I joined MCC in April 2025.
I was, and still am, a triathlete. But for a long time, I never really saw myself as the athlete who could achieve something extraordinary.
I was what I would describe as a middle-of-the-pack athlete.
I worked hard, I showed up, and I cared deeply about what I was doing — but I often felt like I was fighting to prove that I belonged.
Before MCC, I had often felt that my coaches saw the athlete in front of them, but didn’t necessarily see me.
I didn’t always feel heard. I didn’t always feel understood. And, if I’m completely honest, I didn’t always feel that the people coaching me truly believed that I was capable of more.
When I started my Ironman journey, my goal was incredibly simple: I just wanted to finish.
I wanted to become an example. I wanted to prove to myself that I could commit to something that scared me, something that demanded more from me than I had ever given before, and actually see it through to the end.
At that stage, I wasn’t dreaming about podiums or World Championships.
I was simply trying to become the kind of person who could say: I did it.
Somewhere along the way, something changed
I started to grow.
Not just physically, but mentally.
My goals became bigger. My confidence started to change. I began to wonder whether perhaps I was capable of more than I had allowed myself to believe.
I never became a podium athlete.
But I made it to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in New Zealand.
For someone who had once only wanted to finish, that meant more to me than a result on a timing sheet could ever explain.
Because the biggest battle was never really against the clock.
It was against the voice inside me that had spent years wondering whether I was good enough.
Then I joined MCC
For me, MCC started with Morne listening.
Not just listening to my training data, my times or my performance, but listening to me.
He took the time to understand my story, where I had come from, what mattered to me and why I was doing this in the first place.
He understood my goals, but he also understood the person behind those goals.
Morne knows my heart.
And I think that is what has made the biggest difference.
He didn’t come into my life and simply tell me what I needed to do to become a better athlete.
He met me where I was and patiently helped me understand where I could go.
For the first time, I felt like my coach genuinely believed in me.
Even on the days when I didn’t believe in myself.
Belief changes things
That kind of belief is difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it.
It’s not about being told that you’re going to win. It’s not about being made to believe that you’re suddenly an elite athlete.
It’s about having someone look at you and see potential that you sometimes can’t see in yourself.
Morne has always valued my honesty, even when the truth isn’t necessarily what a coach wants to hear.
I can tell him when I’m struggling.
I can tell him when something doesn’t feel right.
I can tell him when I’m tired, frustrated or scared.
And instead of making me feel like those things make me a weaker athlete, he works with them.
That has taught me something important: Being a strong athlete doesn’t mean never struggling. It means learning how to move forward when you do.
“Morne knows my heart.”
I started seeing myself differently
Since joining MCC, I’ve grown enormously as an athlete.
But more importantly, I’ve grown as a person.
I’ve learned patience. I’ve learned to trust the process. I’ve learned that progress isn’t always obvious, and that some of the biggest breakthroughs happen quietly — in the sessions nobody sees, on the days when you keep going even though you don’t feel particularly strong.
I’ve also learned to look at myself differently.
I’m no longer just the middle-of-the-pack athlete who is trying to keep up.
I’m an athlete with goals.
I’m an athlete who is allowed to dream bigger.
And I’m an athlete who has learned that perhaps the most important thing you can have in this sport isn’t someone who simply knows how to write a training programme.
It’s someone who knows you.
Someone who understands your story.
Someone who knows when to push you and when to be patient.
Someone who believes in you.
More than a World Championship
My journey with MCC has never been just about becoming faster, stronger or fitter.
It has been about becoming more confident in who I am and what I am capable of.
And perhaps that’s why the World Championships in New Zealand means so much to me.
Not because it proves that I am an exceptional athlete, but because it reminds me how far I have come from the woman who simply wanted to finish.
I still have a long way to go.
I still have big goals.
And I still have days where I question myself.
But now I have someone in my corner who knows my heart, understands my story and believes in me.
And somewhere along the way, because someone else believed in me, I started believing in myself too.
That, to me, is what MCC has given me.
Not just a coach.
But someone who helped me see the athlete — and the person — I was capable of becoming.