I started triathlon in 2013 because my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. He and I are very close, and he almost died, and I wanted to do something to help. I received a flyer in the mail from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society that I could raise money to support Lymphoma research while training for a triathlon, and it was like God shined a light on me, and I knew I had to do it! It was an Olympic distance. It was one of the hardest things I had ever done having not come from an athletic background. Also, I had just overcome a significant illness that left me temporarily disabled with horrible muscle atrophy from being in bed for years. I managed to get through the Olympic triathlon, raised almost $9,000 for the charity, and I fell in love with the sport.

The challenge that it brought helped me with my self esteem, my spiritual connection to God, and I also found a new group of amazing people that I dearly loved and admired. Since then, I’ve done 5 full Ironmans and about 50 shorter distance triathlons. I have also overcome a pretty serious bike crash three years ago that had me in the trauma unit for almost a week and left me with a serious concussion, 3 broken ribs, a shattered scapula and a punctured lung. My motto and favorite quote is— “If you fall, get back up, and do not give up no matter what.” This year I have Ironman Maine 70.3 and Ironman Barcelona on the schedule. I have been with TriDot 2.5 years, and I love the program and gains I have got over the years. After the first six months with the program, I knocked almost two hours off my full Ironman time. When I first saw the RaceX prediction for that race, I thought it was nuts! Absolutely zero chance I could do that! And then I beat it by 13 minutes! TriDot works. All I can say.