What happens after win4youth triathlon?

I am writing my journey for those ones who have some doubts about how they will finish win4youth triathlon.

I want to start explaining my journey with a sentence from my mentor who was sharing his journey with the artiche which has a title of “If I can do it, anyone can do it” . Same here; if I could ?finish olympic triathlon without any sport history anyone can do it. I am not telling that you will have an easy journey but I can assure you that it will be life changing experience.

My win4youth journey started in 2019 with some motivational quotes “Why Not” “If not now then when”, “If your mind believes your body achives” “believe you can, you will” and the very important one “you can’t do it” . Everytime I heard ‘you can’t do it’ , ?that makes me feel that I will prove them wrong, I have to do it! So I did it.

Before win4youth I was a real workholic, I didn’t have anything else for myself. My work was at the center of everthing I do and I even was not aware of it. While I was thinking of a solution to my workholisim, my dear friend from marketing came to me and said ‘you should apply for being win4youth ambassador, I think you can do it!’ I said ‘no I can’t, I don’t have any sport history and I am not even fit.’ She insisted and told me that ‘this program is not a professional athlete programme and you are telling me that you want to chance the world you want to have positive impact on others journey “if you want to chance the world you should start it from yourself!!!!” this is your chance to do it.’ It was very touchy and I applied for the programme without really knowing what is triatlon! ?How far I will need to swim, bike and run. Literally I was jumping in a sea without knowing how to swim.

When I was accepted for the programme there were a lot of people who did not believe in me and very few supporters but I had to do it, even to proof that those who were not believing in me were wrong! I struggled really a lot! I faced with lots of gender bias during this journey as well, ?but I also learnt a lot! I will not explain whole journey but I want to touch some significant moments for me;

-?????????I learnt to ask for help; if you don’t tell people they won’t understand how you struggle so let them know what you feel and ask for help. I managed to socialize with a lot of different people with different backgrounds, while I was finding different ways of socializing with my friends. I was embarcing chance, sometimes I was feeling overdoze of change but I was trying to look at the bright side of everthing; The biggest gift I have got for my birthday was my friend came with me to Chios Island to run with me for my very first race while she has never done it before as well. So i did my first 5 km race on my birthday with my friend!

-??????I learnt to think fit! I didn’t have time for overthinking I had to turn off my computer to do my trainings and I realized doing sport was changing my way of thinking and socialization. I was acting in a different way but in a different positive way. I was becoming a better version of me day by day and I liked it. I was becoming fit to lead.

-??????During trainings every principle has it’s own difficulties but I had my milestones with cycling; one of the few challenges was group biking for me. I didn’t want to get out of my comfort zone, I didn’t want to meet with new people, I wasn’t feeling comfortable enough while biking with 30 males as the only female in the biking group but I had to train! Most of the time there were only males in the group, their muscle mass was more than me, I had to afford two times more to keep up with their speed. This wasn’t my only obstacle; There was also some group members who was telling me that I couldn’t climb the hill that they would climb and was asking me to go back. In order to proof that they were wrong I had to do it! Ofccourse there wasn’t only bad moments and unsupportive people around. There were also belivers and friends of mine who were there for me and I tried to get support from those ones who were helping me. I found another quote for myself and?said “it is just a hill get over with it”!?And I did it. Cycling route was 80 km in total, after climbing that hill it wasn’t the end of cycling there was a way back!!! On the way back I was exhausted, while I was about to quit one of the good ones from the group who was riding next to me whispered me “?zge, you are too tired to look at your right but there are bunch of girls who are pointing at you and applauding, they are trying to cheer you up, don’t try to look at them but at least try to hear them “you will never know who you are inspiring” and that was the moment that I decided to keep up with the group rides and I finished my very first long distance cycling of 80 km. Maybe I was the only woman in the biking group but I have power to change this??

Eventually I finished the win4youth triathlon, I was feeling like a wonder woman because I did it. The moment that I crossed the finish line it was the best moment of 2019 for me. It was a life changing experience and it changed me forever and I have earned lifetime friendships.

I am still learning everday, after finishing win4youth triathlon, I continued trainings mostly cycling and one day I noticed that cycling became my passion. Here is the moment how I realized cycling is my passion; I was cycling with my friend in the middle of the night and on the way back I had a bike accident, I hit my face to the ground and when I opened my eyes I was lying on my back I even didn’t know how it happened, after the accident when I checked my phone I saw a lot of missed calls and text messages. One of them was telling me she ?couldn’t reached me for 4 hours which was not usual, she was afraid something happened to me and she was coming to my place. Yes something happened to me and I literally realized my passion for cycling which caused me to lose the track of time.?With this accident I injured my arm and I had 2 frackeles but this accident was the moment that I realize my passion for cycling.

I can continue writing and writing as this is my life changing experience but I have to stop in some point.

To sum up my journey; at the begining it wasn’t easy, I was struggling a lot, feeling alone, stupid, weak and failure but those negative feelings drove me for change;

-??????Instead of feeling alone I started to use my words and told my friends, colleuges, family how I really feel, how much I was struggling and asked for their support.

-??????Instead of feeling stupid, I started to think that I am person with a goal and in order to achive that goal I needed a plan and I started to re-ogranize my life.

-??????Instead of feeling weak I started to tell myself 1 is greater than 0 and each day I was one step closer to finish line,

-??????Instead of feeling failure I learnt delegation and asking for help. When I started to ask for help I realized that universe was there to support me and it was the only matter of asking for it.????

And magic happened I started to change when I started to change everthing started to change. Universe started to serve to my own benefit and I learnt to be a better person.

You can call me win4youth alumuni ambassador, I call #oncewin4youthalwayswin4youth

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