For International Women’s Day our PR Consultant, Kristine David, shares her heartfelt journey to becoming an Ironman, highlighting the strength, passion, and determination all woman have within them.
If you told me 10 years ago (before I had kids) that I would someday swim 2.4 miles, ride a bike for 112 miles and run for 26.2 miles, I would have likely punched your arm and called you a great comedian. None of that sounded fun to me, not to mention sounding physically impossible for someone like me. Someone like me who never played sports in high school and willed her way through marathons by the grit of her teeth to make the 6-hour time cutoff. Someone like me who could only swim to save her life. Someone like me who could barely mount a bike.
But then someone like me had a baby, a beautiful baby girl who became the best cheerleader and who wanted to do everything mommy did. Someone like me felt like having a baby proved that they were capable of new physical and mental challenges. Someone like me wanted to be a good example for her daughter.
Someone like me wanted to do something even more physically challenging than she had ever done before. Someone like me trained and raced an Ironman 70.3 (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.2 mile run), 18 months postpartum. Someone like me felt like a better me. Someone like me watched her husband complete his second Ironman and thought, “Nope, still not me.”
Then someone like me had a second baby, a cuddly baby boy, and life refocused on getting through the day-to-day and raising two good humans. Someone like me thought we could revisit the original plan of doing a marathon again, and so we did – 18 months postpartum— but this time it was so much harder. Someone like me watched her husband complete his third Ironman, but then watched a mom of two cross the finish line at the same race and thought, “Huh, maybe that could be me.”
Then a global pandemic hit and someone like me thought, “In the face of impossibility, think about what is possible.” So someone like me registered for an Ironman 70.3 event, “Just to see.” Someone like me learned how to ride a bike again and figured out how to clip in and out without falling every time Someone like me learned how to swim multiple laps in the pool again.
Then someone like me raced the event and spent the most painful 56 miles on a bike wearing shoes too narrow and running so slow that she almost didn’t make the time cutoff. But then someone like me thought, “I can do this better. I can do this longer.”
Someone like me had too much “mommy juice” on New Year’s Eve 2022 and went on a data mission to find out how many women and moms and ethnic minorities attempted an Ironman and found it unacceptable. Someone like me thought, “Why not me?” Someone like me needed to find out if “anything is possible.” Someone like me registered for an Ironman to “celebrate” her 40th year around the sun.
Then someone like me learned how to ride a bike in the aero position, but still took a spill every once in awhile. Someone like me learned better swimming technique and practiced through hail, rain and record-setting heat waves. Someone like me learned how to manage her heartrate to run a marathon through the night. Someone like me failed and learned many times over and accepted it as part of the process. Someone like me watched her children mimic her Ironman training and racing while “playing house” and that made her proud.
Then, on October 23, 2022, someone like me swam 2.4 miles, rode a bike for 112 miles through 30 mph headwinds, and ran 26.2 in the dark – all in 16 hours and 47 minutes.
Someone like me completed an Ironman. Someone like me became an Ironhuman. Someone like me became an Ironmom. Someone like me became an Ironwoman.
You could be someone like me. Anything is possible.