By Tara G.

January 1, 2019. 2 kids, self-made career, and busy life later I longed to get back to my high school and college track and field team workout and competition days. I made a promise to my 16 year old self when I was in the peak of my athletic career-having found a love of track and field-and learning of the multi sport world (triathlons, etc) I said to myself, “Before I turn 40 years old I will complete the ultimate challenge-finishing an Ironman event.”

Years ticked on, but every now and then that voice crept back in. Jobs, houses, family, weddings, one kid, now 2, starting my own business, and “trying” to stay fit and fit in working out where I could had become my life. Gmail calendar rules my day and if it’s not on the master calendar it’s not getting done. I had the fortunate blessing of working with Coach Joe and the Experience Triathlon brand starting in 2015 and through the past 4 years of reading fellow athlete stories, coaches articles, and seeing the awesomeness at ET Batavia year after year I told myself this was the time to make it work. I’ll be 38 this year, and was a far cry from the fit athlete I was in college (go #URI Rhody Rams) In order to even have a shot at training the way I needed to-I need to start making changes NOW, and that required fitting in the time, every day, to commit to the work needed. I am a doer-and there are tons of answers that google can provide-10 years ago I was asking google full sentences (I still think they created long tail keyword search based on my absurd search behavior), but when it came down to it-I wasn’t willing to risk injury, or not train the right way, or not eat right and I asked myself why leave things to “chance” because I didn’t think I deserved to invest in a Coach to help me through this process. Well, 5 months into my training and I couldn’t be happier with my choice to work with Coach Joe, and be part of the ET athlete team.

As any woman who has had a couple kids knows-the baby weight sometimes sticks around despite best efforts and focus to keep it off. I was starting 30-40lbs heavier than I had ever weighed when competing in college-and in my mid- 30’s my bones and joints don’t recover as fast as my 19 year old self did. Mentally I was back in 1999-reality pegged me for 2019 and thankfully I had knowledge and insight from Coach Joe and the app workout everyday to guide me in the right direction. As a former athlete my body just knows what to do-but when I haven’t oiled the machine as well as it used to be-it took me longer than I anticipated to mentally, and physically, get back to “fighting form.”

I have done my share of “long” challenge events over the last 15 years including 5 times completing the PMC 2 day bike event of 192 miles, the original Tough Mudder 12 mile 30 obstacle event, as well as 5k’s, sprint, and Olympic distance Triathlon’s both individual and team races. I have been saving my “marathon” for the Ironman race. September 2020-IM Wisconsin-here I come. I look forward to PR-ing not only my weekly workouts, but by building this daily time into workout, it has helped lift all other areas of my life including energy, family fitness focus, and being a role model for my 2 girls showing them their mom can, and will, do it all. Thank you Coach Joe for helping me take on this endeavour. The risk is too high to not have a professional help guide me to success. I look forward to high-fiving other #ETTeammates along the next year-long training journey and on race day.