by Kathy S.

Hello fellow Triathletes,

Yesterday was the first day I actually said those words out loud “I am a triathlete”, after finishing the Olympic distance Tri at the ET Lake Zürich triathlon….but let’s back up a bit. See, I had the bright idea in October of 2017,  on my 49th birthday I would sign up for my first 70.3 to celebrate my 50th bday the next year with very little Tri- skill or knowledge!  Hmmmm….. fast forward to learning about ET and meeting Coach Suzy of ET Personal Coaching Services and basically hiring her on the spot- I knew she was the one!

As we begin training together I gave her a cute little nickname called “Evil Suzy” because well, the workouts and training were like seemed, well, um…evil!!

As many of you can relate, life  became super busy and stressful  with work and family demands and so one month before my race, I went to Suzy sobbing sharing that I needed to stop my triathlon journey. She tried many wonderful suggestions to keep me on my journey , but I just couldn’t, so I took a Did Not Start (DNS). Wow! As an athlete most of my whole life, I felt like such a failure, I began to doubt myself at work and home and in my other athletic hobbies.

Yet, Coach Suzy never doubted me. When she asked me if I needed to return gear or my ET tri-suit that still had the tags on it that I never wore, I looked at her and I said , “ “no” because my journey will continue one day because you  still believe in me. I don’t know when but one day I will wear this ET tri-suit with so much pride! “

So we kept in touch off and on, but her spirit and wisdom never left me.

I continued to work out on my own and in January 2019 I decided to go back to basics and sign up to start at the sprint level at ET Batavia Tri and ET Naperville Tri, and the Olympic distance at ET Lake Zurich and one in northern Wisconsin…my goal was  to simply take all I learned from Coach Suzy and ET staff,  learn more on my own and do the best I could do …and yesterday I did!!

So my life lesson my Tri-Friends… sometimes we have to make hard choices to choose between some very important things in life but with enough courage, determination and persistence you can go back to that journey and get right back on track learning more about yourself than you ever thought possible!

Thank you ET staff and Coach Suzy,

Kathy S.