Choosing to face fear
Since 2015, Christine Marinho, VP of Marketing at Adecco Canada, had admired the Win4Youth ambassadors from the sidelines.
The Win4Youth initiative is perhaps the Adecco Group’s most beloved global health and wellness programme. Across the company, every colleague, client or associate can track their physical activity.
Championing the cause all over the globe are the Win4Youth ambassadors. Every year, TAG carefully selects the international ambassador team. The chosen few represent their country and company in Win4Youth’s culminating event: the OceanLava Olympic triathlon.
“I always, always wanted to do it,” Christine says, “but I had this fear, and every year I said no.”
“In 2020, I finally reached a point where I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to try. I’m going to try to conquer my fear.’”
Her fear is not a trivial one.
At 16 years old, on a family vacation in Florida, Christine was in the ocean when Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, made landfall further south in the state.
“We didn’t know it was coming. The water got really choppy very suddenly and the riptide pulled me under. I was drowning until someone pulled me out. Since then, I’ve never felt comfortable swimming in open water. Even in a pool, I needed to be able to feel the bottom.”
A triathlon is a multi-sport event made up of three endurance components: swimming, biking and running. The OceanLava Olympic triathlon begins with a gruelling 1.5KM open water swim followed by a 42KM bike ride and a 10KM run. It’s a challenging feat for anyone, let alone someone afraid of the water.
Finding inspiration in a pandemic
“I started taking swimming lessons right away, even before I was accepted into the programme. I was fully committed to battling my fear of the water.”
That’s not all she did in the weeks leading up to the big announcement. Christine’s commitment to promoting the Win4Youth cause was evident to everyone around her. She hosted a charity auction, actively fundraised and organized a by-donation group yoga session for breast cancer research and Plan International.
A dynamic social media personality, Christine also engaged audiences with an original “You Inspire Me” campaign. Every Wednesday, she’d feature someone in her life that inspires her on an Instagram post—colleagues, friends and acquaintances—and thank them for the positive impact they’d had.
“I wanted to inspire people through Win4Youth, but I wanted to show people how they inspire me, too. That’s where that idea stemmed from.”
In March 2020, Christine received the news: she would be one of Canada’s two Win4Youth ambassadors.
Then COVID hit.
“Right around the time we found out, the pandemic started. Everything was uncertain, but I kept training as best I could so that if [the triathlon] did happen, I’d be prepared.
Bootcamp, typically a massive in-person event in Belgium, happened virtually. Training plans were coordinated with basic at-home testing methods instead of state-of-the-art equipment. By mid-summer, the event was officially postponed to 2021.
“Honestly, training during the pandemic was the best thing for me. It helped me stay positive when there was so much negativity—it was so good for my mental health.”
“The beautiful thing about this program is that you don’t have to be an athlete. Anyone can do it—and improve their wellness as they do it—if they follow the plan.”
What should have been 6 months of training turned into 18. When Christine finally landed in Lanzarote, Spain, she couldn’t believe it was finally happening.
Her elation at having finally “made it” would be quickly shaken, however—Christine’s fear was about to rear its ugly head.
Arriving in Lanzarote
On the first day in Lanzarote, the athletes went into the ocean to get a feel for the water.
“I hadn’t been in the ocean since I was young so that in itself was overwhelming.”
The other ambassadors were strong in the water. Their swimming was confident and natural.
“I noticed how well everyone else was doing and that got into my head. That insecurity, combined with my anxiety, made me panic,” Christine explains. “One thing about swimming is that your breathing is critical. If you don’t control your breathing, that’s when things go wrong.”
Things did go wrong. Christine had a panic attack in the water and one of the Adecco Group trainers came to her aid.
“It was an illuminating moment for me because she told me my technique was solid. She didn’t initially understand what happened because technique-wise, everything looked good. She made me realize that I had the ability. It was just that mental piece of trusting in myself that was missing.”
Chalking the incident up to a bad day, Christine shifted her perspective. She would take this journey one day at a time. Ever true to her commitments, Christine got back in the water the next day and swam 50 metres out. No panic attack.
“That’s when I realized that I can’t compare myself to anybody else. It didn’t matter if other people were stronger than me in the water; I wasn’t there to finish first. I was there to accomplish my goal—to conquer my fear.”
As it happened, her fear wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
Conquering race day
Race day arrived and all the ambassadors were up early. A few team members, Christine included, headed to the beach an hour before the official 8:00 am start time to adjust to the temperature of the water.
The weather conditions were unfavourable, to say the least.
“The water looked angry!” Christine says with a chuckle. “It was really windy that day and the waves were over our heads.”
She went in anyway with a teammate by her side. It was a good thing, too, because the two women had to grab hold of each other’s hands to withstand the power of the waves.
“The current pulled me in not once, but twice.”
The situation might’ve been ironic if it wasn’t so scary. Christine was instantly taken back to her childhood experience. Here she was, nearly drowning in the ocean. Again. This was not how she expected her pre-triathlon warm-up swim to go.
Both ambassadors made it back to shore safely, but Christine was shaken.
“It did take me back to when I was young, but I didn’t want that to be the last memory I had of my Win4Youth experience. I had worked so hard to get there.”
“I told myself: this is not how my story is going to end today.”
And with that, Christine took her place with the other 41 ambassadors at the starting line. Once again, she found herself face-to-face with her fear, but this time it wasn’t a warm-up.
“After I entered the water, it was a matter of focus. There were six buoys and all I did was focus on one buoy at a time. Once I reached one, I fixated all my mental energy on the next one, and so on. It’s funny because that’s a little like business, I think.”
Christine came out of the water. Christine came out of the water. A little bit disoriented (many of the triathletes dealt with seasickness after coming out of the choppy waters that day), but hugely relieved, Christine was met by a different kind of wave—the wave of cheers from the crowd.
Christine is beaming as she recounts the experience.
“I have to say, someone had told me, ‘Don’t forget to feel the sand under your feet when you come out of the water, to see the view when you’re riding on the bike, and to hear the cheers from the crowd when you run.’ And let me tell you, I certainly appreciated the sand under my feet at that moment.”
Crossing the finish line
The wetsuit came off. After all, Christine still had a 42KM bike ride and a 10KM run ahead of her. A lifelong fear was behind her, but she wasn’t finished yet.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I did it. Now I know I can do the rest. Let’s go.”
She hopped on her bike and let her training do its work.
“We had to do 4 laps, which meant that I got to see some of the other ambassadors as we crossed paths, and that was encouraging.”
On the bike, Christine made up a good chunk of the time she had lost in the water. 42 kilometres later, Christine transitioned into the final leg of the triathlon, the 10-kilometre run.
“My legs were tired. I had to put into action the best piece of advice I had received: go slow to go fast. I slowed down my pace. I didn’t rush. I didn’t walk. I maintained a consistent pace through the whole thing.”
Tired, but steady and holding her head high, Christine crossed the finish line. The Adecco Group team, along with former CEO Alain Dehaze (and countless colleagues rooting her on virtually from home), were waiting for her.
“Since Day 1, I had a vision of holding the Canadian flag as I crossed the finish line. I truly can’t explain what it meant to hold that flag above my head. That moment was life-changing.”
(Watch the moment below!)
Pressed further on what she means by “life-changing,” Christine says this:
“Just like in business, everything requires hard work and dedication, but if you follow the plan, the success you get out of it is so worth it. Everyone has fears, but if we’re afraid to try things, we’re never going to know what’s possible. ”
“Win4Youth was life-changing because I discovered that anything is possible if you believe in yourself… and take things one buoy at a time.”
Christine Marinho, a forever-supporter of the Win4Youth programme, is the Vice President of Marketing at Adecco Canada. From January 2021 to November 2021, Christine logged 440 hours of activity, all of which contributed to our charity partner.