About Me
- Coralie Dee Arthur
- Jul 30, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 20, 2023
Hello! My name is Coralie Dee Arthur and I am crazy about sport, health and food.
After being thrown in at the deep end (quite literally) of the swimming pool as a baby I have always been into sports. I have grown up with the amazing opportunity of being surrounded by sport. My Dad is the head of Physical Education in the school I attended growing up. He has been teaching there for over 28 years and naturally I have always wanted to do him proud. I was one of the kids in school that would try absolutely everything. Even being the only girl in the football team didn’t stop me!
I started swimming competitively with Upper Deeside Amateur Swimming Club at the age of 6. I went on to swim at national level and won two gold medals at the Scottish School Relays.
Whilst swimming about 8 times a week in the north district squad, I was also dance training and playing netball for the school not long before being nominated for Scottish netball trials. Along with playing every sport that was available in clubs at school I realized my love for group sports.
My family have moved house 5 times now around the Aboyne area. My Dad cycled or ran to school every day no matter how far away we lived. My brothers and I often joined him. I found my love for cycling whilst racing my brothers on my Dad’s old touring bike as we made our way to and from school.
In 2013 I decided to go to Mexico to help rebuild a conservation village destroyed by a hurricane who looked after crocodiles and turtles. I needed to raise a lot of money to be able to get out there and support them financially.
People already knew me for being a tad crazy therefore I felt I needed to do something "big" to encourage people to sponsor me.
Along with putting on a family concert, I cycled from the most Southerly point to the most Northerly point of Scotland and then the most Westerly to the most Easterly point of Scotland. My Dad and I did it together camping and managing to stay at family's house here and there along the way. It took us 9 days altogether with some support here and there from the family on their bikes. My Dad unfortunately without realizing, started the journey with a bulging disk which then ruptured mid cycle, so I ended up doing the last 3 pretty much solo. This was one of the most rewarding and challenging things I have ever done.
After I had graduated from Academy I went on to study Spanish and Education at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
University brought even more sporting opportunities!
I continued to play netball and swim as part of the uni teams. I also started playing a new sport - Korfball! This is almost a mixture of basketball and netball but is a mixed sex team sport. This has to be one of the most fun team sports I have been part of.
One of the main reasons I decided to study in Glasgow over other universities was the access to the Chris Hoy Velodrome. You can probably guess what I did? I went on to get my accreditation for track cycling and absolutely fell in love with it! As I am sure many of you know, track cycling is one of the most scary yet exhilarating things ever to exist!
All of this unfortunately came to a halt and quite frankly crushed my sporting dreams when I snapped my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and damaged my meniscus whilst playing in a netball match just at the end of first year. It took a year to get the operation and about 1 year of tough rehab to get back to feeling confident in my knee again. So yes, 2 years out! Pretty hard for a sport addict.
During these two years, I learnt a great deal. This is probably why I am even more motivated today. We as humans probably take our bodies and life for granted. I think when you are young, it is easy to get complacent, think we are invincible or just think "oh I will just do that when I am older". It made me realise that no matter what happens, we should always do everything within our power to look after our bodies and minds which should include doing sport and exercise. You have no idea what is around the corner, so make the most of the opportunities that you have whilst you can.
After the rigorous rehab and hydrotherapy, graduating from University and completing my Diploma for Swedish Massage Therapy I returned home to live with my Dad.
There was now no Velodrome and no adult netball or korfball teams anywhere near so my Dad suggested we go and try some open water swimming at Knock-burn Loch. Knockburn had not long re-opened from re sizing as a man made loch for swimming and water sports. First go and we were both hooked.
I did my first ever open water swimming competition in 2016 at Knockburn coming 4th in the Scottish Aquathlon Championships.
It wasn't long until we then decided to try triathlon.
My brothers, Dad and I decided to go for it and enter the Scottish Triathlon Relay Championships, where to our shock we finished 6th overall.
Since then my Dad and I have both trained and competed in many events including Scottish and British National championships.
Although we didn't follow a plan as such, we both trained together and listened to our bodies. Training worked so well for us both. Swimming, I would give Dad technique help, I would stick behind Dad on the bike so we were both working at similar intensities and running we would talk about the world and it's wonders especially during the beautiful long hill runs.
For me personally, I don't feel like I am a very competitive person with other people. Over the years what I have learnt is that I have no control over other people. The only person I have control over is myself. Whether I come 1st, 3rd or last, I do not mind as long as I have done the best that I can on that day.
If I don't feel that I have then I look at the reasons why and how I can improve for next time.
One person I am sometimes "competitive" with is my Dad. But this is more motivational. We know each others strengths and weakness.
This is usually how it goes down: - Coralie comes out of the water in front of Dad.
- Dad gradually chases Coralie down on the bike.
- All comes down to the run and who can hold each other off the longest...
We are always there pushing each other to keep going right until the finish line.
As cheesy as it sounds, for me it isn't the so called "winning", it is the process. It is how we develop as people, team mates, coaches and as a family. Triathlon along with many other sports is for everyone. We should be including all ages, all stages to get involved with being active for physical and mental health.
Dad and I decided to go for it and enter lots of competitions throughout the season. This worked great for us as it was motivation for us to keep getting stronger. We always did the local Aberdeenshire series which was always so exciting especially when people were there to try their first ever triathlon!
At the end of 2017 I qualified to represent Great Britain for my age group at the World Championships for Cross - Triathlon which was held in Denmark.
Summer 2018, my Dad and I took our very first trip abroad together and what an experience! Grueling 1500m swim in jelly infested Danish waters, 30km mountain bike route (yes it was a lot more hilly than you would ever imagine), and a killer 10km trail run that included a rope climb to get up one of the hills...
After this experience, my love for triathlon grew even more. I ended up moving into the city of Aberdeen to start working at Total Endurance - a triathlon centre.
Training without my Dad was difficult for me and was a bigger challenge than I first anticipated. Because of this, I wanted to try other kinds of training to help me get going again and become stronger. I found a group of people who did outdoor training for obstacle course racing so I joined in as an addition to my solo triathlon training.After trying the Beast Races, I went for it at the Beach Ballistic coming home with the win to qualify for the World OCR championships. Not long before traveling to this race I noticed my legs kept going numb when running. Turns out I had probably injured my back in a previous mountain bike crash a few years previously but had continued to train without noticing the extent of the damage.
A trip to A&E and an MRI scan later, I was back to square one.
Slowly but surely I got back to light training and had lots of physiotherapy. Unfortunately to this day I still struggle to run without pain. I am still working on my back and will get there one day I am sure.
Interestingly I was advised by my sports therapist that rowing (I know what you are thinking) would be very beneficial for my back as it would engage muscles surrounding the injury.
During this time I also found a style of training called Crossfitt which allowed me to scale workouts to my ability whilst working on my strength and fitness with a group of other people.
I have now been rowing for just over 1 year and with the occasional Crossfitt class. One day I will be back doing triathlons but in the mean time I help others train and race them.
So today you will fine me either, coaching, rowing, CrossFitting and doing the occasional swim and bike ride in the mountains.
As you can probably tell, I have a passion for sport. There are so many opportunities out there. So many different ways to train, race and socialize with others. As our bodies change we should learn to adapt and not be afraid to try different things. We need to keep our bodies and minds as healthy as possible for as long as possible.
As a coach, it is my passion to show to others how amazing sport is. That no matter what age or stage we are in life, it is never too late.
So welcome to my website. I hope you enjoy reading about all my adventures and it inspires you to get out there and try something new today!
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