Athletically speaking, Mireille Kingsley and Nina Kucheran have travelled somewhat parallel pathways.
Graduates both of
Both lifelong Sudbury residents were offered NCAA scholarships, plying their trade at a post-secondary level south of the border. Multi-faceted enough to rank among the very best in their peer in a sport other than their primary pursuit, Kingsley and Kucheran reconnected a couple of years ago in Ottawa, ready to tackle life beyond varsity sports.
Acquaintances while at CND, they reunited over an interest in remaining active, all while sharing similar academic dreams. Even as Kucheran jumps into the start of year three of medical school studies at the University of Ottawa and Kingsley hits the classrooms wide-eyed for her first year at the Northern Ontario School of Medecine this September, the women remain committed to physical health, both having recently tackled the Muskoka Half-Ironman.
“We had always stayed in contact, always been friends – but got to spend more time together when we were both in Ottawa,” said Kingsley. “Throughout university, we had kept in touch, both living similar experiences but with different sports.”
In terms of their actual participation in the Half-Ironman (1.9km swim; 90km bike; 21.1km run), the tangents emerge. While her training as a hockey netminder provided a broad enough base to capture SDSSAA gold in both track and field (javelin) and tennis, it truthfully served Kingsley with but a mild introduction to the elements of a triathlon.
“I was not a runner at all, prior to this past year and a half,” she said. “I honestly really did not like running, actually. I do enjoy it more now, but it’s still the toughest for me.”
Kingsley is, by all accounts, a huge fan of the team environment – which makes a great deal of sense as a hockey goalie but can certainly be far more hit and miss when one is dealing with the training regimen required to tackle the Ironman 70.3, as it’s been affectionally dubbed.
“Being in Ottawa, there’s a big running community – and that really helped me a lot,” she said. “Running with my teammates (she completed her fifth and final year of U Sports eligibility with the Ottawa Gee Gees), along the canal and around the city, it motivates you to keep doing it.”
Though her swim background was limited more or less to Learn to Swim programming that led to a definite comfort in the water, the training regimen that was outlined in partnership with coach Kelly Thompson (the recent Beaton Classic solo champ guided both Kingsley and Kucheran through the process, along with a small handful of other Sudburians) was not overly daunting – beyond the need to simply build up mileage.
“I might even like the swim the best – but when I first got out there, I was swimming one lap, taking a break,” said Kingsley with a laugh. “How am I going to do almost 2km in a lake, I wondered. But it was just a matter of showing up consistently.”
Borrowing a bike from her older brother, Kingsley was unitimidated – until race day.
“I was not too nervous about the bike; that was where I felt most comfortable,” she said. “But once you get there, everyone is so fast – so that’s an adjustment.”
A national caliber swimmer, the best that Sudbury has produced in the past two decades, Nina Kucheran knew that she would be fast out of the water.
Finishing first in her age bracket at the Early Bird Triathlon in Ottawa in May, the breaststroke specialist who swam at both University of Florida and Florida State stepped on to the beach nearly three minutes ahead of all but one of the athletes in her bracket in her sprint triathlon prep event.
“I had tailered my training to focus on the bike,” said Kucheran. “I would do four bikes a week, two to three runs, swimming once a week. That was the easy part.”
Acknowledged as a swimmer who would leap at the challenge of battling through workouts that would rank among the most demanding in the country according to long-time coach Dean Henze, Kucheran suddenly found a strength sliding over to the column of training weaknesses.
“I like to work hard and I like to challenge myself,” she said. “But as I enter the world of land sports, I needed to recognize that running is a lot harder on your body than swimming – and that was perhaps one of my downfalls.”
Eventually diagnosed with a stress fracture, Kucheran was not to run at all in the six weeks leading up to race day in the Muskokas. For someone whose career will be predicated on understanding the human body, the good-natured 26 year-old needed a little time to absorb her own teachings.
“If someone was coming to me as a medical student, I would probably tell them to rest,” she admitted. “But it’s different when it’s you.”
In the end, results may not have been exactly what she would have hoped for two months earlier – and still, it took only minutes for Kucheran and Kingsley to reconnect on race day, upon completion, and begin mapping out their next adventure.
“The fun thing about this is that its very intrinsic,” said Kucheran. “Everyone does it for themselves. It’s a starting point for me. I would have liked to do better, but now aim for the next one.”
Mireille Kingsley now has a great idea of what that will look like in her particular case.
“I think the biggest thing for me would be to continue to train with friends, havinga good community for your training. Having people with you, supporting you – I think that’s key,” added the 24 year old who was accompanied, on race day, by her mom and dad as well as her brother and his girlfriend.
“The enjoyment and motivation for me comes from being part of a team, the camaraderie,” said Kingsley. “Having that with a tri, I was very grateful for that.”
