Naomi Dibb - Athlete Ambassador

Have you always been into sport?

From a young age I have always been into sports. I have always had a passion for sports, it gives me a focus and it's something that I've enjoyed throughout my life - not just with meeting new people but travelling to new places and being shown new opportunities. I started off with doing dance and this involved all kinds of dancing from cheerleading, hip-hop and so on. After that I joined my local football team, this started off as a very small girls football team but grew as years went on. These were the main 2 sports that I did outside of school and unfortunately had to stop because they moved to a different area. Inside of school, I was part of the athletics team for 5 years and the netball team for 2 years. Since finishing football and joining secondary school, I then have got into triathlons and since that day haven't stopped loving the sports.

How did you first get into triathlon?

I got into Triathlons back in 2012 and this was because I was watching the Triathlon hosted on TV, because of the London 2012. I had heard of Triathlon before but didn't know much about it. I got inspired to compete in Triathlons because of the Brownlee Brothers.

If you are interested in getting into Triathlon, Sundried's kit is suitable for beginners as well as seasoned athletes. We have both men's and women's options available. 

What has been your favourite race to date and why?

My favourite race to date is my first Triathlon back after having about 2 years out of racing. I was unaware of how race fit I was going to be and nervous in general, but thanks to Tim at Caternary Cycle Coaching he helped huge amounts making sure I was race ready. This race was held on the 26th June 2021. Even though it wasn't a huge race with the number of race participants, it was still quite a large event considering how local it was. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this race from the start in the water until I finished this race.

Head to https://catenarycoaching.com/reports for my race report.

What is your proudest achievement?

I have had many proud moments in all the sports that I have competed it. When I was with Harriers a local running club, I competed for Oxfordshire in XC in Loughborough. After a match the I played during football, I was told by my coach that I was one of the selected of having the opportunity to be scouted. During Triathlon, it would of been my first ever race that I won & my first open water Triathlon.

Have you ever had any racing disasters?

Considering the amount of years I've been racing I've never really had a race disasters that's ruined my whole received, I've had things that have happened that made me drop back a few spots but nothing that bad. One Triathlon I got a twig caught in my bike and secondly was during a running event, which was recently my first half marathon. It was the hottest day of the year so far in the UK and I didn't take on enough water in the first few laps, so struggled until I got to a water station. But I managed to finish both this Triathlon and the half marathon.

How do you overcome setbacks?

Over coming setbacks was a big thing I struggled with. I stopped competing in Triathlons for just over 2 years, this wasn't because I had lost the love for the sports it was because I felt like I wasn't good enough, everyone my my age group seemed to be going places within the sport and at the time I felt like I wasn't. There was a lot of times throughout Triathlon when I felt like I was compared to others, so this was a big thing to overcome. When starting back up my training, I forgot how much Triathlons had an impact on me mentally (how much happier it made me) but the bug thing was learning how to not compare myself to others, which still to this day I'm getting over. I've had to learn how to enjoy competing again and not worry about times or placing and I've found doing this I've seen it show in both my training and races I've done recently.

What advice do you wish you'd been given when you first started out?

The advice I wish someone had given me is -

• 'Train because you enjoy it, not because you feel like you have to'
• 'Don't let other people put you down and make you think you aren't good enough'
• 'Don't let others stop you get in the way of your success'

What are your goals?

My goals are to compete in Ironman 70.3 all around the world, this is because I've worked out as an athlete I'm better over long distance and feel having the 2 years has made me mentally stronger as an athlete, because I'm learning to push myself on my own and not have others round to trying to do that.

Who inspires you?

• Alistair & Jonathan Brownlee
• Lucy Charles
• Holly Lawrence
• Tim Don
• Javier Gómez Noya

Why work with Sundried?

From following you on social media, I've learnt you are a very close community and not only do you promote your business but you promote it in a way that helps the environment as well, as brings that to peoples knowledge if they weren't aware of it in the first place. I want to be able to share that when it comes to promoting the products that you make.

To hear more from our ambassadors and get free tips on workout plans and more, connect with the Sundried Personal Trainers on our app.