for granted.” 

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well I want to ask you about some of the aspects that you think contributed to your great success in the sport, but we need to take a quick break.  We’ll be right back to continue our conversation with Sharon Donnelly.”

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<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Sharon, you’ve achieved a level of success that few people have in endurance sports, and in a lot of sports actually for that matter.  Do you have anything that you can share with us that you would give as your keys to the success that you’ve had?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “I guess a few things that I would say would be; just never give up.  I see so many people that have had possibly more talent than myself, but yet they gave up just, I think, too early for many reasons.  The thing is just to never give up.  You never know when your time will come; never give up on your goal that you set.  You just can’t say when that opportunity will come, so that’s the number one.  Then making sure that you reset those goals; I’m going through that transition period and it is crucial, just crucial.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Talk about what you mean when you saying, ‘Reset those goals’.”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “For example, you set certain goals and you can’t just rest on, ‘Oh, I achieved something.’  You have to go, ‘Yeah, I achieved that.  Well what can I do to better myself?  What’s the next step?  What can I do now?’ and it can be as big or as small as you want.  I find myself starting at square one again now because a lot of these goals I’m having do are non-sports and definitely non-personal related.  I’m making goals that as an athlete that are based around you, based around yourself as an athlete.  Now my goals are; I have taken in a wide, far more varied audience.  It’s not just geared around myself, so it’s a transition.  I’m excited about it.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Are you surprised at all with current events about the doping issue coming into triathlon?  Do you think that this is something new, or is this something that’s always been there and we’re just finding out some of these athletes now?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “You know what, as an athlete I never really paid attention to it, I just raced and I felt that, ‘I’m going to do the best I can,’ and I didn’t really think about what my competitors could, or possibly might be doing.  But I think I personally feel that our sport has been pretty clean, I really do.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Do you think theres more pressure now, or some reason, that the limited amount of dollars for pro athletes in triathlon, they feel like they need to get that extra edge?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Well we’ve always had limited dollars in triathlon, or else it is increasing but at the upper end, and I think it’s more a personal choice.  I don’t think you can generalize at all.  I do like the fact that the testing methods are getting better.  Also too, there never used to be the testing at such races as Ironman, that’s only been in the past four or five years I believe, and then in our races, the World Cups and whatnot of course, we’re on the Olympic schedule, we have to follow the rules of WADA, and even WADA, I mean to be coming out with surprise tests at Olympics, making sure that almost caught up and almost up with the drugs and being able to keep up with that, so I think that’s really good is that we’re really being a lot better with the testing.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “The sport has grown quite a bit in the last five or six years and you’re got more and more amateurs participating in these sports.  Do you see that continuing?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Oh yes, and I think its really great that we’re opening our arms to such races like Xterra and other races like Aquasan, because that is going to keep people interested in the triathlon and the multi-sports.  People say, ‘Well, we’re kind of loosing sight and focus of triathlon.’  I don’t think so because it’s still connected to the sport of triathlon.  The more we can get people involved in that umbrella of triathlon, whatever form it may be, I think that’s great because Xterra; somebody might want to do a triathlon but they only have a mountain bike, well here’s an Xterra.  I think its going to continue to grow.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Through your coaching the schools, do you think the industry as a whole is doing enough to promote this in our schools and get those next athletes for the next generation?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “I think we can improve a lot there.  I’m not sure how the United States is doing it, they usually have a better school system as it is, that’s more of a high end sports program.  I think that we could be doing a better job fitness wise period doing sports into schools; doing sports, basic fitness and I think it would be great that the more you can introduce every kind of sport into schools would be better, triathlon included in there, but I’d like to see any kind of fitness, whether its triathlon or anything, more in schools.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well, we’re just about out of time now but we’ll finish up with looking at what’s ahead for you in the next year or two.”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Basically, come this spring, I’m going to be having this race coming up.  I really want to start redirecting and refocusing more specifically towards my coaching and motivational speaking and that’s really where I want to focus, and doing some racing.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Good, so you’ll still be participating in some races then?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Yeah, but not the World Cup.  I retired, I did not want to take a sport on that World Cup team, so I’ll be stepping down and of course doing whatever races are out on the schedule.  I’d like to do some of those big races I’ve never had a chance to do, like Mrs. T’s and the Chicago race, Alcatraz, some of those other ones.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now that you can kind of relax in terms of the competitive side it, do you think you’ll be able to enjoy it a little more or do you think that competitive side is going to come out at you when you get into that race and on that starting line?”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Well I say that I’m going to enjoy it a little bit more but I have a feeling the competitive side is going to start coming out again.”

<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Well listeners you can of course go to Sharon Donnelly’s site by clicking on her site, we’ll link to it right blow here.  Sharon thanks very much.  I do appreciate your time.”

<<Sharon Donnelly>>: “Thank you Tim.”

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