Sue Heppell - Ponteland Tri Club
This month I spoke with Sue Heppell from Ponteland Tri Club, a Level 2 volunteer Triathlon coach. Coaches do a lot of work with club members face to face but they also do a lot of behind the scenes work to develop themselves. Here is a snapshot on Sue and the great work that she carries out.
How long have you been coaching for? I have been coaching for 4 years
What do you love about Triathlon? I’ve loved triathlon from the first time I took part in a triathlon back in 2009. I think there is so much to triathlon with the combination of the 3 disciplines and the transitions too. It’s always good comparing your results to everyone else’s and seeing where you can improve and who you beat in which bit and where they beat you. I get such a buzz in competing, coaching and event organising and seeing people having a go in their first event and getting so much out of it. It’s just great fun! I think everyone in triathlon just loves and enjoys it and that really rubs off on the competitors and we all have a good time.
Tell us about your club. We established the triathlon side of the club in 2013. We were originally just a running club but a lot of our members were competing in multi-sport events and triathlon and we managed to secure a grant from British Triathlon to become an affiliated club and both myself and my husband gained our level 2 triathlon coaching qualification thus establishing ourselves as a triathlon club. The running club is Ponteland Runners and the triathlon side is Ponteland Tri but we are the same club. We have organised GO TRI events for the past 4 years, we’ve also had a large number of our runners trying triathlon who would never have done it if it weren’t for the availability of it within the club. A lot of these have enjoyed it so much, they are now stepping up to sprint, standard and middle distance events. I’m sure some have full distance events on the horizon too. We’ve converted a number of our runners to be triathletes all through the GO TRI initiative which is brilliant.
What is the best thing about GO TRI? Just seeing so many novices and our club members having a go at triathlon for the first time and having so much fun and enjoyment. We also get a lot of experienced triathletes using them as a brick session and it’s great to see them with their expensive kit alongside the beginners. It’s always such a fun event.
Who is your inspiration? I don’t have any one person who inspires me but I think all our club members who have been involved in triathlon inspire me. It’s great to see their commitment to the sport and see their attitude, improvement and progression, they are awesome. I also get inspiration from the novices taking part in our GO TRI’s, it’s great to see people at the grass roots level of the sport giving it a try, coming back year after year and progressing to sprint triathlons. It’s been great seeing a number of teenagers taking part in our GO TRI’s and really getting the tri bug. That inspires me to continue putting on our GO TRI events.
Where would you like to see your club go in the next 5 years? We’ve always had plans to develop a junior side of the club and we have grown in numbers since we started and now have enough adults who want to help with this too. In 5 years I think we will have established an active junior session with enough qualified coaches to support this. We’ve always had difficulty in obtaining pool time to support the club but I’m hoping that we can establish regular adult and junior swim sessions delivered by our own coaches. I’d like to see us continue with our GO TRI events but I’d also like the club to put on a club event at sprint distance based at our local pool.
If you would like a coach from your club to be included in a coaches spotlight then please get in touch with Sam Morgan-Nicholson (Regional Manager – North East) sammorgannicholson@britishtriahlon.org
