SUCCESS
Charlotte Roach
Effectively,
I was
drowning
in my
own blood
and I was
running
out of time
to live
“When I went down, nobody
on my team saw it, so they just
assumed I’d taken a tumble,
that I’d had the wind knocked
out of me, and I’d be fine in
a minute or two. Luckily, the
car behind us was driven by
a physio for Leicester Tigers’
rugby team and she took a look
at me. Despite telling her I was
fine (I had no recollection of
the accident or any idea of its
seriousness, even then), she
could hear a gurgling sound
when I spoke, which was the
sound of blood seeping into
my lungs. Effectively, I was
drowning and I was running out
of time to live. Thankfully, she
was alert and had the proper
training and insisted I was
taken to hospital immediately.
Her quick thinking probably
saved my life,” explained the
former triathlete.
The outcome looked bleak
for a while, but out of the
ashes often rises something
new. And it was as such with
Charlotte. She made attempts
to get back on her bike, even
getting as far as finishing fourth
in a European triathlon, but her
injuries had taken too much of a
physical and mental toll on her.
Instead, she focussed her steely
mind, the same one that had
been instrumental in providing
the discipline necessary for
competing at such high levels
in sport, and, with the help of
her business partner, founded
Join the Rabble, a company
aimed at making fitness more
fun for adults.
“I had exceeded expectations
at the triathlon even though I
still had a broken collarbone. I
wanted to be one of the best in
the world, but because of my
back I had to keep resting, and
I couldn’t train at a consistent
level, which affected my
confidence. So, I went back to
Cambridge and finished my
degree, but I had a change of
mindset and, though I thought
I could compete, I realised
I’d lost the drive to want to,”
explained Charlotte.
“After University and my
accident, I kind of lost interest
in exercising. It became more
of a chore as life got in the way.
The gym was boring and I was
thinking that I had to exercise,
rather than wanting to. It was
at this point it dawned on me
that if I felt this way, it was
likely that much of the adult
population did too. I realised
that it wasn’t sport and exercise
that was wrong, it was the
products available to enable you
to get fit that were falling short.
So I decided that something
needed to be done to bring
the fun back into it, and that’s
why our events focus more on
the socialising aspect, whilst
getting fit at the same time.”
Today, Join The Rabble has
events taking place across
London, including Finsbury
Park and Hampstead Heath,
and is starting to see a steady
growth in profits. It has also
been offered a lucrative seed
funding deal, which could
help it to grow outside of the
24 September 2014
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29/08/2014 15:15